Dilemmas, Dilemmas, Dilemmas

I've been thinking a lot about a lot of different stuff lately, such as deciding which possible schedule combination I should register in out of the two or three possible ones I've devised for September, whether or not I want to go to Paris for a third-year exchange to accelerate on the road to bilingualism and thereby greatly improve my chances of excellent employment in the public service (as well as embracing the opportunity to revel in my favourite world city), or whether I'd rather go to India on the Ontario-Goa-Maharashtra exchange program instead to experience and learn about the socio-politics of the largest democracy in the world (and one of the few mature ones in the developing world), how best to minimize procrastination, whether or not I will pass my upcoming road test, and a number of other things that I'd rather not publicize.

Interestingly, upon examining a recent degree audit I generated for myself, I have discovered that, owing to my decision to take 2.0 credits this summer, I will reach third year standing by winter 2009, providing that I take a full load of 2.5 credits this fall. That means I am almost a semester ahead of everyone who didn't want to bother taking courses in the may-august session (as I will have completed 6.0 credits by the end of this summer, and more than 8.5 by the end of the fall term, thus putting me into third-year standing by Janaury 2009), and potentially being able to graduate a semester before everyone else, providing that I take an additional 0.5 credit on top of my regular loads before then.

Yay. I'm awesome.

Anyways, this has prompted me to contemplate whether or not I should take an overload in the Fall in order to pull ahead even farther, and also take an overload in the winter, and even a couple courses in the Summer of 2009 if necessary, to pull ahead another semester and finish a year earlier. I figure the big "pro" of this decision is that it can allow me to start and finish grad school earlier than most people geared in that direction would, and therefore enter the workforce and start making money earlier than most others.

However, I fear that the more courses I take all at once, the lower chance of me obtaining a high enough GPA to do as well as I might like. I guess if I work hard enough, I really can do very well even if I'm taking a larger load, as even this year, I would have made it on the Dean's List if it wasn't for Economics 1000 (:@:@:@). Additionally, I wonder if finishing early would diminish the possibility of me being able to go on a year-long exchange at all--something I would definitely like to do due to the international nature of my specialization. I guess I will decide for sure by the time it comes for me to register, and speak to Elaine in the BPAPM office as well.

However, if you have any suggestions/comments/statements from past experience associated with any of these matters, please feel free to dispense them to me.

Cheers!