Is early graduation a good idea?

[Ethersworn]

Greetings,

I am a 2nd semester sophomore (or junior, depending) majoring in Classics (Latin focus) and minoring in Linguistics at the South Carolina Honors College at USouthCarolina (ranked 34th in the country for Linguistics). (http://www.stat.tamu...rc41.html#area7)

I have a 4.0 and have finished the classes I didn't have desire to study for (lab sciences, math, &c.) leaving me with only languages and linguistics courses to take.

For personal reasons, I have a strong desire to graduate a year early as it would open up a fantastic possibility in my personal life but I do not want to hurt my future career. By the end of spring semester next year, I will have taken 3 years of Latin and the equivalent of 2 years of Greek, 2 years of German, at least 1 year of Old English and 1 year of Old Norse. I want to eventually get a Phd in Historical Linguistics from somewhere nice (Cornell, UPenn, Harvard, Minnesota, &c.), regardless of whether I get a prefatory Masters degree. Theoretically, if I stayed for a full 4 years I would graduate with a Classics major and Linguistics and German double minor, while 3 years would leave me with a German cognate instead . I will have written a senior thesis (ideally doing some comparative linguistics with my familiar languages) and possibly have presented at a conference by this point next year.

My ultimate question is, if I go ahead and graduate early, will I be a highly competitive candidate for these sorts of MA programs or would I be shooting myself in the foot by pushing forward for person reasons?

[ecritdansleau]

Greetings,

I am a 2nd semester sophomore (or junior, depending) majoring in Classics (Latin focus) and minoring in Linguistics at the South Carolina Honors College at USouthCarolina (ranked 34th in the country for Linguistics). (http://www.stat.tamu...rc41.html#area7)

I have a 4.0 and have finished the classes I didn't have desire to study for (lab sciences, math, &c.) leaving me with only languages and linguistics courses to take.

For personal reasons, I have a strong desire to graduate a year early as it would open up a fantastic possibility in my personal life but I do not want to hurt my future career. By the end of spring semester next year, I will have taken 3 years of Latin and the equivalent of 2 years of Greek, 2 years of German, at least 1 year of Old English and 1 year of Old Norse. I want to eventually get a Phd in Historical Linguistics from somewhere nice (Cornell, UPenn, Harvard, Minnesota, &c.), regardless of whether I get a prefatory Masters degree. Theoretically, if I stayed for a full 4 years I would graduate with a Classics major and Linguistics and German double minor, while 3 years would leave me with a German cognate instead . I will have written a senior thesis (ideally doing some comparative linguistics with my familiar languages) and possibly have presented at a conference by this point next year.

My ultimate question is, if I go ahead and graduate early, will I be a highly competitive candidate for these sorts of MA programs or would I be shooting myself in the foot by pushing forward for person reasons?

For what it's worth, I planned my double-major and all the coursework the summer before my freshman year in college. Everything went according to plan, and I loved my double-majors. BUT, I did find myself a bit jealous of some of my non-double majoring (one major+easy minor) friends who were loading up on additional upper-level courses in our major (beyond the required hours and courses) who were indeed applying to graduate programs in the discipline. Remember that major *requirements* are the bare minimum of the work you can do to get the major. If you want to do advanced graduate study, then gaining as much maturity you can in that particular field will help you, and personally, when I imagine cutting off the last year of my studies, I think there would have been a world of difference for me (as in, I'm much wiser about advanced studies in my field after senior year than I was my junior year)--

More undergraduate courses--particularly those that assist you in the development of your own unique academic angle/speciality/graduate application--will not hurt you. Graduating early *could* detract from this larger goal: if taking fewer courses means not developing deeper relationships with professors, not doing an independent study, not taking as many upper-level courses in your discipline, then doing so might not be the best path if graduate school is your ultimate goal.

But nothing is black and white, and perhaps it won't detract from your application, since you're planning early and highly conscious of your future plans. You might want to keep in mind though, that when you apply to PhD programs, you'll be competing against BA students who have done all the extra coursework and extra majors, etcetera, and possibly masters students too.

Edited December 26, 2011 by ecritdansleau

[Ethersworn]

Thanks,

Well, would my application given all of that information be competitive in a pool of MA programs? There aren't many Linguistics MA programs (at least not in the North East which I am limited to for the same reason I may graduate early) but there are a couple of Classics (Philology) or Medieval Studies MAs that I feel like I could more likely get into and perhaps use as a stepping stone to get into somewhere like Harvard for my Phd. Also, I will have had at least 2 500 (semi graduate) courses by graduation and 2 700 (fully graduate) level courses if I choose to graduate early, if that helps characterize my academic experience at this point.

[Helpplease123]

I think it would depend a lot on what you plan to do for the year off as well

[Ethersworn]

I think it would depend a lot on what you plan to do for the year off as well

I'm actually planning to apply straight into MA/Phd programs with no year off so I can get to the North East as soon as possible.

[Helpplease123]

Oh sorry, I guess I assumed the fantastic opportunity was something you'd be able to do if you take a year out - my mistake....in which case, why the hurry to get to grad school? Is it a boy/girl friend you want to be close to? in which case, fair enough. Otherwise, as someone who misses the easy life of an undergrad constantly, enjoy it while you still can, especially since it sounds like you wouldn't have to work that hard for your final year!

Since you're completing everything you need to, I can't see graduating a year early hurting your application, if anything it shows a huge amount of determination and focus not normally seen in a 20 year old and if I was in admissions i'd be quite impressed. On the other hand, as someone else mentioned, if you did stay, considering you've completed all the requirements, you could focus on taking extra classes and doing loads of extra curriculars that would really help you stand out.

Can you not start applying and then make the decision about when to graduate later on in the year once you know where/if you've been accepted for grad school?

[Ethersworn]

Oh sorry, I guess I assumed the fantastic opportunity was something you'd be able to do if you take a year out - my mistake....in which case, why the hurry to get to grad school? Is it a boy/girl friend you want to be close to? in which case, fair enough. Otherwise, as someone who misses the easy life of an undergrad constantly, enjoy it while you still can, especially since it sounds like you wouldn't have to work that hard for your final year!

Since you're completing everything you need to, I can't see graduating a year early hurting your application, if anything it shows a huge amount of determination and focus not normally seen in a 20 year old and if I was in admissions i'd be quite impressed. On the other hand, as someone else mentioned, if you did stay, considering you've completed all the requirements, you could focus on taking extra classes and doing loads of extra curriculars that would really help you stand out.

Can you not start applying and then make the decision about when to graduate later on in the year once you know where/if you've been accepted for grad school?

Yes, this primarily stems from desiring to be near a significant other who is graduating this year and will likely be in the North East either in the fall '12, or may take a year off and go the next fall '13. I am hoping that if I keep my GPA at a 4.0 and start intensively GRE studying and continue to do so for the next 8 months and can achieve a remarkably high score that maybe the lack of excess courses will be compensated for?

[Helpplease123]

Well considering you have a very valid personal reason, I would say go for it! I'm not sure you have anything to compensate for the record though, you'll have a full degree same as other applicants - I think if you stayed and did a fourth year with credits that aren't required you'd be put ahead, not left behind if you don't. I'm not an expert but I do genuinely feel that any admissions persons is going to be impressed that you're involved enough in the subject to be able to graduate a year early.