Some incoming freshmen enter college with the assumption they’ll be graduating in four years. They carry doe-eyed notions of graduating with close friends. Unless, however, they find out they can graduate a semester early because they accrued enough college credits in high school.
At least that’s what happened to me.
After meeting with my adviser to map out my junior year, I learned that I have enough credits to no longer be part of the class of 2014 like I thought I was two years ago. I could essentially graduate in the fall semester and become part of the class of 2013. I don’t even know what to call myself now — am I sophomore or a first-semester junior?
What’s so bad about graduating early? It seems like I should be excited about having to deal with one less semester of college. It’s less expensive, and I get a head start in the workforce.
But none of that really mattered to me at that moment. I’m not even sure if it matters to me a month later. The only thing I could think of is the fact that I wouldn’t get to graduate with any of my closest friends and that I was going to have to graduate in the awkward fall commencement that no one seems to care about. Everything that I had initially thought coming in to college was just a memory.
I felt like my college experience had suddenly been cut short. During my final semester, I’ll have to take more credits in order to graduate. Needless to say I was very overwhelmed.
Ultimately I made the decision to graduate a semester early. My parents believe that it is a great idea to be able to start the job search early and are also glad they can reduce their economic burden by a couple thousand dollars.
It seems that all the advanced placement tests I took in high school actually paid off. But I still can’t help feeling that I’m losing a chunk of my life.
Making the decision to graduate a semester early was definitely not as easy and obvious as it may seem. In order to learn more about graduating early, I stumbled upon a helpful article in an online magazine geared toward women. The article focused on three young women who also faced the same decision I faced a month ago.
“The hardest part of graduating early has been saying goodbye to all of my friends,” said Christen Brandt, who graduated from Syracuse a semester early. “But in the end, it's worth it for the money I'll save and the leg up I'll (hopefully) get in applying for jobs over May graduates.”
Kelina Imumara, another Syracuse graduate, also said that graduating a semester early could be a bit awkward. It was strange when her friends went back to school and she wasn’t there. Syracuse doesn’t have a commencement for fall graduates like ASU, so she had to go back in the spring in order to “graduate with her class."
Despite the disadvantages with graduating a semester early, both graduates stated that they are glad they made the decision they did. I’m sure after going through two more semesters of college I’ll feel a bit differently about graduating early as well. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
Reach the columnist at agales@asu.edu
Follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook. Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press email newsletter.
