Graduating College Early is Absolutely Worth It

Guest Article by Tatiana Gallardo

At around 11:47 AM last Monday morning, I turned in my last final exam for my last class of college, wished my professor a happy New Year, and walked out of the academic building as a newfound college graduate. It was, in all its unexpected weirdness, the most anticlimactic milestone of my life.  

After 3 and a half years of “discovering myself” at Fordham University, I was done. But the thing they don’t tell you about graduating a semester early is that it’s shockingly uncelebratory. You hand in your last final and suddenly, you’re technically done with undergrad forever, without the class-wide excitement and cap and gown ceremony. 

While I was a little disappointed by this sudden sense of finality, I was also insanely happy. It was time for the real world! A new adult life! A full-time job! No more homework! Goodbye, ten-page papers! Hell freakin’ YEAH! Who cares about an anticlimactic finish when you’re saving thousands in the process? Both financially and personally, graduating early was one of the best decisions of my college career. 

My opinion, however, comes with a major disclaimer: I went to school in New York City and had zero connection to any campus community. At Fordham’s Lincoln Center “campus,” we go to class in a single building right in Manhattan. There’s no game days, no Greek life, no real school spirit. And I loved every second of this atypical college experience. 

When I moved to Manhattan and got mixed into the metropolitan masses, I quickly felt more like an adult than a student. Instead of going to parties, I was bar-hopping with 9-to-5ers and networking on nights out. As I began to intern during school semesters, I realized that getting paid to do work I enjoy is a heck of a lot more enjoyable than grinding in the library for zero pay. 

While my city lifestyle won’t be that different post-graduation, the diploma marks a huge accomplishment. All the labor, the all-nighters, the classes were worth it. I am graduating Magna Cum Laude a semester early feeling more hungry and determined to land my dream job than ever before. 

And that’s one of the biggest beauties about early graduation: I get to have a semester to figure my life out and finally take that break my parents have been begging me to take since the stress of balancing internships, side jobs, school, and social life first began. I’m excited to have a semester to work on creative projects that I’ve always wanted to do and travel to wherever I want (and can afford) without the academic commitments squashing my plans. 

If I was going to be dramatic, which I most definitely am, I’d compare graduating early to going out at sea for a solo sail, except you’ve never sailed a ship in your entire life. Expectedly, you’re a little clueless. The future is unknown, the how-to manual nonexistent. Overwhelmingly, you’re glowing with excitement. The open sea is beautiful and big, and it’s exclusively yours to sail and swim for an entire semester. It’s half vacation, half vocation. With early graduation, you get to have time to figure it out, to learn the ropes, to sail to your career dreams.

College is awesome. You grow up; you learn what you fear, what you love, what you need. I feel so blessed and privileged to have experienced it and now I’m saying good-bye to it, more grateful than I am glum.