For most seniors, graduation is May 30, however, some seniors on campus are ahead of the game and will be graduating at the end of the first semester. 

It’s something only a few students do each year and takes some planning according to school counselor Ryan Kiefer. 

“It’s not difficult to graduate early, I just think it requires students to probably plan no later than their sophomore year is best because there are courses that they need to take their junior year obviously to do it, so the earlier they plan for it, the easier it is,” Kiefer said in a previous interview with Wingspan. “Not that many people graduate early, probably in the five-ish [range],  give or take.”

For students such as senior Paige Swallow, graduating early provides the chance for her to get a head start on college.

“I wanted to graduate early because I am able to save time and money,” senior Paige Swallow said. “The second semester of high school would have done nothing for me because I ran out of classes to take and I am now able to go into college with more than a years worth of credits completed.” 

The motivation to finish high school early is different for senior Elissa Williams.

“I’m graduating early because I want to use my second semester to travel for modeling and determine if I want to go to college in the fall or continue with my modeling career and put off college,” Williams said. “After graduation, I am going to do international modeling. I may start in Los Angeles for the first month and then I will go to Mexico, Portugal, Greece, or Milan; wherever my agents think I will work the most. I took two online semester courses this summer: 2nd semester Environmental Science and English 4. This allowed me to have all my credits done by December if I doubled up economics and government and I took the first semesters of APES and English.”

The second semester of senior year is filled with some notable events, but Swallow is hopeful she will still get her full senior year experience.

“After graduation I plan to go to Collin for a semester in order to save money on all my generals,” Swallow said. “I will have all my general classes done except one which I’ll get with my degree anyways. I then hope to go to BYU in June. I would say do it. I’ll still be able to walk at graduation and I’ll probably still go to prom with friends. You can still get the major events or senior year without having to actually be in attendance.”

Although graduating early takes extra work, Williams thinks it pays off.

“If anyone is thinking of graduating early, I would say it’s worth the summertime work,” Williams said. “The online classes are free to complete at your own pace which makes it easy and relaxing. Also, since you only have one semester of high school left, I recommend having as much fun as possible because you don’t want to regret anything once it’s over.”