Ask HN: Should I graduate early? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Should I graduate early?

4 pointsahlatimer6 comments

I'm currently a Junior CS major in my 5th semester, but due to AP and one heavy semester, I'm currently 11 credits ahead. I still have a few Mickey Mouse courses, so I could potentially knock those out during the Summer/Wintermester and keep my Spring/Fall for the meaty courses.

Doing that, I could shave off a full semester and not have to take more than 16 hours in a semester. The question is, should I do it? My school is already paid for, so I have no real financial incentive for graduating early, besides the possibility of landing a salaried job easier and sooner.

The true downside to graduating early, besides having to take more hours a semester, is I have two low grades that I'd like to replace (a C and a D). I could potentially add those on and take even more hours, but the reason I did so poorly in those courses was from taking too many hours.

So, I put it up to, HN. Is there any real benefit to getting my bachelors in 3 1/2 years instead of 4, or should I just take it easy and enjoy my time in college?

Well, I pretty much partied my way through my final year of university and had one of the better years of my life (note that 'partied' is a term relative-to-self, and that my version of partying is much, much tamer than many people's). I was making $300/week v my first full-time salary of $750/week, but the difference would have been worth it.

Whether you stick around or not, I'd recommend treating it as a bonus 6 months in your life. Any projects you want to have a crack at? Any experience you want to achieve (walk the Great Wall, skydive nude)?

Do it when you can, not when you have to make them fit into full-time work, significant relationships etc.

What do you want to do next?

Grad school? Stick in school, take some advanced math or CS, work on building your references/recommenders?

Get a job? If you've think you can pick something up easily, leave early. You'll start earning and learning. In the real world learning is usually more fun than undergrad. I don't know what the market is like for new grads here in the US right now.

I guess that for the most part, nobody really cares whether it took you 3 1/2 or 4 years (or 2 or 6 . . . whatever). What most people will want to know about is what your real CS hacking experience is. If you've already got good projects (something with a little depth, not the eight sorting algorithms you implemented in Java), that's what you'll be talking about with potential employers the most.

Plus, you're posting to the startup/hacker friendlies - if you have "funding" for the last semester, setup an independent study to stay in school and use that as a vehicle to do your own startup. Get a smart co-founder and have at it.

Good luck - congrats on getting to the end of school.

I'll probably get a full-time job, keep it for a few years, then go back to school and get my MBA. I already have a job...two, in fact. Gotta make rent.

I don't know that I can pick up a full-time gig easily. Where I live now doesn't have much in the way of a tech industry, so I'd have to move. That leaves me in an unfamiliar territory with limited cash reserves.

It would be nice to be done with school, but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot doing so.

The idea of taking an independent study and using it as a motivation to do a start-up sounds like a good one.

hm. I regret not leaving high school earlier (I passed one of the 'equivalancy' tests in my Jr. year.) But at the time I was living with my parents and, well, highschool is not fun. I would have been better off with another year working full time during the .com boom.

If I were in your position, if my living expenses were taken care of I'd kick back and take it easy with regard to the classes, and if I felt ambitious, I'd build a free webapp. Hosting is so cheap these days, there is no real need to worry about making money off it if your food and rent is covered, and the job market is a little bit difficult right now, so being able to say "I wrote well-known site X while in college" would help a lot.

My living expenses are not taken care of, my tuition and school related expenses are (books, supplies, etc.).

I don't think those two grades are going to matter, so I don't really think that's a downside. I vote you graduate and spend that brainpower thinking about what's next.

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