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University of Virginia Student Graduates in One Year
An anonymous reader writes "18-year-old David Banh of Annandale, VA recently graduated from the University of Virginia with a double major in Physics and Mathematics, and an education paid for almost entirely by scholarships. What's truly amazing is that he did it in one year, bringing in 72 Advanced Placement credits, then taking 23 credits his fall semester, 37 credits his spring semester and 3 credits in the summer. His brief undergraduate career didn't leave him much time to explore college, so he's now working on his master's degree. He says he may eventually pursue law school as a part-time student in hopes of becoming a patent lawyer."
...you have completely missed the point.
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It seems to me that this guys has missed the point of university. Yes, his feat is just short of miraculous and he is clearly a smart guys, but it sounds like he was there merely for the credential. Simply to get the degree. University is supposed to give someone a chance to explore the universes, or the parts that seem interesting. To experiment and experience things. Not to simply vacuum up credits. In a way, I am sorry for him.
Okay. 37 credits your spring semester. That's pretty much 9 AM to 5 PM in class, five days a week. Add in study time and prep time plus time to do assignemnts, and (judging by what I did carrying 15 credits at Penn State) he was working an additional 6+ hours a night, seven nights a week, for his classes. That's it. That was his life for a year.
See, to me, college was about learning first and foremost, about obtaining a well-rounded academic education. The key here is "well-rounded." If you're literally spending 13-14 hours a day on class, what else are you doing? Nothing. That's not well-rounded. This kid missed out on everything that makes college, college. Friends, relaxing...hell, dorm floor-wide LAN matches in CS and UT99 (as in my case). Oh, and football. Sweet, sweet football. On the other hand, I can guarantee you that he did nothing but eat, sleep, work, and study.
I'll take a party here and there and some video games, please. I would not do what this kid did, nor would I consider it, or consider letting my children (someday) do it. It's just flat out not worth it.
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christ, i graduated with a single major (computer engineering) and i had to take 140 credits. all he had to take was 135 for two.
:(
where's my second degree?
This guy hasn't missed the point of going to college. He got it right. He's taking advantage of the TIME VALUE OF MONEY. Facing the extreme price increases in tuition why not take as many transferable AP classes as you can. Then if you get someone else to pay for your collage that's even better. And instead of wasting 4 years of valuable time (where you could be making money instead of forking it over the university, landlords, beer vendors, or pot dealers you can get on with life and start doing what you want. The more you earn/invest today, the better off you will be tomorrow. The less debt you have today, the more you will have tomorrow.
Universities have become a money making shell game...they require you to take a load of irrelevant course work (to broaden your horizons) at over $300/credit then they offer limited sections of these classes which delays your graduation a semester or two. Yeah, the university has your educational interests at heart.
P226
Many professors would like students to explore and experiment in college rather than cram in as much as possible at top speed.
Also, the administrators would like you to take as long as possible to get your degree, to increase the revenue flow.
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I'm an engineer, and I didn't think Economics was a "bullshit" course; I found it useful and interesting. It sure helps to have some grounding in the subject when discussing taxation, for example. Much of the misery we inflict on ourselves is a result of so many people having no understanding of economics whatsoever.
What was once true, is no longer so
He's not necessarily a genius because he graduated in one year. He simply found a system that allowed him to do such a thing and decided to take advantage of that system.
When I went to high school, it wasn't even possible to take 72 AP credits. Similarly, most colleges will not allow you to take more than 18-22 credits per semester without permission of the dean; 37 would be completely out of the question.
He blazed through college in a year, probably missing out on a lot of the transformative moments as a college student, not the least of which is the ability to get a feel for what mathematicians and physicists do. It's no surprise to me that he wants to become a lawyer.
He is considering a doctorate in math "if he wants to stay in college". That's the wrong attitude to go into a doctorate (speaking as a first-year CS doctoral student myself), because you will be miserable every second of the program if you go for that reason. It should have nothing to do with whether you want to stay in college and everything to do with whether you have a fascination with a narrow area of knowledge that can only be sated by deep study of that area.