typical time to get a student visa?

Based on experiences, how long should it take for me to get a student visa?

I want to apply in early May in case there's a problem since Jmaster911 will be sponsoring me here. I will be going for my last visit to the UK on May 26th. I won't need the visa til late July, but I'll need my passport back to travel. That's a 3 week window for them - is that enough time?

Thanks!

Hi pittpanther36,
I think a lot of it depends on how straight-forward your application is but I can share my experience, which could be different because I didn't have a sponsor (the financial documents you must provide are different I think).  It took 10 working days from when my completed application arrived in LA for my student visa/passport to be mailed back to me.  This was in early Dec and my course started in early Jan so I left about 4 weeks.  I don't know if you have seen this website, but they have a 'current visa processing time' ticker that might be helpful, as well as a lot of other info: http://www.britainusa.com/visas/visas.asp [nofollow]
One thing that worried me at the time was that somewhere on the site after the efast track process they said that they would keep you updated about the progress of your application and I didn't recieve any- not even when it had been approved, which to my I delight I found out when it arrived at my door unexpectedly.  As I said, the time depends on the case but if you send them everything they want so they don't need to clarify anything that will help.  I hope everything works out for you, good luck!