Should I graduate under 4 years?

RacinReaver
Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:14:15 +0000

I could have possibly graduated in three years, but I would have had to work my butt off every semester and take one class in a long sequence a year early (my major has seven courses that have to be taken one semester after the other since they all build significantly off of the previous). I chose instead to graduate after three and a half years, and I don’t regret my decision. I was able to tack on a physics minor without any real trouble and didn’t have to crowd all of my classes in.

After graduating I got a job working in the lab of one of my professors full time for about nine months until I started grad school. It was nice because I was still in town with all of my friends and could hang out with them at night, but I didn’t have any of the stress of classes and I was able to avoid senioritis by finishing in the fall.

The only thing I kinda regret was if I had planned a little better I could have gotten my MS with only one extra semester of classes, letting me graduate with a BS/MS in only four years. It might have helped me a little in grad school applications, and, even if it didn’t, it might have gotten me out of a few classes here in grad school.