how i fast tracked my uni career, completing in 2 and a half years

a breakdown of how i compressed my university timeline, stacked transfer credits, and planned to finish in 2 and a half years.

courses

the main idea was simple: i kept full course loads during fall and winter, used summer terms aggressively, and layered in transfer credits when they made sense for my degree plan.

fall 2023

• CIS1910
• CIS1300
• MATH1160
• MATH1200
• MCS1000

winter 2024

• CIS2910
• CIS2500
• HROB2010
• CIS1050
• STAT2040

summer 2024

• MCS2100
• NUTR1010
• FRHD1010
• MGMT2150

work: undergraduate research assistant

fall 2024

• CIS2030
• CIS2430
• CIS2520
• FRHD1100

work: undergraduate research assistant and teaching assistant

winter 2025

• CIS3750
• CIS2750
• CIS3190
• CIS3490

i originally tried taking operating systems at guelph in winter 2025, but i dropped it because the prof was rlly cooked. it was probably the worst course i had taken so far: lecture slides had tons of errors, and some assignments looked like they came from a different university 23 years ago. after dropping it, i started looking for options to take OS elsewhere and ended up retaking it in the summer at uottawa.

some stories and ratings.

work: teaching assistant

credits achieved: 11.5 credits

summer 2025

university of guelph

• FRHD1020
• MGMT3300
• MGMT3100
• SPMT1120
• SPMT1020

university of waterloo

• CS349: user interface

university of ottawa

• CPI3131: operating systems

yes, seven courses, and that was not it. i was also working as an undergraduate research assistant, working part time as a software engineer at B&B AI, and keeping side projects moving.

work: undergraduate research assistant and part-time swe at B&B AI

credits achieved: 15 credits

fall 2025

university of guelph

• CIS3150
• CIS3760
• CIS4150
• CIS3090

university of waterloo

• CS346
• CS449

the workload stayed heavy in fall too: part-time software engineer at B&B AI, teaching assistant for MCS2000 in person and distance education, frontend developer for hackcanada, and a few side projects.

work: part-time swe at B&B AI, MCS2000 teaching assistant, and hackcanada frontend developer

hub incubator program: 1k grant

credits achieved: 18 credits

winter 2026

work term: td bank

university of guelph

• CIS4900: research project, online with John Akinyemi
• CIS4650
• CIS3700

for CIS4900, i worked on CS Learning Map: a "google maps for learning" style platform that builds adaptive prerequisite paths through computer science concepts using bayesian knowledge tracing, prerequisite graphs, and a decision policy for advancing, remediating, or rerouting learners. the project is on github.

credits achieved: 19.5 credits

summer 2026

my plan for my final semester was to take ENVS2210: apiculture & honey bee biology at the university of guelph, apply for credit/no credit, aim for 50 percent, and just get the credit. i kinda forgot about that plan and ended up with an 88, which is how i ended my university career.

work: software developer intern at tangerine

by the numbers

• 20 credits across the full degree plan.
• 9 terms from fall 2023 to summer 2026.
• 3 universities: guelph, waterloo, and ottawa.
• 13 courses across summer 2025 and fall 2025 alone.

normal path vs mine

the normal guelph cs schedule without co-op is designed across 8 semesters. it spreads the core courses, area of emphasis, and electives across the regular fall and winter rhythm so students can move through prerequisites in order.

the big difference is that the official path is paced for 8 semesters, while mine ran year-round and pulled in waterloo and ottawa whenever guelph timing got in the way. the course load was heavier, but the harder part was stacking it with research, TA work, part-time software engineering, hackcanada, side projects, a TD work term, and a Tangerine internship.