As exemplified in many television shows and movies, the senior year of high school is the most exciting year and many seniors want to make the most out of it by completing a full senior year.

However, others are considering a different path: early graduation.
While seniors graduating early seems like a common affair, typically only about “four percent of the senior population go through with it,” guidance counselor Tina Mitchell said.
With graduating at semester comes obvious advantages, including being more independent with regards to time management and being able to work more often to save money for college.

But with all this freedom and extra money comes immediate responsibility.

Molly Morgan is one of many seniors who graduated early this year.

“I wanted to graduate early so I could get an early start on my education,” Morgan said.  “It was good to graduate early and get money coming in like I did.”

While Morgan notices the advantages of graduating early, she also agrees that there are downsides as well.

“I got separated from my class and I wasn’t up to date on things that were happening with my peers,” Morgan said. “However, I am still very satisfied with graduating early.”

Senior Jazzy Stewart also graduated early this year.

“I wanted to graduate early because my parents own a catering business and my mom recently just got diagnosed with fibromyalgia,” Stewart said. “She was tired and sick all the time so that left my dad with a lot of work. Graduating early let me work full time and help them.”

Similar to Morgan, Stewart agrees that there are positive and negative aspects to graduating early.

“[Some] graduating early pros for me were not waking up early, [not having] homework, [being able] to save money, and [being able] to help my parents,” Stewart said. “ [Some] cons were definitely that I lost touch with most of my friends, and I had to grow up a lot faster than most seniors did.”

Stewart did not realize she was graduating early until the end of her junior year.

In Kansas, a student must have 21 credits to graduate. This includes four credits of English, three credits of mathematics, three credits of science, three credits of history/government, one credit of physical education, six credits of electives and one credit of fine arts.

Since seniors must achieve this set amount of credits, this meant extra classes her senior year.

“My senior year I had to take two English courses, two social studies [courses], and two math classes in one semester,” Stewart said. “Talk about overload.”

Morgan and Stewart did not graduate early for the fun of it; they had plans. And, as Mitchell said, “Anyone wanting to graduate early needs to have a plan and consider why they want to do it.”