Cool so many people posting here how they finished school early in 3 years and also proceeded to finish grad school early. Let me toss my name in the hat, too! So many fond memories,
I finished my undergraduate CS degree in 3.5 years at Wesleyan, I did it by dropping my honors thesis project because I got bored. For the next "semester," I squatted on campus to play Dota for the entire semester (I played main support characters like Crystal Maiden and Omniknight). During the downtime, I wrote an application to YC, back when it was relatively easy to apply and got a free trip out to Mountain View to only to shake hands with PG (PG and one of his buddy judged correctly that my only one true motivation in life was personal leisure, not making money for him).
Obama came on campus and spoke for graduation and made a brouhaha about smart and selfless he was as he turned down a corporate law job to become a community organizer on the "south side of Chicago." None of which mattered to me as an unemployed college student in the summer of 2008 with student loans.
Eventually, I applied to the most overlooked open source project on Google Summer of Code and got accepted (which I lied to say that I was a "enrolled" student) and some cash. With that "Google" cache, I got an interview at Lehman Brothers prop trading group that summer, two months prior to their collapse. The manager told me back then, "I believe the worst is behind is behind us and that's why we're in the full swing of hiring!" Pretty good education IMO in place of one more semester.
Wes peep, reporting in. It's always bizarre to see our little liberal arts school pop up on HN.
I also finished my Wesleyan CS degree in 3 years, and it was totally doable (although that was by taking 1.5-2x normal credits most semesters and some careful planning). I considered leaving early, but decided to stay for my senior year so that I could write a thesis and explore some academic areas I'd overlooked in my first three years.
I finished my undergraduate CS degree in 3.5 years at Wesleyan, I did it by dropping my honors thesis project because I got bored. For the next "semester," I squatted on campus to play Dota for the entire semester (I played main support characters like Crystal Maiden and Omniknight). During the downtime, I wrote an application to YC, back when it was relatively easy to apply and got a free trip out to Mountain View to only to shake hands with PG (PG and one of his buddy judged correctly that my only one true motivation in life was personal leisure, not making money for him).
Obama came on campus and spoke for graduation and made a brouhaha about smart and selfless he was as he turned down a corporate law job to become a community organizer on the "south side of Chicago." None of which mattered to me as an unemployed college student in the summer of 2008 with student loans.
Eventually, I applied to the most overlooked open source project on Google Summer of Code and got accepted (which I lied to say that I was a "enrolled" student) and some cash. With that "Google" cache, I got an interview at Lehman Brothers prop trading group that summer, two months prior to their collapse. The manager told me back then, "I believe the worst is behind is behind us and that's why we're in the full swing of hiring!" Pretty good education IMO in place of one more semester.
Any Wes peeps on HN?