Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some kids just take other classes anyway to fill up their 4th year because they want the full experience with their friends and they want to graduate with their cohort.

What a waste of time and money

Disagree. Learning is not a waste of time. Also, another year to mature is not a bad thing. But then again, I am one of the college is not trade school folks. I believe in learning for the sake of personal development. I understand not everyone shares this view and some see college as a checkbox.

You are aware that a person can continue to study and learn even after graduating from college, right?

Yes. And?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve heard respond to news that someone has or is graduating college early with things like “what’s the rush” and “this isn’t a race”. However, most of these students didn’t cram four years of college into three. Most of them graduated high school with a year of college credit due to AP credits and dual enrollment credits, and entered with sophomore status. Therefore, they only had three years of college left when they started college, and simply went at a normal pace.

And top colleges don’t allow this because their intro chem and calc 1-3 are far and above more difficult than the AP versions or high school multivariable, so for those who repeat it is fine. A large percentage do not repeat, they start based on placement and skip over at least a couple of intros. They still do not finish early because these top schools have graduate level courses one can start as early as sophomore year. The end result is a much better education than 3 years at a mediocre college that lets you skip a year with AP credit. The top publics that allow it strongly discourage it in favor of higher levels and more time for research and internships, thus better to compete with elite grads for jobs or med school

“Top colleges,” (the privates) don’t allow students to graduate in three years because it would be a hit to their bottom line. They value a predictable, recurring revenue stream.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some kids just take other classes anyway to fill up their 4th year because they want the full experience with their friends and they want to graduate with their cohort.

What a waste of time and money

Disagree. Learning is not a waste of time. Also, another year to mature is not a bad thing. But then again, I am one of the college is not trade school folks. I believe in learning for the sake of personal development. I understand not everyone shares this view and some see college as a checkbox.

You are aware that a person can continue to study and learn even after graduating from college, right?

And even instead of college! Why do we even have college?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some kids just take other classes anyway to fill up their 4th year because they want the full experience with their friends and they want to graduate with their cohort.

What a waste of time and money

I know, right? They could have become a plumber's apprentice right out of high school, and saved a ton of money. (Still a waste of a lot of time, though, to sit until 12th grade and graduate high school)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some kids just take other classes anyway to fill up their 4th year because they want the full experience with their friends and they want to graduate with their cohort.

What a waste of time and money

Disagree. Learning is not a waste of time. Also, another year to mature is not a bad thing. But then again, I am one of the college is not trade school folks. I believe in learning for the sake of personal development. I understand not everyone shares this view and some see college as a checkbox.

You are aware that a person can continue to study and learn even after graduating from college, right?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think many people think AP classes aren’t the equivalent of college classes.

Well, if they are in your major, you still have to take them again in college, so they sort of aren’t the same.

Not generally true, because AP courses aren't "in" a major, they are gateway prereqs for the major.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some kids just take other classes anyway to fill up their 4th year because they want the full experience with their friends and they want to graduate with their cohort.

What a waste of time and money

Totally disagree. I had a full year of credits coming in and left with two majors, two minors, and four years of athletics, fun, and travel abroad. I would not have missed the full collegiate experience for anything.

Grown adults who don't think college was the best time of their life, what's your secret?

The most desirable K-12 schools and summer camps are designed like colleges.

Google became the most desirable employer in the world by building a college-style business campus.

College is a near-perfect environment for living a great life.

Graduating college with the bare minimum education and experience is certainly one of the choices of all time. Don't expect to be competitive come employment time, unless you want for a box-checking degree.

It worked for JD Vance, I guess.

(Politics aside, he served in military first and went to law school after so that's doubly a case where accelerating college makes sense. The US standard system of pre-school undergrad-school wastes a lot of time.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some kids just take other classes anyway to fill up their 4th year because they want the full experience with their friends and they want to graduate with their cohort.

What a waste of time and money

Totally disagree. I had a full year of credits coming in and left with two majors, two minors, and four years of athletics, fun, and travel abroad. I would not have missed the full collegiate experience for anything.

Anonymous wrote:Losing a summer to intern and gain work experience can really hurt job prospects, regardless of the reason.

Not always. Not every company is scammy enough that they are looking for 2 years relevant work experience for an entry position.

As an aside, I would not recommend a company that pulls that crap. If you have 2 years work experience, do not let someone hire you as an "intern."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some kids just take other classes anyway to fill up their 4th year because they want the full experience with their friends and they want to graduate with their cohort.

What a waste of time and money

Disagree. Learning is not a waste of time. Also, another year to mature is not a bad thing. But then again, I am one of the college is not trade school folks. I believe in learning for the sake of personal development. I understand not everyone shares this view and some see college as a checkbox.

Anonymous wrote:Some kids just take other classes anyway to fill up their 4th year because they want the full experience with their friends and they want to graduate with their cohort.

What a waste of time and money

Some kids just take other classes anyway to fill up their 4th year because they want the full experience with their friends and they want to graduate with their cohort.

Anonymous wrote:Losing a summer to intern and gain work experience can really hurt job prospects, regardless of the reason.

I kind of agree. My DC is graduating in 3 years as a dual STEM major, but then DC is doing a +1 program for a masters, too. So, they will have another year for internships.

DC will have 3 degrees in STEM in four years, thanks to all the AP/IB credits.

Is this new, though? To some extent, this has always been true and that the big factors are:

*money

*the standards of the particular college

I graduated from an Ivy in the early 90s and at least one of my roommates and I had more than enough APs to get Advanced Standing. I know that the state flagship would have given me credit for over 10 classes. However, when it came down to the particulars at my enrolled college, they would only count one per subject area (for example, I had 2 each in 3 different languages and, while they obviously respected them for placement purposes, for graduating early credit they only took 3 of the 6 APs (or maybe even fewer since these 6 were in foreign languages). I think I also had 2 History and 2 English, and so on. The point is, it wasn't just about the numbers. My roommate did qualify but used her Advanced Standing to get into Upper Class courses that were not technically open to first-years, but had no intention of graduating early (the finances were not a big deal to her). And another close friend, took a year off, what would have been his junior year, did some incredible projects and travel on the cheap, and graduated with his class.

In sum, in my experience, students with large numbers of APs have often not graduated early.

But I am curious if you are seeing an increase in this trend?