How long did it take you to graduate from undergrad?

[csibaldwin]

It took me 5 years including all but one summer 2008-2012.

 

I went to a community college my 1st 2 years. I received 2 associates degrees, an AAS in Criminal Justice, and a AA trasfer. I studied abroad in London my first summer of 2008, and the 2nd summer of 2009 I took 3 classes. In the summer of 2010 after I graduated I did a summer study class for forensic anthropology at the University of Tennessee Knoxville through my community college. I was 12-16 credit hours through the regular semesters.

 

When I started my undergrad it was the fall of 2010. I was signed up for Forensic Chemisty, I changed to Law Enforcement the next semester, and changed to Anthropology the next. I realized my passion was Forensic Anthropology. That put me a little behind changing majors twice. I also double minored in Zoology and Law Enforcement on top of my Anthropology major. I graduated in fall of 2012 with a 3.99 gpa at my university. I was full time my whole undergraduate career, because I started at 28 I wanted to get it done ASAP so I didn't feel behind. I did an archeology dig/field school in the summer of 2012 as well.

 

I had a couple credits from when I tried to go to school after high school, but I basically started fresh at 28 when I started in 2008, I am now 33 starting my masters.

 

I graduated community college with 84 credits of all A's and a B, and my university with all A's and an A-. School is easier as a mature, wise person with real life experiences.

Edited April 5, 2013 by csibaldwin

[compiler_guy]

three years plus two summers for my Computer Science BS.

[Kwest]

I graduated in 5 years with linguistics and German and it took me five years due to a lack of course offerings. In my 4th year two of the German profs quit/went on sabbatical leaving only low level German courses. I had to wait because I needed specific courses. In the end it worked out because I was able to take more linguistics classes and attend the lsa summer institute as a student.

[Eigen]

5 years. And the 5th year probably did more to strengthen my application than any of the previous years. 

 

I took full semesters, and graduated with close to 200 credits. 

 

It let me try a wide variety of coursework, and while I didn't do a second major, I had a lot of coursework in several related disciplines to what I'm studying now. 

 

It also gave me an extra year of research, a much stronger BS Thesis, and a couple of leadership and TAing opportunities that I wouldn't have otherwise had. 

 

I also think my maturity relative to my work and field increased a lot over that year, and I was a lot more prepared for grad school. 

[Eidda]

I took 3 and 1/2 years and decided to graduate early.

[budgie]

I graduated high school in 2005 and immediately started community college as an English major. I never truly found a passion for the subject and started exploring other majors within liberal arts. I started taking science classes in 2007 to knock out my gen ed requirements, but quickly fell in love with science. I explored a few fields within science like psychology, biology, astronomy, pure math, but as soon as I learned what engineering was, I knew I had found my calling in life. So despite only having taken up to college level algebra, I transitioned to engineering in 2008. I applied to transfer to a UC in 2010, and by 2011 I was at UCSD. I came in as a junior in 2011, and now, a little less than 2 years later, I'm finally graduating with my BS in 2013!!

 

Also, this did not affect my admission potential whatsoever, I was actually a very successful applicant!

 

tl;dr took forever at community college (6 years), then graduated UCSD in 2 years. 8 years total O_O

[annieca]

And personally, I've found my age to be an inconvenience as I can't participate some... activities with the students (won't be legal until spring semester, 2014). 

 

Depends on how legal you want to be. But I feel your pain. I won't be 21 until December of 2013 so I've got a few months to go before I can doing those things with my cohort. But eh, I'm okay with that. Alcohol is expensive (at least, it is in the UK) and I'm going to be on a shoestring budget.

[Becks1]

For me it was the standard 4 years - taking 5 classes per semester and getting the summers off. Looking back, I would have benefited from not being in such a hurry to finish!

[Authorization]

Spent five years in undergrad due to a terrible first few semesters in community college - mostly my fault but also wasn't feeling that motivated at the time. Entered my major third year and it was all smooth sailing from there. Was initially going to earn a second major in Humanities but decided I didn't want to expand my undergrad career to 6 years. 

[LittleDarlings]

4 years

[Loric]

5.25 years - if you ignore my first foray into undergrad where I withdrew in the first semester and went to get a real job.

 

Also, the .25 is because I tacked on a study abroad to the end. Well, that explains the 5 really - I was a theatre design major, originally a BFA. I dropped down to the BA because I wasn't happy with my program and the direction of work they wanted me to go in. I started taking classes in art history, architecture, and painting/drawing to up my fundamental skills rather than working on endless productions for the school. Think of it this way, upper level students in my program were forbidden to have jobs. We had TA appointments and also directed lab periods. Sounds a little bit like grad responsibilities, no? Well, it was and I felt it was being a time-suck that wasnt helping me learn much of anything. I was just constantly helping new students learn the basics repeatedly.

 

Hence the the interest in courses in other majors. That was time consuming in a credit-sense. I also would try something out, decide I hated it, and withdraw. Things do depend highly on the professor and I "took" far more classes than I completed in these outside areas. Dropping and retrying until I found a professor I liked. It was my money, I might as well like the education I was getting.

 

Being so involved in the art and art history programs, I was asked to apply for the study abroad program in Paris/Venice. I did, was accepted, and was given a schlarship to cover the cost. I was supposed to graduate in May/June.. but the program started in June.. so I filled out my graduation paperwork before I left (and was already accepted into a few grad schools so that was ready to go too) and then went off to Paris to study in the museums for a few months.

 

I didn't do a formal "walk" - just the event from the theater department itself the week or so before I left for Paris. I returned from Venice at the end of Summer, packed my stuff up, and moved across the country to my selected grad school (also sent an email to my backup school saying "Sorry, peace out - the other guys offered more money!")

 

So my situation was unique, but I feel it was the best choice at the time. Interviewing with graduate programs and telling them I was leaving in a few months to study art history in the museums of Paris was very well received - MFA's are funny like that.

 

Edit: I had to get permission from the school to do the study abroad because i had reached my attempted credit hour limit. I forgot about that.

Edited December 8, 2013 by Loric

[socioholic]

I ended up taking five years because I changed my major and had personal issues that forced me to take a semester off. I actually don't know anyone who didn't take at least one semester off (although I know some people powered through in 4 or less.) School is only a piece of one's life; I'm not sure why committees would care about the actual time it took you to finish as opposed to looking at the work done while you were there.

[Loric]

From what I can tell from past interviews - unless you've got major work in the first two years that obviously "dates" you - they typically are oblivious to when you started.. they just know when you ended.