3 years B.S Degree VS 4 years B.S Degree

[tennisball80]

What is the diffrence ? Why do I need to take the 4 years degree ? Do the medical schools still accept the 3 years one ?

Edit:I'm not saying to complete the traditional bachelor degree which requires about 120 credits in 3 or 4 years. There are two kinds of bachelor degrees in Canada. One of them only requires 90 credits to get a bachelor degree and the other one requires 120 credits to graduate.

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[MilkmanAl]

What is the diffrence ?

A year. You'll probably have to take a lot of summer courses or something to compensate.

Why do I need to take the 4 years degree ?

You don't, I suppose.

Do the medical schools still accept the 3 years one ?

Yes.

Personally, I would advise against cutting college short. It's a hell of a good time, and while a year may sound like a lot of time now, it's nothing in comparison to the rest of your life. I recommend not slamming all your classes into 3 years to graduate early. 4 enjoyable years sounds a hell of a lot better to me than 3 very busy years.

 

[Thrombomodulin]

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[DrYoda]

If you walk into college with a bunch of AP credits (like 20-30) graduating in three years is pretty managable. If that is not the case I would follow Milkman's advice.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I went in with 44 hours and took 9 semesters. I guess that's what happens when you take every science course under the sun.

 

[Electrophile]

Personally, I would advise against cutting college short. It's a hell of a good time, and while a year may sound like a lot of time now, it's nothing in comparison to the rest of your life. I recommend not slamming all your classes into 3 years to graduate early. 4 enjoyable years sounds a hell of a lot better to me than 3 very busy years.

Agreed. 👍 Another reason I don't like the 6 year combined programs too. There's a lot to be said for a good well balanced classical education. You'll get plenty of science. Enjoy some other classes that will broaden your horizons.

 

[BigRedBeta]

Graduating in only 3 years will put you at a significant disadvantage when applying to medical schools. You'll be applying in the fall of your 3rd year with only a two year track record when everyone else is applying in the fall of their 4th with 3 years behind them...that's a 50% difference in your time to accomplish all the things you need to be a competitive applicant. There's less college coursework to examine, less time to do research, less experience in campus organizations (which leads to leadership positions), less time dedicated to volunteering, and so on.

If you graduate in three years, to overcome this disadvantage, you need a gap year of some sort to fill that last year - research, significant volunteering, a relevant job, something, so that you can have a resume that can compete. And since you're going to be applying at the same time as the other people in your cohort, why not just stay in school for the extra year? If it's a cost thing...you should probably be at a cheaper school.

 

[Electrophile]

BigRedBeta, there's a lot of pre-vet people on the forums ask if they should apply during their junior year (and sometimes sophomore year, since some schools let you do a 6 year guaranteed admittance kind of thing). That's about the best, most concise answer I've seen. Well done. 😀

 

[BigRedBeta]

Well, I won't make any assumptions about how well it translates to Vet, Pharm or Dental schools since the majority of those schools will allow candidates to apply with less than a bachelors' degree and will admit a significant number of applicants before they finish their undergraduate degrees if they are well qualified. It definitely applies for med schools though. I know of only a handful of schools that will accept applicants with only 90 semester hours.

 

[Electrophile]

It used to be much more common in the States a couple decades ago that they'd let you start without your BA/BS (and if you go to school down in Oz or elsewhere in the world, people start professional school right out of high school), but not so much any more in America for a number of reasons. I am glad of it. If I were on the ad com, I'd hold those folks to an extremely high standard. I dunno, with how much babying there is in undergrad these days, particularly the first year or two, might as well get all the prep with the upper division level classes in. Heck, 3 years of grad school, let alone 4 years of undergrad, wasn't as good of a prep for vet school as I thought I'd be, not going to lie!

 

[deleted212936]

I've heard colleges don't like rushed students. Is that correct ?