Very interesting! It’s great to see that kind of initiative.

J Swoboda
Education Dynamics

Hi Alexa – great article. I think in this day and age you couldn’t be more right in conceding to the overwhelming temptation to save some money from going to college. However, I will argue on one point that you touched on – I really don’t like how this limits any sort of professional experience. During my years in college I had 2 great internship opportunities when a lot of the people I hung around were just going to school. When we graduated – and this is the part that noone seems to tell you in high school – I landed a job after a few months only because I had 2 years of intern experience relevant to my degree/career path. My friends, they either got stuck in the rut of conceding to ‘McJobs’ or had to grind their teeth for a year or two, accepting low wages and terrible hours – just so they could get their first “real” job. I see this same thing happening when a student is rushed into a 3-year degree.

As someone who has been attempting the 4-years-in-3, I can only say that I failed. I got the excellent QE2 scholarship, so I wasn’t a low-achieving student before I went in. However, taking 3-4 courses each summer, as well as bad course/major choices during year 2, was just too much and I need a break.

I’m throwing in the towel and graduating with the actual 3-year degree, to be returned to whenever I feel like it again. I would only have saved myself $5000 compared to this school’s $40k, so my impetus was really just impatience. Hopefully I will find a way to gain experience in the meantime, since that seems to be more important.

Best of luck to you! Finishing in 3 years is quite the feat. I graduated in 4.5 years but with a double major (Marketing and Spanish). Working with school going on is quite the load. I finished strong but definitely feel like my performance was affected from overload.

Make sure you enjoy your time in school. Many graduates I know wish they hadn’t rushed it.

Cheers!

Hi Alexa – like the previous poster said – great article. Its a fantastic idea whose time has come I believe. It has been common practice overseas for many years. In countries like Australia that do it, their grade 11 and 12 education is of a higher standard than most US schools – which is why 3 year degrees are fine. For example, someone did a study of the Math C option in Australian HS’s and concluded it exceeded both AP Calc BC and IB Math HL. They concluded both the AP and IB subjects were equally as good preparation, and were fine as alternative admission criteria, (which is why they did the study), but were in fact of a slightly lower standard. Although to be fair this does not apply across the board to all Australian grade 12 subjects. They are usually equivalent to IB SL. My view is since overseas students have zero problem with this level of college preparation then US students should not either. In fact it would be quite easy to implement – simply give sophomore status to those that do an IB diploma or similar predatory program. Many schools no do this now, and all that is required is for it to be a bit more prevalent.

Thanks
Bill

@Bill–The Australian way seems much more efficient. With any luck, schools in the U.S. will take note and will begin morphing in that direction. Take care,

Alexa

[...] but this Newsweek article has a few good points. I’ve posted before about some schools offering a three-year degree option for qualified (super ahead of the game) college students. It makes a certain amount of sense when [...]