I like your community college and AP course suggestions. I got my first B.S. degree in General Engineering from U of Illinois and got out of a few gen eds with AP credit, and then went on to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale for my B.S. in CS and only had to take 2 gen eds there because I had a bachelors degree already. I wish I would have taken more community college courses to get out of 1 or 2 other entry level classes, but too late now.
But really, I think it comes down to 2 things:
1) If you are into girls, there will be a very small number in your CS or Engineering courses. Take the gen eds, Meet some people, and expand your circle of friends.
2) If you are going to a top tier school, you will need those gen eds to give you a break from the hard courses. At Illinois, during my toughest semester, I was at the library until it closed almost every night, worked more when i got home, and had an early (9 AM) class every day of the week. I was getting about 4 hours of sleep a night and was miserable. You will be overwhelmed, tired, and miserable if you try to take 15+ hours of credit from a top school.
Slashdot Mirror
I like your community college and AP course suggestions. I got my first B.S. degree in General Engineering from U of Illinois and got out of a few gen eds with AP credit, and then went on to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale for my B.S. in CS and only had to take 2 gen eds there because I had a bachelors degree already. I wish I would have taken more community college courses to get out of 1 or 2 other entry level classes, but too late now. But really, I think it comes down to 2 things: 1) If you are into girls, there will be a very small number in your CS or Engineering courses. Take the gen eds, Meet some people, and expand your circle of friends. 2) If you are going to a top tier school, you will need those gen eds to give you a break from the hard courses. At Illinois, during my toughest semester, I was at the library until it closed almost every night, worked more when i got home, and had an early (9 AM) class every day of the week. I was getting about 4 hours of sleep a night and was miserable. You will be overwhelmed, tired, and miserable if you try to take 15+ hours of credit from a top school.