Bachelor's in Theoretical Astrophysics at 18?

[cristo]

As for the whole "college experience", it's over rated. The only real way to get the complete "college experience" is to join a Frat. If you're not going to join a Frat then you are better off just finishing school. Joining a Frat opens your option up to parties and meeting girls. If you don't join one then the only people you'll ever meet are the people in your major and all you generally do with them is study.

Just because you didn't enjoy university doesn't mean that this holds for everyone! Why do you think that you only meet people who study your subject? I know that's totally not true, for universities anywhere in the world!

I don't feel comfortable at parties anyways.

Well then isn't college a good enough time as any to start learning how to socialise? After all, you cannot live your life with your head buried in the sand, avoiding social situations.

Reread my post! Anyway, you don't sound like a social person from your response so finishing college early for you would be the right thing to do.

How are you qualified to tell someone what the "right thing to do" is? And why does the fact that someone doesn't seem comfortable in social situations automatically mean that they should lock themselves up in a cupboard, with nothing but physics books, so that they can get their degree a few years early?

 

[SonyAlmeida]

I support your doing this as a challenge. However, I wouldn't count on it looking great on your resumes. For one thing, your employer isn't even allowed to ask your age. For another, you can come off as smart, sure, but rushing through college almost necessarily limits the amount of extra/advanced coursework you can complete. A stronger coursework background is more likely to make you competitive, as far as I can tell.

 

[aostraff]

Well, here are some other non-obvious things you might want consider before making up your mind of completing university in 2 years.

- The course offerings for your program might not always be available to you since it is usually set up for the regular 4 year plan. This could be quite troublesome if you can't get the course you want.

- All classes have prerequisites and it might mean that you won't be able to fill up your schedule the way you intend to simply because you haven't taken the course to aid another course. For example, you probably wouldn't be able to do Calc 1, Calc 2 and Calc 3 all in the same semester.

Go ahead and try it out this 2 year plan if you want, I wouldn't recommend it though and chances are that you will think differently when you finish your first year.

 

[Wax]

Just because you didn't enjoy university doesn't mean that this holds for everyone! Why do you think that you only meet people who study your subject? I know that's totally not true, for universities anywhere in the world!
Well then isn't college a good enough time as any to start learning how to socialise? After all, you cannot live your life with your head buried in the sand, avoiding social situations.
How are you qualified to tell someone what the "right thing to do" is? And why does the fact that someone doesn't seem comfortable in social situations automatically mean that they should lock themselves up in a cupboard, with nothing but physics books, so that they can get their degree a few years early?

I, unlike most people in this thread like to encourage people and their decisions in their life. I'm not shoving anything down his throat that he doesn't want to do, which is what you and almost everyone else in this thread wants to do. Most people at his age have no idea what they want to do with their life and end up dropping out of high school or college. The OP has goals, priorities, and knows how he wants to do it. If he doesn't want to be the party frat boy and would rather be the guy who solves the world's energy crisis then I'm all for it!

I also don't think finishing college in 2 years is really practical. You'd have to test out of your entire first year to really do it, then you can take 19 hours a semester and go to summer school to finish. I only say this because I've never heard of anyone testing out of history(Elective) or English but it could be possible.

 

[cristo]

Most people at his age have no idea what they want to do with their life and end up dropping out of high school or college.

Most 16 year olds drop out of school or college? I'd like to see some statistics that support that!

Anyway, you are pushing things down his throat: you are telling a 16 year old child that it is ok to be antisocial. How, pray tell, is that good advice?

 

[Wax]

Most 16 year olds drop out of school or college? I'd like to see some statistics that support that!

Anyway, you are pushing things down his throat: you are telling a 16 year old child that it is ok to be antisocial. How, pray tell, is that good advice?

Well, maybe I am going a bit overboard.

Anyway, here are some statistics and it seems to be based on where you live.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,344190,00.html

 

[cristo]

Well, maybe I am going a bit overboard.

Yea, I'd say that you were.

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/013618.html

The tables also show that in 2008, 29 percent of adults 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree, and 87 percent had completed high school.

 

[saganforever]

Well, here are some other non-obvious things you might want consider before making up your mind of completing university in 2 years.

- The course offerings for your program might not always be available to you since it is usually set up for the regular 4 year plan. This could be quite troublesome if you can't get the course you want.

- All classes have prerequisites and it might mean that you won't be able to fill up your schedule the way you intend to simply because you haven't taken the course to aid another course. For example, you probably wouldn't be able to do Calc 1, Calc 2 and Calc 3 all in the same semester.

Go ahead and try it out this 2 year plan if you want, I wouldn't recommend it though and chances are that you will think differently when you finish your first year.

I will take a look at how the courses will fit together and if it looks like I will not be able to complete them in time to get my bachelor's degree when I'm 18, I will aim for something else.

 

[saganforever]

Well then isn't college a good enough time as any to start learning how to socialise? After all, you cannot live your life with your head buried in the sand, avoiding social situations.

I'm social when I'm skateboarding and at skateparks/spots.
I also skated in a contest with people I had never met before. It required a little bit of an effort to be social. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<object width="500" height="405"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wO1chieRBNE&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wO1chieRBNE&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="500" height="405"></embed></object>

It's just outside that realm of skateboarding that I'm not entirely social.

 

[Vanadium 50]

It will be a challenge. Also I think it will look good on resumes.

A truly bad idea.

If you want to be a theoretical astrophysicist, you need an advanced degree. Galloping through undergrad with an eye towards getting out as fast as possible will not impress the admissions committees. You will impress them by learning as much as you can, not learning as fast as you can.

 

[mal4mac]

There aren't many college students or professors into skateboarding. Einstein rode a bike, so I'm not going to condemn childish activities outright! But you need more strings to your bow. I recommend reading books on politics and philosophy, then you will always have something to talk about in any college social situation. You migt even broaden your mind :-) It doesn't have to be too heavy. In fact for socialising, reading things that everyone has heard about is a good idea. For instance, Obama's biography or Dawkins "The God Delusion". Imagine a beautiful psychology student, in the lunch queue, asking you what your hobbies are. If you say skakeboarding, she is likely to move on quickly. Say reading, and then say you are reading Dawkins or Obama, and you have a good social situation right there! And, heck, reading such authors is fun!

 

[JDGates]

Buncha points from someone who could've graduated in two years, but took three, then went on to a PhD.

1) Great college life doesn't mean being in a frat. I was bored in high school. I loved college, because I went to a school with a very intellectual atmosphere and was surrounded by fellow geekily intellectual introverts. "Socialization" does not mean "drunkeness", and as others have said, the college academic experience goes well beyond coursework.

2) If you want to be an astrophysicist, then "how it looks on my resume" is absolutely meaningless. No one will care about your undergrad education when it comes to research jobs -- your research record in grad school and after is all that matters. Even if you move to industry, it won't appear, because your high school graduation date won't be on there (and if you put "BS in Whatever, 2011 -- finished in two years!", people will be rolling their eyes, not feeling impressed).

3) Again, if you want to be an astrophysicist, that means grad school. Rushing through the bare minimum to get the degree will make you uncompetitive for good grad programs. Upper-level electives are good, research experience is vital. Do not kid yourself into thinking that you can get good research experience while taking the kind of courseload you're talking about.

Seriously, many of us have been where you are -- bored in high school, taking advanced electives, and looking at just how much or how fast we can do things. You need to stop thinking about college as a competitive sport, and start thinking about what you want to get out of it and what it's going to set you up for afterwards.

And just as a completely random anecdote that proves nothing, I had an acquaintance in college who triple majored in technical fields and finished in two years (he came in with a lot of credit and those three majors had a lot of overlap, but he still worked himself to near-death). He ended up taking eight years of bouncing around research areas at two schools to get his PhD, partly because he came through those crazy two years with no idea of what he really wanted to do.

 

[Choppy]

I'd like to second JDGates - all very valid points.

Rushing through an undergraduate degree will not provide you with any advantages when applying to graduate school. In fact, it could very well hinder you if applying for jobs outside of academia as well because you won't have anything to fill in under the categories of previous work experience and volunteer experience.

 

[TMFKAN64]

I agree with all of the previous posters who said that it would be better for you to graduate in four years with some solid research experience behind you than to just rush through doing the minimum.

I'd also like to point out that graduating college at 18 isn't necessarily as impressive as you'd like to think. When I started grad school, one of the other students was 17... and another was 16. So you're already too old to be an impressive prodigy! :-)

 

[jtbell]

I am having a great time in college, and I would not pass up the next two years to graduate now. I go to a liberal arts college with very little greek life, and there is no need to join a frat to either get into a party or meet girls.

That sounds like my experience in college about 35 years ago. Actually, there was a sort of pseudo-Greek system of "social clubs" that didn't have houses, just meeting rooms. But I wasn't part of that scene and neither were most of the people I knew. The physics majors and some hangers-on (OK, call them "physics groupies" if you like :uhh:) hung out after hours in the "physics library" in the science buliding and went out to do stuff together. We didn't "party" in the usual sense but we had fun in our geeky way...

 

[DukeofDuke]

Since when did college become a race to become credentialed?

College is about becoming comfortable with yourself and others. You can't hide away in a lab your whole life. I mean, you can, but that's not the point.

Most of us are just kids when we leave high school. College (or the army) starts changing that. You can't pick who you are and where you're going at age 16; don't rush through this.

 

[saganforever]

I agree with all of the previous posters who said that it would be better for you to graduate in four years with some solid research experience behind you than to just rush through doing the minimum.

Yeah. I decided I'm going to do graduate in four years and try to soak up all of the knowledge available.

There aren't many college students or professors into skateboarding. Einstein rode a bike, so I'm not going to condemn childish activities outright! But you need more strings to your bow. I recommend reading books on politics and philosophy, then you will always have something to talk about in any college social situation. You migt even broaden your mind :-) It doesn't have to be too heavy. In fact for socialising, reading things that everyone has heard about is a good idea. For instance, Obama's biography or Dawkins "The God Delusion". Imagine a beautiful psychology student, in the lunch queue, asking you what your hobbies are. If you say skateboarding, she is likely to move on quickly. Say reading, and then say you are reading Dawkins or Obama, and you have a good social situation right there! And, heck, reading such authors is fun!

I watch the local and national news almost every day, that might give me something to talk about in a college situation. I think I've tried to get my mom to order "The God Delusion" online for me before. She's a fundie. Obama's biography sounds interesting, and so do books on psychology. I've read some of Carl Sagan's books and Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time".

 

[pjfoster]

So I've glanced over the pages and pages of posts, but didn't read them in detail. Sorry if I repeat info.

Let me start by saying that I was in the same boat you are. I finished high school early and started college at the wise old age of 17. I too had dreams like yours of finishing early.

Then reality hit. The school I go to has the prereqs for the core physics courses structured so that it is literally impossible for one to finish a physics degree in less than 3 years. Another thing to consider is the difficulty of the courses. Once again I was like you, bright and ambitious. I was taking a hard load of high school classes while taking several college classes at the same time. A thing to consider is where are you taking your current college classes at. If you're like most high school kids, you take college classes at community college or a local university. Truth be told, you have no ****ing idea of what it's like to take a full load of physics/math classes at the majors level. You may think you do, but really how could you? Sorry for being so blunt.

If you want to impress admissions committees and are looking for a challenge, add more majors. I'm currently loaded pretty full with two, but it's looking like I'm adding a third. You're in college to learn material, not just for a piece of paper to hang on your wall. Taking advanced math, physics, or chemistry courses will help you succeed in life much more than finishing early, as will having time to devote to research as an undergrad.