Graduating Fast

I got asked recently by a Stanford frosh about how to graduate early from college.

My response: don't do it. If I could've stayed in undergrad for eight years, I might've.

But there's a common syndrome amongst Stanford undergrads (and surely, at those of other institutions as well): we don't know how to stop. We're so used to being academic overachievers in high school - whether that be through coursework, research, or independent pursuits - that the first thing we ask is; how can I go beyond what is normal. We frosh get told that people start with CS106A, so we start with 106X. We frosh get told that people join 2 clubs, so we join 8. And somehow, we frosh get told that people graduate in four years, so we're ready to graduate in three.

I understand that mindset; in fact, if freshman me read this post, he would've brushed it aside. But here's the truth about college: it's this wonderful, magical, place to grow, that you'll rarely find out there in the world. You live down the hall from hundreds of your closest friends; you have events flooding into your inbox; you have the obligation to learn something new every day. You can get to know people incredibly well, incredibly quickly.

It's not something that should be rushed; it should be savored. So, with those caveats, here's what young Daniel would've wanted to know:

I attended Stanford from 2018-2020, and Spring 2022, after which, I conferred my Bachelor's in CS (AI track) and a math minor. I graduated in, by my reckoning, 2.5 years. Here's what I did:

TLDR

Transfer in credits, take lots of classes, and take courses that count.

What do you actually need to get done?

To graduate, you need to fulfill an overall unit requirement, the general education requirements, and the major requirements.

At Stanford, my overall unit requirement was 225 units. A single class ranges from 3-8 units, depending on how intensive the course is. Students are capped at 22 units per quarter, so 66 units in an academic year. Stanford allows you to transfer in up to 45 units, for previously completed AP or dual enrollment courses.

Our general education requirements are pretty flexible: many classes are certified to fulfill WAYS requirements, and you just have to make sure your classes check off all the boxes by the time you graduate. If you're a humanities major, you might need to take some electives to satisfy the hard sciences WAYS, and vice versa.

For my degree, I had to do the engineering/CS core, the CS track requriements, and 8 math electives for the math minor.

Transfer credits:

I took classes at my local university, UCF, while in high school. These were pretty scattered, and relatively few of them transferred in as something useful. However, they Here's the classes I took, and what they transferred in as.

Semester	UCF Course	Course Name	Equivalency
2016 Fall	CHM 2210	Organic Chemistry I	CHEM 35
2016 Fall	PHI 2101	Formal Logic I	PHIL 151
2017 Spring	MAC 2313	Calc W Analytical Geometry III	MATH 51
2017 Spring	MHF 3301	Logic and Proof in Mathematics	Math Elective
2017 Spring	PHI 2108	Critical Thinking
2017 Summer	HSC 4652	Health Law and Ethics
2017 Summer	WST 3015	Intro to Women's Studies
2017 Fall	CHM 2211	Organic Chemistry II	CHEM 141
2017 Fall	MAA 4226	Advanced Calculus I	Math Elective
2017 Fall	MAS 3105	Matrix and Linear Algebra	MATH 52
2018 Spring	MAP 2302	Ordinary Differential Equations I	MATH 53
2018 Spring	PHI 3131	Formal Logic II	PHIL 151
2018 Spring	ZOO 3744	Neurobiology

AP Transfer Credits

Similarly, here's my relevant high school AP classes, and what they transferred in as.

AP Course	Equivalency	Graduation Requirement
AP Calculus BC	Math 19, 20, 21	CS Core
AP Physics C	Physics 41, 43	CS Core
AP Chemistry	CHEM 33	CS Core
AP Latin	Classics 1L, 2L, 3L	Language Requirement

My Schedule

And finally, here's the actual classes I took at Stanford!

Semester	Course	Course Name	Graduation Requirement
2018 Fall	CHEM 35	Organic Chemistry II
2018 Fall	CS 106B	Programming Abstractions	CS Core
2018 Fall	EE 14N	Things About Stuff	WAYS: SMA
2018 Fall	ESF 8	Recognizing the Self	WAYS: ER
2018 Winter	BIO 124	Topics in Cancer Biology
2018 Winter	COMPLIT 100	Capitals: How Cities Shape Cultures	WAYS: AII
2018 Winter	CS 107E	Computer Systems	CS Core
2018 Winter	CS 193A	Android Programming
2018 Winter	CS 421	Designing AI for Wellbeing
2018 Winter	ENGR 117	Expanding Engineering Limits	CS Core
2018 Winter	MATH 152	Elementary Number Theory	Math Elective
2019 Spring	CS 103	Mathematical Foundations of Computing	CS Core
2019 Spring	CS 109	Introduction to Probability	CS Core
2019 Spring	CS 231N	Convolutional Neural Networks	CS Elective
2019 Spring	DANCE 46	Social Dance I	WAYS: CE
2019 Spring	MATH 113	Linear Algebra and Matrix Theory	Math Elective
2019 Spring	MED 199	Undergraduate Research
2019 Fall	CS 110	Principles of Computer Systems	CS Core
2019 Fall	CS 221	AI: Principles and Techniques	CS Elective
2019 Fall	CS 236	Deep Generative Models	CS Elective
2019 Fall	DANCE 147	Social Dance II	WAYS: CE
2019 Fall	ENGR 40M	Intro to EE	CS Core
2019 Fall	PHIL 133S	Heidegger and Mysticism	WAYS: AII
2019 Winter	CS 161	Design and Analysis of Algorithms	CS Core
2019 Winter	CS 199	Undergraduate Research
2019 Winter	CS 224N	Natural Language Processing	CS Elective
2019 Winter	EMED 227	Healthcare Leadership	WAYS: SI
2020 Spring	CS 229	Machine Learning	CS Elective
2020 Spring	MATH 120	Groups and Rings	Math Elective
2020 Spring	MATH 146	Analysis on Manifolds	Math Elective
2020 Spring	MATH 159	Discrete Probabilistic Methods	Math Elective
2020 Spring	MATH 171	Fundamental Concepts of Analysis	Math Elective
2020 Spring	MATH 228	Stochastic Methods	Math Elective
2020 Spring	PWR 2STA	Ethics and AI
2021 Winter	CS 191W	Writing Intensive Senior Project	CS Elective
2022 Spring	CS 142	Web Applications
2022 Spring	ECON 249	Topics in Health Economics
2022 Spring	HISTORY 224F	Innovations in Inclusive Design	WAYS: SI

Hope that's helpful! Also, I'm happy to chat with any current or incoming Stanford students; just shoot me an email!