Is graduating a semester early a rich kid trend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They took a lot of Ap classes that transferred to college. It is a smart thing, not a class thing.

APs is a class thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I graduated 3 semesters early because I was poor, not because I was rich. I wouldn’t let my kids graduate in December because it’s the wrong time for the job search markets for top entry level positions.

Fake poor. Real poor kids work and take 7 years to graduate.

[Anonymous]

Mine is graduating two semesters early this spring and it’s both a blessing and a curse. Saves him a pile of money but he’ll miss that senior year experience. He’s considering doing a year of grad school near his campus. If not, he may try to find his first job in the same city and get to be near his friends for the last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I graduated 3 semesters early because I was poor, not because I was rich. I wouldn’t let my kids graduate in December because it’s the wrong time for the job search markets for top entry level positions.

Fake poor. Real poor kids work and take 7 years to graduate.

True, many do. My state had a program where I was allowed to go to community college night school during junior and senior year, so I left high school with almost two years of credit. Then I tested out of more classes (CLEP). I could pay my rent and cheap in-state tuition nannying part time since my college was in a low COL town. This was in the early aughts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine is graduating two semesters early this spring and it’s both a blessing and a curse. Saves him a pile of money but he’ll miss that senior year experience. He’s considering doing a year of grad school near his campus. If not, he may try to find his first job in the same city and get to be near his friends for the last year.

Your son is graduating early without a plan? Interesting. I'd assume kids doing this would be the eager beaver super overachievers who have step-by-step grad school or job offer in hand they're eager to begin.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if kids who do this will regret it 10 or 20 years down the line? Like that whole eager to grow up thing, undergrad is soooo lame and passe.

...then in 20 years you realize how much fun and carefree college was.

Don't get me wrong, rather have our children graduate early than take 5 6 7 years to finish. But I don't really get the rush to finish and leave campus in 3 or 3.5 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if kids who do this will regret it 10 or 20 years down the line? Like that whole eager to grow up thing, undergrad is soooo lame and passe.

...then in 20 years you realize how much fun and carefree college was.

Don't get me wrong, rather have our children graduate early than take 5 6 7 years to finish. But I don't really get the rush to finish and leave campus in 3 or 3.5 years.

I graduated college in 93. I finished in 3 years. I don’t remember how much fun and carefree college was. It was just college.

[Anonymous]

I graduated a semester "early," but I used that time to spend an extra 6 months abroad after my Jr Year semester abroad. The extra credits were from APs and summer school.

I wasn't rich ... in fact doing it this way saved me money, because a big chunk of my tuition was waived during the study abroad semester since I chose a cheap state-school program, then I had no tuition the semester I took off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if kids who do this will regret it 10 or 20 years down the line? Like that whole eager to grow up thing, undergrad is soooo lame and passe.

...then in 20 years you realize how much fun and carefree college was.

Don't get me wrong, rather have our children graduate early than take 5 6 7 years to finish. But I don't really get the rush to finish and leave campus in 3 or 3.5 years.

I graduated college in 93. I finished in 3 years. I don’t remember how much fun and carefree college was. It was just college.

agree. the fun and carefree time was studying and living abroad, and AFTER college. school is not freeing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine is graduating two semesters early this spring and it’s both a blessing and a curse. Saves him a pile of money but he’ll miss that senior year experience. He’s considering doing a year of grad school near his campus. If not, he may try to find his first job in the same city and get to be near his friends for the last year.

Your son is graduating early without a plan? Interesting. I'd assume kids doing this would be the eager beaver super overachievers who have step-by-step grad school or job offer in hand they're eager to begin.

Grad school was the plan but compression into 3 years has left him a little fried. Said he thinks he wants to work for a while before tackling more school. He’s actively job searching and has some good prospects but nothing is firm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if kids who do this will regret it 10 or 20 years down the line? Like that whole eager to grow up thing, undergrad is soooo lame and passe.

...then in 20 years you realize how much fun and carefree college was.

Don't get me wrong, rather have our children graduate early than take 5 6 7 years to finish. But I don't really get the rush to finish and leave campus in 3 or 3.5 years.

Meh. Many are over it by senior year. They live off-campus and don’t do the school activities or attend on-campus parties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if kids who do this will regret it 10 or 20 years down the line? Like that whole eager to grow up thing, undergrad is soooo lame and passe.

...then in 20 years you realize how much fun and carefree college was.

Don't get me wrong, rather have our children graduate early than take 5 6 7 years to finish. But I don't really get the rush to finish and leave campus in 3 or 3.5 years.

It’s not carefree at all when your parents aren’t paying. I had to patch together some pretty iffy living situations to get to the finish line.

[Anonymous]

Huh? My kid transferred in 30+ AP credits. This obviously *saves* us money in the long run and he can start working sooner.

How is this a rich kid strategy?

If we’re going with fun stereotypes, wouldn’t a rich kid stay in college longer and live it up on daddy’s dime?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They took a lot of Ap classes that transferred to college. It is a smart thing, not a class thing.

APs is a class thing.

Again, early graduation is a donut hole thing.

Poorer kids get scholarships if they are top candidates (or great financial aid at top schools with no expectation of family contributions) or if they aren’t superstars they have to live at home and work full time while going to community college then hopefully transfer to a university.

Really rich kids don’t care about the extra time and do things like take extra classes for a second major in art history or literature, study abroad, work on research for a thesis, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like a PP, I had AP credits and met the graduation criteria a semester early. Not wealthy. I wanted to save my family money and get a job. First in my family with a college degree.

Same here. Broke as a MF joke, worked 3 jobs took 18 hour semesters, AP and summer school to get my BA in 3 years.