Skipping out on senior year

“You get to say you graduated in three years,” said Shawn Wang, describing a perk of graduating early. Wang is a student in the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business who will be getting his diploma this May.

“This matters very little in academia or in social circles,” he added, “but when being compared with high achievers from other Ivy-League-type universities, it makes you stick out if you can show that you did what everyone else did in 25-percent less time with the same results GPA and extracurricular wise.”

While the majority of Penn students take the conventional path of graduating in four years, every year some choose to graduate early.

Of the students that enrolled at Penn in 2005, 0.8 percent graduated in an average of 2.75 years, according to the Office of the Provost. For classes that matriculated from 2001 to 2005, one to two percent typically graduated in less than four years.

Although there has been a slight decline in the number of students graduating early for the past few years, the “numbers are so small, such fluctuations may just be statistical noise and not mean anything,” said Robert Nelson, associate director of the Provost’s Office. Only 19-43 students graduate early from Penn per year.

“A small number of students actually end up [graduating early], but a lot more than that have the conversation about it,” said Scott Romeika, director of academic affairs and advising at the Wharton School.

Students make it work

To fulfill the requirements to graduate in less than eight semesters, it takes a “very solid student” to plan his courses carefully and to manage overloading, Romeika explained.

For example, in pursuing his dual degree in Wharton and the College in three years, Wang completed six classes in a single summer and took nine classes while studying abroad in China last spring.

In Wang’s opinion, adding an extra course to an already heavy load doesn’t necessarily affect class performance.

“I’m pretty convinced that, if you were already planning to take six courses, then taking a seventh course will not very adversely affect the original six,” he said. “And if you invest the effort to pick classes you enjoy, it really isn’t that much of a chore.”

College alumna Min Kim, who graduated last spring after three years at Penn, shared a similar experience. On top of taking at least five classes a semester, she received credits from summer internships that allowed her to finish her studies early.

Having a clear purpose

Due to the “lengthy training a career in medicine involves,” Ankur Patel chose to graduate early from the School of Engineering and Applied Science in 2008.

By finishing college in three years, “you get a head start on working towards what you are passionate about, if you know what you want to do in the future,” Patel said.

Kim, who majored in communications at Penn, plans to continue her studies in graduate school and is taking time off at home this year.

“I am definitely enjoying the extra time I have to spend preparing for graduate school,” she said. “I don’t have to stress over the huge load of schoolwork … while studying for the GRE or applying to graduate schools.”

Likewise, at Princeton University, “only students who arrive with a very clear idea of which department they wish to enter can actually take advanced standing, since they won’t have much time for exploration or electives,” said Cole Crittenden, director of studies of Whitman College at Princeton.

Financial v. social

Having completed all of his graduation requirements by the end of his junior year, Patel said he was “uneasy about spending an extra $40,000 to explore classes at Penn.”

Kim had similar concerns. “As an international student, I always had to worry about the financial burdens I put on my parents’ shoulders,” she explained. “Graduating one year early saved them a great amount of money.”

But for Kim, one disadvantage of her decision to graduate early was giving up her senior year social experience.

“I am missing out on the senior year fun that I could have enjoyed with my friends,” she said. “I can’t go on a cruise with my friends for spring break like we wanted. I won’t be walking with my class of 2010 in the graduation.”

“The biggest con [of graduating early] is that you don’t get to spend your senior year with your college friends,” Wang agreed.

“I am a strong believer that the journey matters as much as the destination, and certainly in reaching the same destination via a shorter route, you can miss out on some great times of your life,” he said. “However, I think I’ve mitigated that by being careful to be as actively involved at school as possible.”

Patel also noted that graduating early means “one less year to explore the wide variety of classes that Penn has to offer or to continue to do the extracurricular activities that may have been very impactful in your life.”

A new norm?

According to educational consultant Steven Goodman, shortening the university experience to three years could be a “real movement.”

“Whether it is the proximity to a big city or quality of theater department, universities have a long history of using their resources to maximum advantage,” he said.

“Penn can be selective about who it admits and what credits it can give out,” Goodman explained, while “schools like Juniata College in central Pennsylvania that have far less flexibility when it comes to their applicant pool” can use early graduation as a way to attract students.

The college experience is a “highly individualized process,” said College Dean of Freshmen and Director of Academic Advising Janet Tighe. And as a result, “we should remain flexible so that students can take paths that make most the sense for them.”

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.