Get Out of College Quick and Get on With Life

When I was in college, I really pushed myself because what I wanted, was, well, to be out of college (and making money). What would normally take four years or more, I wanted to accomplish as quickly as I could. I also had to deal with paying for my schooling myself. For those of you out there heading off to college, particularly those that are juggling finances and loans, I want to let you know a little about how I made the most of it.

I graduate College in three years, with honors and a 3.9 GPA. I also received numerous awards for art in school and out of it. My university education was subsidized, so I got an extra $5000 every year just for staying full time. I could have graduated more quickly had I taken summer courses, but-trust me- it feels good to have the summers off, even if by off you mean working. Not to mention that working gives you a valuable insight into life after college, and can help you build references, network, and decide what you really want to do with your life. I worked 25-35 hours a week the last tow years of college, and about 12 hours a week the first year. Each semester I took a minimum of 18 course hours.

I’m not saying this to brag about the things I did in college—if you search the web you’ll actually find some more amazing stories of people that graduate in 2-3 semesters and take 30-40 hours per semester. The reason I am telling you this is so that you can realize that you can do more with your time than most people in college.

The average college student spends 15-19 hours a week attending class (assuming you go to every class). This includes the average 12-15 hour college schedule equates to about 4 or 5 courses. Lecture courses meet for a couple hours every week, labs/design/hands-on courses meet for 4-6 hours a week. You will spend half as much that time working on projects outside of class, which equates to about 7-9 hours of outside of class work. So assuming you do every project and attend every class, you will spend between 22 and 28 hours on school every week. This is not the efficient, time managed version, this is just the normal student.

A normal work week is 40 hours, a college undergraduate student works between 22 and 28 hours normally. Leaving plenty of spare time. While a lot of students choose to party this away—or worse, simply don’t know what to do with their time. (Have you noticed how much time you spend surfing the internet every day? Chatting? Doing various tasks that in essence accomplish nothing?) What if you applied that lost time to something productive? This is what we call time management. Boring, right?

What if I told you that you could make a few thousand dollars easy by doing this? Now I’ve got your interest. You have several choices of what you can do with your time in college, and there is no reason anything has to suffer. What you need to do is look at the various aspects of life and ask what parts you can cut down on, and what you can increase. Can you do something more efficiently by overlapping it with something else (like study groups as a social activity, for example)?

• Attend Classes
• Do Coursework, Homework, and Projects
• Work a job
• Work on personal research, writing, ect.
• Attend Additional classes
• Have a social life
• Work out and stay physically active

I always took at least 18, if not 21 hours of courses. Not only does this knock out prerequisites in a hurry, getting to those upper level course that are actually interesting faster (Design one: Charcoal Drawing How To….. what a remedial boring class, but required for my degree! Design IV: Iron Casting…. Way fun, and actually requires brains and talent!). For me, it was much easier to attend challenging courses that I had an interest in.

A fact of college life is that you will have to take classes that don’t interest you to complete your degree. When you plan your schedule, prioritize the classes that are important to you and your future. There is no need to spend hours of your best work and brain power on “Influences of Latin American Music” for that extra fine arts credit you need to graduate, when your degree is in Biochemistry.

Remember, a high GPA is impressive, but future employers are never going to see your transcript. That you passed and have the degree is all they care about or know. Put your best effort into classes that matter to you. And add an extra course of two. Take two of those no-so-interesting classes. Give it enough effort to pass—2 B grades is better than 1 A grade in these courses—you save thousands of dollars and get out of school faster. Plus you aren’t burning yourself out on the courses that don’t matter.

Save your real talent and dedication for those in-your-major courses that matter to you—that you’re really getting something out of. In many cases, if I didn’t think attendance was required to pass a course, I wouldn’t go. That’s not to say I didn’t keep up with what was going on, I got notes from someone in the class or read the chapters of text on my own. I could do it a lot quicker than walking to lass, sitting through class, walking back, then starting my homework. Not to mention, during the time I would have been sitting in class, I could be accomplishing things or working for pay.

Cycling classes was a trick I often used. Say I had classes with required attendance. In the case of art studio classes the requirement was that you could miss no more than four class days in a semester. When the semester began, I planned out the three days I would miss and left one as a variable in case something happened. I always missed the max number of course days, because I can accomplish more on my own time and at my own pace than I can in a classroom.

Classrooms are geared to the lowest common denominator—and worse, professors know this. Try something revolutionary: remember that your professors are just people too, with a childhood, hobbies, family, and friends. Try talking to your professors, get to know them. When you know a professor, and he/she knows that you are an intelligent student that is trying to make the most of your time, most professors will try to help you.

You will need professor’s help. Want to take a course in another department that you don’t have the prerequisites for? No problem if you know the professor, or a professor that knows him/her. All they have to do is sign a form, and if they know you, they are more likely to bend the rules to help you. Not to mention, a recommendation form a professor can go a long way towards getting jobs, scholarships, and other opportunities. In many cases, if a professor knows you and the type of student you are, they will even overlook you missing some classes.

Your professors are people too, and they don’t like dealing with stupid policies any more than you do. They want to avoid extra extraneous paperwork and bureaucracy as much as you do—it makes their jobs easier, and maximizes the time they have to work on their own projects. Speaking of such, ask about their projects—the best way to make friends is to ask someone about themselves. Every person’s favorite subject is himself.

The first step in getting anywhere is to know where you are going and why. Just like in your personal life or career, you will want to set a goal. Is your goal to get out of school as quickly as possible? Is it to come out of school with money in your pocket? Or maybe is your goal to pay for your own schooling and avoid loans?

Did you ever play Mario, for old original Nintendo? The goal was always “Rescue the Princess”. No Matter what Mario did, he always needed to “Rescue the Princess”. Every level in Mario 3 you reached an airship and were told to “Rescue the Princess”. In many ways, college (and careers for that matter) are just that simple.

Keep your goal in mind, and ask yourself what you can do to more efficiently reach that goal. I hope this helps you.