By the time Berkeley High School students get to the start of their senior year, many wish high school was over. For some, this is actually possible! Every year, several BHS students graduate early. It may sound difficult to some, but for those with enough persistence, dedication, and hard work, it can be an incredible opportunity.
To graduate early, BHS students need to take additional classes outside of their typical classes to acquire the required number of credits earlier than usual. Most students who aim to graduate early take dual enrollment classes in the Peralta Community College District to earn these credits, specifically at Berkeley City College. This significantly increases their workload because they need to simultaneously complete the regular courses, the extra courses, and, if they want to go to college immediately after graduation, college applications. Graduating early is difficult, but it can be an enormous benefit to those who manage it
While it can be easy to assume that graduating early will be a benefit to your college application, this isn’t entirely true. Generally, colleges will look at the transcript of a student who has graduated early the same way as one who didn’t. If an early graduate’s grades suffer because of the additional coursework, the fact that they graduated early will not make up for that. In addition, taking the additional courses required to graduate early often means doing fewer extracurricular activities, which can also hurt college applications.
However, there are also many positives to graduating early, the most prominent being that it gets students ahead of their peers. Even if the college the early graduate wants to attend does not provide a path for them to enroll immediately after graduating early, they can attend community college in the interim period. If the four-year college they are planning to go to lets them transfer those grades, it can enable them to complete some of their college general education requirements early, allowing them to graduate college earlier than their peers by a semester. This would give them a head-start in finding a job.
In addition, there are scholarships only available to students who graduate high school early. For example, the Texas First Program provides Texan early high school graduates a scholarship to some colleges. Because fewer people are eligible, they are often a lot easier to get than regular scholarships, so early graduates may find the cost of college to be less, another motivation to pursue early high school graduation.
Unfortunately, a large drawback of early graduation is missing out on the spring semester of your senior year. Those few months contain several communal events for seniors such as the senior sunset and senior ditch day. Missing out on these social gatherings is unfortunate for early graduates. However, the most notable detriment to an early graduation is not having a graduation ceremony where students receive their diploma, instead getting it in the mail. The graduation ceremony is one of the most important parts of the high school experience to many, and the memories and pictures of that day often stick with students for years. Losing that is a significant price to pay for graduating early.
Overall, there are many benefits and drawbacks to graduating early from high school. However, for students who are up for the challenge, it can absolutely be worth it. For some, the opportunity to get a head start on college and spend less money on it is well worth giving up some events for seniors and the high school graduation ceremony. By graduating early, students have the chance to become fully-fledged adults slightly before their peers, and if they are ready for it, the opportunity could be priceless to their futures.
Additionally, students who graduate early have complete control over their lives, meaning they don't need to go to college but can have a gap semester in which they work, travel the world, or do anything they want while still joining their peers in college at the same time they would have if they graduated on the regular schedule. By graduating early, students have the chance to become fully fledged adults slightly before their peers, and if they are ready for it, the opportunity could be priceless.