University of Virginia Student Graduates in One Year 796
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."
Moo (Score:5, Informative)
What he did:
Where he going:
What he wants to do:
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Counterpoint:
How he did it:
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Basically, it's a neat feat that took years to prepare for, like going through a process to be "pre-qualified", but he isn't quite Doogie.
Re:Moo (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, the other guy in the bridge club was excited to finally get someone to play with.
Re:Moo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Moo (Score:4, Interesting)
Get laid as much as possible...you're peaking dude!! Fuck everything while it is still tight enough to *squeek*.
Party some too...while you're young enough that it doesn't hurt.
At least with this kid...he's gotten a lot of the important stuff out of the way....he could afford to slow down and experience some of the fun stuff in college. It is good to study, think ahead and do what your supposed to do, but, don't forget , you're young and you won't be forever...ENJOY it too.
Re:Moo (Score:4, Funny)
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Sure he has the right to choose his own career, but I also have the right to be disappointed in making a choice that was probably motivated by money.
Probably this happened: Father to Son: "You're a genius, son. Now go out and make a lot of mo
Re:Moo (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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Not everyone values college for its "transformative moments." To a lot of people, college is just about jumping through seemingly arbitrary hoops to get a piece of paper.
Sure, there's value other than the piece-of-paper to be found in college, but there's value all over life. I have no proble
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Clearly, this individual will excell as a lawyer and later as a politician; he's an expert at gaming the system.
Re:Moo (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Moo (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe because they're bright enough to notice that those are the people who make the most money, while incurring the least risk?
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Re:Moo (Score:5, Informative)
I am surprised they all counted. You can take a ton of AP classes, but a lot of it will never help you to a degree. Any idiot can sign up and take the AP exam even if the AP class is not offered at a high school.
I recently had a student come in with 60, but 72 is amazing. I encouraged her to take more electives and get into undergraduate research.
The other thing, most places limit you to 23 hours per semester. He must have gotten a waiver for 30+. With night classes, you oculd easily do 37. I did 23 one quarter at GT, it wasn't that bad.
Re:Moo (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Moo (Score:5, Interesting)
Considering the pace and methodology, I'd say he wasn't interested in an education... he was there to get a degree.
And... it sounds like he will be the perfect lawyer.
Re:Moo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Moo (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Moo (Score:4, Interesting)
Which is how we start with David Ricardo's Assumption of Comparative Advantage and end with a $68 Billion/month trade deficit that has been getting worse every month for the past 30 years.
Re:Moo (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Moo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Moo (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Moo (Score:5, Insightful)
Or you could simply refuse to "grow up" and have fun your
entire life. The idea that you reach a certain age, or point in time and suddenly
have to start behaving differently is B.S. You can be young as long as you
choose to consider yourself young.
Now excuse me while I go put some Twisted Sister [darklyrics.com] on....
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Nice idea but at some point those demons called responsibilities kick in. When you've got a spouse and kids or other family that you have to take care of, I would hope that you would take a different frame of thought then a single resident in a bachelor pad might.
I used to think that way, but now with my 46th birthday coming up in less than 9 hours, I've realised that in part I've joined that "enemy over thirty.".... and that we all must at some point.
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Re:Moo (Score:4, Insightful)
you to get married, have children, buy a house, etc.
And as somebody else said (again) you can be responsible and still think of yourself as young, and enjoy life and have fun... it's all about finding the right balance that works for you.
And yes, I'm over 30 myself, but I'm still (mostly) the same guy I was when I was 18, 20, 25, 30, whatever. And I still refuse to refer to
myself as an "adult" or a "grown up" but yet I still manage to have enough responsibility to pay bills, hold down a pretty good job, finish a 3rd college degree, etc.
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Re:Moo (Score:5, Insightful)
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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Get his Genetic Code (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Get his Genetic Code (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Get his Genetic Code (Score:5, Funny)
The punchline (Score:3, Informative)
A patent attorney.
Re:The punchline (Score:5, Funny)
In a Swiss Patent Office, perhaps? I think I heard of that one before...
Re:The punchline (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The punchline (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:The punchline (Score:4, Funny)
Stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
I mean, a true genius would be eager to use his cognitive abilities for the advancement of mankind. Start an academic career, change the way we think about the world. Live in fancy old College rooms, sip on a glass of Port, write thoughtful books.
No, he doesn't want to do that. He wants to earn a lot of money. How sad.
Re:Stupid (Score:5, Interesting)
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You're right: Except for Gandhi, no lawyer has done anything to advance mankind in the last 100 years or more. The ones like Voltaire, John Adams, and Gandhi are nothing like the lawyers we have in America now.
37 credits? (Score:4, Interesting)
Congratulations, Mr. Banh... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Congratulations, Mr. Banh... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Congratulations, Mr. Banh... (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't get me wrong - classes are important, but making new connections and the experiences you have are as important or, in some cases, even more so. A life where you do nothing but work is no life.
Re:Congratulations, Mr. Banh... (Score:5, Insightful)
In my old age, I know realize that the facts I learned weren't the education. I missed an education. I never had time to make friends or go to a party or watch TV.
The education is being with people as smart as you, as young as you. It's watching Battlestar Galactica together and learning about how other people think about moral questions... it's about making friends with your professors and the TA's. College is where you start making the friends that will connect you with the world as you leave school, giving you access to jobs and communities and a life.
If I had a summary, it would be: goof off in college. Spend an extra year there. Talk to everyone. Take a difficult course twice. Don't be afraid to change concentrations. Go to parties. Get drunk. Meet the opposite sex, even the same sex if that floats your boat. Maybe even at the same time. Live. Learn everything. Cheat authority at every turn, 'cause that disrespect and ability to bypass idiot rules will give you real success at life -- conformity makes you a loser, no matter what toys they give you. There is no other time or place in your whole life that will let you be yourself again, so grab it while you can.
This kid has educated himself into mediocrity.
Re:Congratulations, Mr. Banh... (Score:5, Insightful)
"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
I always want to add something to the end - "When I became wise, I leanred the value of childish things and turned to them once more"
Re:Congratulations, Mr. Banh... (Score:5, Interesting)
Try instead quoting a portion of this, written by a very well-known author and Christian apologist:
"Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."
-- C. S. Lewis
Re:Congratulations, Mr. Banh... (Score:5, Informative)
One of them stuck in my mind because of a quote contained in it that basically said without Bacchus, Apollo grows cold.
Whether you like it or not, one of the really important parts of college are the experiences and bonding.
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Re:Congratulations, Mr. Banh... (Score:5, Insightful)
after college, life is over (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm really
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Re:Congratulations, Mr. Banh... (Score:5, Insightful)
This guy skipped all that, obsessed with the scholoarly aspect 24/7. He will probably do the same with his job, become quite wealthy, but ultimately very depressed. I wouldn't be surprised to see this guy on a suicide watch by the time he is 25 if he is not careful.
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If you're not a social person, you might as well get it over as quickly as possible.
Missed opportunities. (Score:5, Interesting)
Racing through college like that just seems like wasted opportunities galore. Not only for the social interaction, which he almost certainly didn't get, but to take all sorts of other classes.
There are whole fields of study that I never would have had any clue about, except that I saw them in a course catalog when I was an undergrad and thought "what the hell, I'll take it." Economics, for example, is now a big interest of mine, and there's no way I would have taken it, if I had been just trying to bang out the minimum graduation requirements.
I wish this guy the best, but I think he's driving too hard and too fast for specialization. Even for a patent attorney, having some concept for things outside your area of interest is a good idea. That doesn't mean you need to take twelve credits of Underwater Basketweaving, just that there are a lot of things that you can learn about (particularly a big school like UVA), and it's a shame to pass up those opportunities, as they're rather difficult to come by later.
Re:Missed opportunities. (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh please. This kid just whizzed through college using precious little time and none of his own capital. I guarantee you that he understands more about economics than you do. Now this kid can pursue his own interests with his degree already in hand and the opportunities that come with a degree and a story that clearly manifests a strong work ethic.
While you (and I) are floating through life trying to figure out what it is that we want, this kid is setting goals and achieving them. Even if his master plan isn't 100% perfect he's gotten his degree in a fifth of the time that it takes most people. He could spend the next 3 years backpacking in Peru and still be ahead.
Good for him.
Re:Missed opportunities. (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah well, you know the old saying: "All work and no play makes Jack die frozen and alone in a giant hedge-maze."
-Eric
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Oh, that's just plain crap. Assuming that college courses are the "core" part of the college experience then this kid was able to experience five years worth of college in one year and for the princely sum of $200. Unless your "goals" revolve around "wine, women, and song" you'd be hard pressed to say that you would be better off spending more time goofing around in college. This kid basically has a four year head start on everyone else that went into UVA at the same time he did. What's more, he apparen
Re:Missed opportunities. (Score:5, Informative)
The future's so bright... (Score:4, Funny)
Is that the punchline? (Score:5, Funny)
There is A LOT more to college than the degree, hell - for most people thats an afterthought.
As if I didn't feel bad enough already (Score:2)
3 Credit Summer? (Score:5, Insightful)
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When I attended college, the university typically would offer the first class of a series only in the Fall quarter, the second class in the series only in the Winter quarter and the third class only in Spring quarter. If you could not take the first class in the chain in Fall (either because it conficted with another class, or because the class size was too large and you were denied the opportunity), then you'd have to wait an e
Many schools no longer accept AP credits (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Many schools no longer accept AP credits (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, they now have a whole new class of schools just for people taking performance enhancing drugs? Do you have to take them via IV, or are other ways acceptable too?
Seems to have missed the point. (Score:5, Insightful)
Somehow, I don't think he got very much exposure to new ideas and concepts. He sounds like someone who's decided that whatever makes the most money is the best thing to do with your life.
Regards,
Ross
What a shame (Score:5, Insightful)
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missing crack (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds a bit odd to me -- where I go to school, many of the course plans are layered, so you have to take a lot of pre-requisites... I don't know if he got them waived via AP credit or what, but even in my last two semesters (I graduate in May, hurrah) I'm still knee-deep in 400 level classes that I have to take before I can take other 400 level classes.
Also, I think he missed the college experience. College doesn't teach you as much book-wise as it does real-life-wise: living on your own, those 3 a.m. conversations about philisophy with your friends, boobies... I'm taking 18 credit hours and working only 24 hours a week and I still have trouble finding time for fun... this kid is either a robot or has no social life (I don't "party" or drink, so I'm already "unsocial" to some people).
What he missed (Score:5, Insightful)
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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Re:What he missed (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think it's fair to say "it's not worth it," because to a lot of people, contributing something meaningful to society is far more important than self-gratification. Just because 95% of the people going to college think it is for their personal benefit does not mean the remaining 5% should share the same view.
And hey, for the most part, I'm in your boat. I waste a lot of time playing video games, watching TV, and hanging out with friends. But I greatly admire those who choose to sacrifice all of that to come up with all of the innovations that allow us to live such a life of leisure. Those people deserve our respect, not our pity.
Benefits of Brevity (Score:2)
Another soul lost (Score:4, Insightful)
This guy has some real potential, he could change the world, he could discover some fantastic advancements for the good of human kind, but no. He wants to be a lawyer.
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Wow, he did the exact opposite with his AP credits (Score:5, Interesting)
Those sure as hell don't help me on my job or in grad school next year, but I really felt like they helped me grow as a human being.
135? (Score:5, Insightful)
where's my second degree?
Extracurricular (Score:5, Funny)
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As my undergraduate advisor said (Score:3, Funny)
No fair. (Score:4, Interesting)
I am also a bit skeptical about getting through all of college in what amounts to, at most, 5 'layers' of prerequisites, and that would be assuming he brought in two courses worth of AP credits in a particular subject (common at most institutions, a 5 on my AP Calculus exam got me credit for Calc I and Calc II), took another level of course in the fall and spring, and then took the final one as his single 3-hour summer course. All 3 of th universities I have attended had pre-requisite trees deeper than that for almost any normal degree, and more of them than would fit in his schedule anyways.
Of all the majors to choose (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, with this current toon, I took the other route and only had 12 credit hour semesters and took a lot of extra-curricular cultural classes in music, literature, and sociology. Sometimes life is better when you stop and smell the roses.
The light that burns twice as bright... (Score:5, Insightful)
What happened before college? (Score:3, Insightful)
No Good Reason to do this (Score:4, Insightful)
First, the physics/mathematics combination is not hard to do. At least where I went to school a physics major only needed a few more classes to get a math degree (because so much was required for physics). Second, I don't think one can truly appreciate physics by doing it all in one year. I doubt he took very many advanced courses. I learned a lot in intro physics (I had AP credit, but declined it to take an honors intro course) that I never learned in high school. And it always takes me a while to truly appreciate a subject. Not just one year. Plus I doubt he got much research experience in.
I'm sure he's a smart person and talented, but there are plenty of people like that out there. If he had tried doing that at a place like Caltech or MIT, I doubt it would've worked. Plus I actually enjoyed taking distribution classes because they gave me an interesting perspective I hadn't known before. In fact, I wish I had taken more of them.
Regardless, if you're thinking of doing this, don't. If you're that smart, go to a better school, spend the money, and be really challenged like this guy never was.
You're all wrong. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
So how does that even work? (Score:4, Interesting)
My engineering degree took 200 credit hours, including about 45 that I entered college with. Taking 37 hours in a semester would save you... half a year over my normal course load.
I mean, so AP can cover your intro pretty much everything... meaning that few of his classes were actually something high level AKA possibly challenging? I had a year and a half worth of math courses beyond what you can get with all possible AP credits.
I mean, awesome for him... but what the heck is the university even teaching in a degree that short?
Thomas Jefferson H.S. (Score:5, Interesting)
I knew, the second I saw the headline, that it was a TJ [tjhsst.edu] grad. I could have easily spent another year at TJ after my senior year, and learned a hell of a lot more than I did during my first year (or two) of college. In fact, in my time at TJ (where I specialized in Physics), I learned more about computer science in passing than I have at the two universities I've attended for most of the past ten years (including a CS degree).
I'll be the first one to admit that chances are he missed out on a lot of fun college life, but sometimes you just have to do something "because you can". He's smart, and I'm sure he'll spend the next three or four years in grad school and law school, and he'll find time to have a little bit of fun while he's at it.
Congratulations to him, and remember, just because he's smarter than you (academically) is no reason to try and take away from his accomplishments just to make you feel better about yourself.
--brian, TJ '96
An ideal candiate... (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, he just missed college (Score:4, Insightful)
Sad honestly. College is a nice 4-5 years of your life of with barely any responsibility and a hell of a lot of fun. What is waiting for you after college. Answer: a career, have fun with that for the next 50 or so years of your life, i dont think putting that on hold for a year is gonna matter much in the end.
Power-leveling: a modern trend? (Score:3, Insightful)
Parallel comparison: I'm in Toastmasters (http://www.toastmasters.org/ [toastmasters.org]), an international organization promoting communcation and leadership skills. There's an educational program that takes an average person about five-seven years to compete. Numerically it boils down to about 55 speeches, a major project in leadership and mentoring about 23 people. The first part (10 speeches) takes about one to one and a half years. I felt like I raced through it in 10 months, but later I heard about someone really racing through it in 10 weeks. I met that person and discovered that they had definitely missed the point. He was not a skilled speaker at all and could barely understand all of the meeting roles or the opportunities for service to the organization beyond the club level yet he had achieved the first level of education.
Indirect comparison: World of Warcraft power-levelers (or any game with specific goals). The people who play a single character to level 60 and they're "done." They quit and state "I've seen and done it all." Completely missed the point. The game, like school or professional organizations, is comprised of a great deal more than a simple ladder for reaching the "top." These people miss out on so much content, relationships and experience. I'd compare them to someone who goes to a buffet, tries a single bite of each item and calls that dinner.
Where is this coming from? Has our sense of achievement been condensed to "do the minimum requirement as fast as possible?" I guess it's the opposite end of the spectrum of people, companies and communities that are so laid back that they see no reason to change anything at all ever.
I am envious of Banh that he obviously has a high IQ and the ability to absorb a great deal of information quickly, though I wonder how long he can retain it. Patent lawyer? What a waste of a good brain.
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