Finishing high school a semester early sounds appealing, but in reality, few students choose this path. On average there are about five people who graduate early each year, going up or down only by one.
The impact on early graduates depends on the person. “The impact could go either way. I have seen kids that didn’t regret it and kids that have,” counselor Abby Kinsey said. She also believes that it’s a good idea that kids who graduate early have a plan for what to do next.
One person out of the five that are graduating a semester early is Senior Maloi Lannan. The reason she has decided to graduate early is that “since freshman year I wanted to graduate a year early, but didn’t want to miss out on important opportunities, such as events happening that I could attend,” Lannan said.
Lannan does have a plan for when she does graduate early. “My hope is to go into a military academy and if I’m not selected, because they can be picky at times, then I am going to try to attend ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps),” Lannan said. Some of the colleges she plans on hopefully being accepted into are Boise State, Oregon State, or Montana State.
Social studies teacher Bryan Beitel has a unique perspective on early graduation because his son Baylor Beitel finished a semester early last year.“I wanted Baylor to finish out the second semester of high school, but he got a really good opportunity in Bozeman doing Fiber Optics work that seems to be working out really well for him,” Beitel said. Beitel is happy for Baylor and the opportunity that was presented to him. “I’m not a big fan of students graduating early because it seems that students miss out on a lot of opportunities during high school, but some get better opportunities when graduating early for college and other things, so I understand,” Beitel said.
The trends so far for early graduates seem to be the same. There are five early graduates this year. All early graduates this year have a plan for what they are doing after they graduate a semester early.