<p>wow guys, you guys probably know of my desire to grad in 3 years from my earlier threads. i was trawling through CC about it, and came across this article:</p>
<p>Why is it so difficult to write junior papers and senior thesis a year or semester early? In what way is it difficult - intellectually difficult, or because you can’t find help from other students or faculty for your thesis after moving to a different class?</p>
<p>Hey, I’m also aiming to graduate in 3 years using advanced standing. What’s your major and stuff? I’m premed and thinking bio major with finance certificate or econ major.</p>
<p>i think the level of maturity is all up to you. anyway, i won’t need to worry about maturity because i’m already a mature student by 2 years :P</p>
<p>anyway, is it really because of the thesis that it’s more difficult to graduate early from princeton than at other schools? tons of people from my country get graduate from US colleges (cornell, stanford, columbia… i know those people) in 3 years all the time, but i’m not sure abt princeton.</p>
<p>Weasel, I saw in some old threads that you were interested in taking orgo as a freshman. Did you take it freshman year? If you did, would you recommend taking it as a freshman? For graduating in 3 years, would this be a bad sequence as a freshman:</p>
<p>Fall: Chm 303, Mat 103, Spa 108, writing seminar
Spring: Chm 304, Mat 104, freshman seminar related to literature, Eco 100</p>
<p>I have a 5 in ap chem, bio, and physics c (only mechanics).
With that sequence for freshman year, I could fulfill my math, literature, and orgo requirement for premed. Would this be a good idea?</p>
<p>I did take orgo freshman year. When I was in high school, I thought that my study habits were pretty good. Well, I had to kick my studying up several notches for Orgo. I ended up getting good grades, but it was by far my most studying-intensive course. If I had it to do over again, I would still take Orgo as a freshman just because the other science courses I could have taken wouldn’t have prepared me any more. The schedule you listed looks great since none of the other courses will be all that tough. Be aware that if you want to graduate in three years, it will be pretty much impossible to get a finance certificate (why would you want to anyway if you’re premed?).</p>
<p>No I didn’t mean to suggest that. The reason it’s impossible for gogoplata is that there are a lot of classes required for premed and for the finance certificate, and none of them overlap. If he wanted to major in econ and get a finance certificate (without being premed), then that’s doable with AP econ credit. But even certificates related to your major are tough to get in three years. The reason is that you are a year behind many of the students in your graduating class in terms of coursework once you elect to take advanced standing. Since the requirements are designed with these students and not you in mind, you’ll have your work cut out for you, and what’s more, you won’t get as thorough an education.</p>
<p>I see… thanks! but if I know what concentration I want and begin taking the required coursework in my first year, would I be able to catch up somewhat with the graduating class in 3 years?</p>
<p>You’ll catch up with some people, but there will still be quite a few who, like you, take required courses from the start and have lots of AP credit. A lot of people could take advanced standing, yet hardly anyone does. You risk not being as competitive as these students when you apply for jobs and/or grad school.</p>
<p>Yeah, not much point in graduating in 3 years unless something drastic happens for you. If you did want to, why didn’t you go to college earlier instead of waiting until you’re 18?</p>
<p>Weasel is right about the certificate requirements. I know of people who did up to 3 but if your certificate is different from your concentration (which is kind of the whole point of getting a certificate in the first place), then none of the requirements will overlap and you’re looking at at least 3-5 stand alone courses, plus JP or senior thesis work.</p>
<p>I’m still a little confused about why you want to graduate early. You said it’s because you’re already older than most students, but what’s so bad about spending another year at Princeton? It’s a lot more fun than entering the workforce. Is it mainly to save money?</p>
<p>it’s both… the age part isn’t just a matter of 1 year, but 3 years, because if i want to go into law after 4 years of princeton, i’d need to spend another 3 years studying for a law degree and qualifying to be a lawyer, for a total of 7 years of post-secondary education. that’s compared to just 4 years for a undergraduate law degree and qualifying for law if I stayed in my home country (we’re using the British LL.B system). </p>
<p>i think 6 years is not okay - already barely tolerable only because it’s Princeton, so 7 years is just over the line. other guys would become a lawyer at 26, while i’d do so at 28/29, only to start out as the same lowly associate as them. that’s not to mention girls, who don’t have to go through 2 years of conscription and could become a lawyer at 23 years old. of course, i don’t compare with the girls, but that’s just to put things in perspective - they could start supporting their families and think about starting a new one of their own so much earlier. 30 is hopefully my marrying age, and 1 fewer year of tuition fees and 1 more year of salary could make a world of difference at that point. :)</p>