A multi-month headstart on the rest of one’s class can be exactly what students who graduate early are looking for. Graduating early provides a plethora of opportunities for students who want to take the next step in their career; despite this, only 12% percent of students choose to go that route. While sometimes there are barriers, if students are playing a sport or planning on furthering their education, for students going to tech school or straight into the workforce, it’s an underrated way to get a jump start on life. 

The biggest reason people should look into graduating early is the time it saves. School takes up over seven hours a day, and for many students their second semester is filled with senior leave and gym classes anyways. If this time was spent working or at a tech school, students could make about $750 a week, or learn skilled trades which could exponentially increase their earning potential. 

Not only is the time valuable, but as a high school senior students are most likely living with their parents. This allows students to save and invest heavily before they are burdened with rent and other expenses of being an independent adult. For students who are serious about learning the trades, and who might not enjoy high school, the choice is obvious. 

Despite this, the choice is not always there, many times these students are not eligible to graduate early because of not having the foresight to see early graduation as an option. Whether it’s a missing English credit or too many resources/leaves, students should be aware of how their choices may affect their ability to start early, and decisions regarding early graduation should be made sooner. 

Once making that decision however, it’s crucial that early grads do capitalize on their time. With a newfound freedom it can become easy to make unfavorable decisions. However, the students who do it right, the people who are determined and focused, almost always will have an edge over people doing the same thing, just multiple months later.