Photo credit to Jimmy Guest

Seniors and juniors anxiously await graduation

Senior year can be an anxious time as students desperately wait for May, when they begin a new chapter of their lives. However, students have the option to graduate at a semester earlier by obtaining all of the required graduation credits.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in the United States, less than three percent of students choose to graduate early. Although such a small amount of seniors decide to take this path, there could be many reasons why one would opt to have an earlier graduation.

Senior Vashista Chintalapalli made the decision to attend the University of Iowa in the spring, graduating early from PV. By doing this, he will be getting a head start on his college education. “I knew I wanted to pursue cinema, so starting early would give me a few months advantage to start working on that career path.”

Besides getting a head start on further education, there are several other considerations to take into account when graduating early. Without a full senior year, it is a lot easier to avoid falling into the pits of high procrastination and low motivation, otherwise known as “senioritis”. “Senioritis is hitting me,” said Chintalapalli “but not as hard as it would if I had another semester.”

Although graduating early could promote motivation, or accelerate a chosen career path, there are still plenty of setbacks. Pleasant Valley has remarkable academic opportunity, therefore, losing a whole semester would cause students to have to sacrifice classes they could have taken while still at PV. “I definitely wanted to do more.” said Chintalapalli, “I wish I took more photography or design classes my second semester.”

While academics are important, one cannot forget the extra curricular activities they would miss out on. Some activities such as basketball or track are only beginning as first semester comes to an end. When deciding whether or not to graduate early, the activities that would be forfeited must be considered.

The reasons a student would or wouldn’t choose to graduate early are different for everybody, so it is important to consider all the possible pros and cons as juniors and seniors reach the end of their high school career.