Possbile to get a B.S in 3 years

[courtrigrad]

Is it possible to get a B.S in math in 3 years? I am doing a 3-2 program, where I get a B.A from one university and a B.S from another university. But I want to try and get 2 B.S. degrees (one in math and the other in applied math).

Thanks a lot for your opinions

 

[JasonJo]

it probably is possible. i finished my applied math major in about 1.5 years (just taking only those courses), and i can finish my pure math major this upcoming year, giving me about 2 years of pure math. so 3.5 years just for applied math and pure math, not counting general ed courses and prerequisite courses.

however, if you plan on going to grad school, it might be better to not worry about finishing so fast but rather taking more difficult courses and possibly graduate courses

 

[courtrigrad]

I plan to go to grad school for applied math. yeah, but after finishing the B.S. in three years from my home institution, I bypass most of the courses that are required for Columbia. Thus I can take grad courses there. Is that a feasible plan?

 

[Brad Barker]

my algebra professor told me that when he was in undergrad, he finished his requirements in three years and just took graduate math classes his fourth year.

...not sure if that helps you, but I'm just putting that out there.

 

[chroot]

It's definitely possible. I finished a BSEE with two minors (math and astrophysics) in three and a half years. Was it worth doing? No. Would I take more time if I were to do it over? Absolutely.

University life is about far more than just classes. Student organizations (clubs, student government, etc.), sports, research projects, and social organizations (fraternities and sororities, etc.) are all part of making you a whole person, with an understanding and appreciation of more than just your major's core classes. University experience is easily the most fun you'll ever have -- savor it. Use all the resources your school provides and enjoy life a bit. Don't just try to get out as soon as possible with the highest GPA possible -- there is (or should be) a hell of a lot more to it than that.

During my undergrad years, I did many things. I ran the student astronomical observatory (which even entailed teaching astronomy to cub scouts -- how much fun is that!). I cycled competitively on the school's team. I was a major contributor to the school's Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team, with which I did some undergraduate research on fuel cell control systems. I was in the biggest (and most active) social fraternity on campus. I did all kinds of things, and it was great. I look back on those years, and wish I had stayed longer.

My rationale for graduating early was simply the promise of a paycheck, but perhaps being poor for yet another year wouldn't have been so bad.

- Warren

 

[courtrigrad]

I am actually going to spend 5 years at 2 undergraduate institutions. I would spend 3 years at my liberal arts college and get a B.S. in math, and then spend 2 years at Columbia and get a B.S. in applied math. Thus, aren't I experiencing college life?

 

[Mickey]

Planning to get two undergraduate degrees from two different schools seems like a lot of trouble to go through, IMO. But more power to you, if that's what you want and you think you can do it.

I agree with everything Warren said, but this:

University experience is easily the most fun you'll ever have -- savor it.

What a depressive statement this seems to me. Apex of fun in your early 20s followed by a life of less fun? No way, not for me! Furthermore, it seems to imply that people who don't go to college will never have the same amount of joy as those who do, which is pretentious.

Go on and attack those classes, courtrigrad. Be relentless and victorious. While you're at it, tell your dean his/her classes are a little boring and that you'd like to make your own independent study courses. Maybe even assemble courses into a new program to make your own degree. It's been done before, but only for people who demand it.

You don't have to skip out on social life, either. If you can find the money, then you can skip out of flipping burgers instead, as well as that summer job. When everyone's gone home for the summer, and social activities are down, build a mountain of summer courses, then plant your flag on it. If it wasn't challenge enough, increase the course load for next summer.

If you come into University thinking that it's going to be the best time of life and that you have to savor it, I think it's clear that your expectations will be too high and you will spend the time disappointed. University is a lot of B.S. If you want to cut through it, I say don't just cut through it, cut it down. Leave the University a different place.

 

[courtrigrad]

thanks a lot Mickey for your great advice!

 

[SpiffyKavu]

Thanks Mickey. Even though the topic isn't about me, I'll certainly keep that in mind. I just want to make the most out of my college years.

 

[chroot]

Sounds like you must have gone to a crappy school, Mickey, and had a very different experience from mine.

For record, it's not that college is actually more fun than anything you'll ever do afterward -- but the enormous difference between high school life (living with your parents) and university life (being somewhat independent and self-sufficient, and surrounded by your peers) makes university life seem like you weren't even alive prior. Or, at least, that was my experience. It was like being reborn.

- Warren

 

[SeReNiTy]

Definately possible, my course offers the option of finishing your degree in 2 years, as opposed to the standard 3 years.

 

[Cyrus]

Sounds like you must have gone to a crappy school, Mickey, and had a very different experience from mine.

For record, it's not that college is actually more fun than anything you'll ever do afterward -- but the enormous difference between high school life (living with your parents) and university life (being somewhat independent and self-sufficient, and surrounded by your peers) makes university life seem like you weren't even alive prior. Or, at least, that was my experience. It was like being reborn.

- Warren

Man, did you take 30 credits each semester?

 

[chroot]

No, I took about 17 per semester.

- Warren

 

[Cyrus]

How did you finish with that many minors so fast?

We need at least 120 credits for our degree, and (i think) 18 credits per minor. ( about 6 classes or so)

 

[chroot]

I entered with 56 hours of credit from IB exams in high school. Not all of those credits directly applied to my curriculum, but I didn't have to take any english, history, or foreign language. I was taking second-semester sophomore classes immediately upon entry.

The astrophysics minor was (I think) 6 classes, or 18 units. The math minor was almost automatic, but, IIRC, involved two additional classes, or 6 units. That's a total of, IIRC, around 156 units. I placed out of probably 30 units, leaving me with a pretty normal courseload.

- Warren

 

[courtrigrad]

But if your college does not accept AP credits, could you get by with taking summer courses?

 

[Mickey]

But if your college does not accept AP credits, could you get by with taking summer courses?

Definitely. I took 21 credits one summer and 18 another. That’s significantly more than an average student’s load for a year.

 

[leon1127]

Is it possible to get a B.S in math in 3 years? I am doing a 3-2 program, where I get a B.A from one university and a B.S from another university. But I want to try and get 2 B.S. degrees (one in math and the other in applied math).

Thanks a lot for your opinions

Believe it or not, but I have acquired 90 credits in the end of my first year in college (spring, autumn, summer, and transfer). The result is a BS in Applied Maths and Statistic in 2 years. You should not ask weather if possible or not. My suggestion is that you should fully understand your school's policy and devolope a way to go around it (if you wish). For example, my school max credits per semester is 18, I look 31 credits in one semester and result with Almost 3.8 GPA for that semester. It was because my school only consider pass/fail for transfer credit and they accept as much as credit you have from other school for each semester. Therefore I ultilise this error and obtain an acceptable GPA. Of course, different school has different policy and you can't apply my method to other school mostly. My point is that I can get done like this because I fully understood my school's policy more than anyone in my school.

Leon

 

[oksanav]

Can I just say.. wow. My university won't even let you take more than 12 hours in a summer.

 

[Pythagorean]

Can I just say.. wow. My university won't even let you take more than 12 hours in a summer.

I personally feel it's better to take it easy and allow more 'soak time' for your education, rather then dashing through it. I guess it depends on the individual (as with anything).

I'd really hate to spend 18 hours a day on physics, then by the time I have a degree, be burnt out on it.

 

[Mickey]

oksanav, I'm sure your university will give you permission to go over the limit if you ask nicely and are yourself confident that you can do it.

I personally feel it's better to take it easy and allow more 'soak time' for your education, rather then dashing through it.

This does not make much sense to me. I don't feel like I dashed through anything.

I suppose there is a sporting analogy here. People don't dash through marathons. They just keep a consistent and steady pace through a long and challenging course. The regular semester is like 13 separate 2-mile runs spread out over a number of days. The summer semester numerical equivalent then is like the marathon (one 26-mile run in a day).

I still had 3-day weekends and many hours between courses to chill. I'm positive that I could have done another summer at 24 credits. Cut out the fat still left on the weekend, and add courses that actually interest me? Instead of low level factory-made major courses and superficial "core" courses that the college makes you take? I'd love a try at 30 credits.

What can I say? Some people perform in Iron Man Triatholons. I train for "Diamond Brain Decatriatholons."

(Full disclaimer: I've done some distance running and marathons seem very difficult and Iron Man's seem damn near impossible. So I make no claim some number of summer credits is actually equivalent in difficulty to a marathon or an Iron Man. But, perhaps the general rules of keeping momentum, consistency, and endurance also apply and are part of the appeal.)

I'd really hate to spend 18 hours a day on physics, then by the time I have a degree, be burnt out on it.

Some people spend 18 hours a day at worse jobs. I don't mean anything by that except that it might not be as bad as you first think.

 

[leon1127]

I do agree that people has different method learn. For me, I have to study under an intensive eniroment. The semester that I took 13 credits, I made Bs and Cs. The semester that I took 31 hours, I made very acceptable grade

From my point of view, school is a place to learn and you should spend all your energy to learn. Social life is just extra when you are in school. I do enjoy my time with my classmate, but 2 hours a day is enough for me.

Moreover, I spend more than 18 hours on Maths and I enjoy doing it very much.

 

[GCT]

take some AP tests

Is it possible to get a B.S in math in 3 years? I am doing a 3-2 program, where I get a B.A from one university and a B.S from another university. But I want to try and get 2 B.S. degrees (one in math and the other in applied math).

Thanks a lot for your opinions

One of my friends had graduated in three years, he entered college with some AP credits due to the AP tests he had taken, he was pretty much a polymath and had taken just about every AP tests out there, he had more then his fair share of credits to build upon, so that he enrolled in about 16 credit hours on average each semester, till he got accepted to med school after the completion of his third year with acceptance to phi beta kappa .

Find how or if your desired university incorporates the AP credits...

 

[Pythagorean]

Some people spend 18 hours a day at worse jobs. I don't mean anything by that except that it might not be as bad as you first think.

Well, I did say personally. When I fished commercially, I worked 20 hour days (that's right, four hour naps) for two months straight. Of course, with fishing, there's so much going on (weather, fish, tide, things breaking on the boat, etc, etc) that you keep occupied with several different things.

I can't do that with math. Sitting down and working at math is something that I can only do for about an hour at a time (at the most!) without taking breaks to play piano or go do something physical.

Actually, I knew a psychologist that said math is better learned in smaller chunks so that your brain has time to digest and process the information for long term (he actually said a half hour is the brain's 'boredom point'. But even if he's wrong, this method works best for me, because my brain will lose interest in something if I do it for too long. I have to switch up, I'm not a depth person, I'm a breadth person.

 

[oksanav]

Doctors say you should take breaks every 30 minutes, so I totally agree with the every hour thing. I've learned to just go to bed when I get stuck on physics problems. THe next morning my mistakes are obvious. I used to let myself spend hours on them, and get no where.
I just have one question. For those of you who managed to take so many hours, you didn't work did you? Tell me you didn't.
I've always had to work, plus I have a lot of hobbies, a house, pets, husband/family, and health problems. I used to try to do as much as other overachievers, but I finally realized that was ridiculous. Everyone's different. So I know you have big plans now courtigrad, and I'm sure you'll live up to it, but don't feel bad if you don't! You never know who/what might distract you!:)

 

[Mickey]

Oh yeah, I don't mean without some break, a little food, some stretching, and a ready supply of water, and don't forget the bathroom...

I just have one question. For those of you who managed to take so many hours, you didn't work did you? Tell me you didn't.

No, not paid work. But I would have liked to have been paid for my school work, that's for sure.

I underachieved pretty hard during the regular semesters, so I didn't come out a net overachiever either.

 

[Mickey]

I think that, in order to learn math all day, you have to, in at least some sense, see the bulk of mathematical work as "obvious." Maybe just in the way that the simple steps of moving from A = B = C = D and so on by certain standards and procedures should strike a "duh" chord alongside another one that says, "okay... now what?" And at that point you should expect to learn something that you also already knew at some deep unrecognized level, except that now you recognize it.

Too few small steps always left me feeling like nothing had been said, with the uncomfortable feeling that I had just learned absolutely nothing. Over time that feeling can be genuinely agonizing. Tightly spaced summer courses deflated some of that.

 

[leon1127]

For those of you who managed to take so many hours, you didn't work did you? Tell me you didn't.

Just for your disappointment. During the semester that I took 31 credits, I worked about 20 hours a week. I grew up in a country that you must work at least 70 hours a week, so it was nothing to me.

 

[Mickey]

Just for your disappointment. During the semester that I took 31 credits, I worked about 20 hours a week. I grew up in a country that you must work at least 70 hours a week, so it was nothing to me.

Wow. What country? And this wasn't a summer semester, was it? How many weeks?

I know what you mean about requiring an intensive environment. Not necessarily a stressful one. Just one that demands focus.

 

[oksanav]

I do understand what you're saying about summer courses, I just need a break at some point. If it were up to me, I'd take a bunch of summer courses and just take it easy in fall. I always get artsy fartsy in fall, but in summer I'm studious. Plus, there's no time to forget anything before the tests!

 

[leon1127]

Wow. What country? And this wasn't a summer semester, was it? How many weeks?

I know what you mean about requiring an intensive environment. Not necessarily a stressful one. Just one that demands focus.

That was in US. it was the last spring semester.

 

[Mickey]

I mean, what country did you grow up in?