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Comment on Ask HN: Is taking an extra 'light' semester in grad school worth it?parent

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Thanks for your reply!

You are right in stating that GTech/UTA/CMU encourage a 3 semester graduation, and Stanford, Princeton go for a 2 year max. In fact, the minimum credit structure per semester is such that you will necessarily have completed in 2 years and graduate.

The reason I was allowed to have a lower credit per semester was because I was employed as a research assistant (which is usually for PhD's and is not granted to masters students who are expected to do courses), which makes it so that if I just maintained my status and did not overload courses, I would graduate in 5 semesters.

My question was on the fact that I could graduate in 4 if I wanted by taking an extra course this semester( I could have in 3 but that would have led to either compromising on the quality of my studies or of the research). However, as outlined above, I worry about whether this is the wisest thing to do or not.

Again, thank you for replying to this, it really helps. I have the skill set to get through programming interviews, and a couple of publications to show that my time in research has not been wasted. I was worried though, whether it would still be seen as a sign of not being proactive / being slow or uninspired.

I hope I don't come across as arguing, I was just giving a view of my situation. Thank you for replying!

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