If someone finished their major a year early and their major offered a 5th year masters, could you do it as a 4th year masters?
Just a thought that popped into my mind
Posted May 11, 2018, 3:48 PM UTC
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yes
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A friend of mine has done this with ME; they came in with about 1.5 semesters of AP credits and even then it was an insane grind that they kind of regret. They're also a really driven, organized person.
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Yes, a classmate of mine in Material Science did this since he was not a BME double major.
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Thank you!
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I did this in ECE department. As others are suggesting talk to your advisor, since there were rules about when I had to register as a grad student versus undergrad. Also plan your classes well in advance so you know all requirements will be met.
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Thank you! Can I ask, how overloaded would you say you were? I’ll be going into statistics and machine learning which I’m p sure is less rigorous academically than ECE, so I think it should at least be possible to graduate in 4 years with a BS and an MS in machine learning, but I don’t know for sure. Would you say it was insanely difficult to do all the necessary classes and still do fairly well? And would you recommend it to others?
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I came in with a lot of AP credit, and I overloaded my courses almost every semester (first semester I did not so I could adjust to college, which was a good choice). One semester sophomore year stuck out as too overloaded due to multiple difficult "weed out" courses at the same time, which resulted in my grades slipping that semester (not C's or anything but didn't make deans list). Generally I kept my grades up and was on deans list most semesters and got into my top picks for grad schools, etc. I also managed to play club sports and do extracurricular research, so I don't think I really missed out on much other than sleep and the party lifestyle that some people get in college (although through sports and classes I still made a lot of really good friends). Something has got to give, and you won't have time for everything. I worked like hell but I don't regret it at all. But I also don't think it is a path for everyone, since it does involve tradeoffs. For me it worked and it just felt right. The important thing is planning you schedule so that really work intensive or difficult courses don't all overlap in one semester. I learned my lesson from that one bad semester. I think CMU is a great place to do something like this because there were a lot of people working really hard and I felt like "we were all in it together" and I didn't feel like a social pariah for choosing to spend friday nights in a computer lab. Club sports also helped with taking my mind off of academic matters and allowing me to stay in shape. In terms of recommending it to others, I think it all depends on your personality. Some people would never want my college experience. But my two roommates both chose a similar experience and we had fun doing it together.
In terms of "getting your moneys worth" out of your very expensive college years, I highly recommend it, since I had very good job offers (that I passed up to pursue a PhD...which is not a good way to get your moneys worth, but I also do not regret despite it being a financially poor move).
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Thank you so much for your insight! Unfortunately my school offers IB instead of AP so at most I can get a couple of credits because of the way the IB diploma works. Regardless, I’ll bring it up with an advisor :)
Thanks so much!!
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No problem, enjoy CMU, you made a great choice!
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Yes this is what I'm doing. I'm doing my masters and bachelors in 4years for Mechanical engineering. Its feasible, you just should be ready to overload units nearly every semester.
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It can even be possible for some majors to finish not in 4 years at the same time. I had the option of doing that if I didn't want to minor in anything, but I decided to do a minor instead of getting the masters. It is very possible with enough outside credit
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Possibly, but this is really a question for your advisor. It will depend on the program.
Makes sense. I’m an incoming freshman so I doubt this will ever even be applicable to me, but I was just curious. I don’t have an advisor yet tho, and that’s why I asked here. Thanks tho!
Well, welcome to CMU! You will have a freshman advisor once you start, and then a different advisor once you have declared your major. They will be your best resources, along with the head of whatever department you are in. Good luck!