As seniors reach the halfway mark of the school year, some look forward to the last semester of their high school experience, whereas others, like Mike Young, just want to “get out.” Here are three seniors who have decided to graduate early.

Mike Young

Reason for graduating early: planning to work and go to college in the fall at the Universal Technical Institute

Q: What is your main reason for graduating high school early?
A: I’m [graduating early] to get a jump-start in my career [as a mechanic]. I’m already getting a job in my field and I’m studying that as soon as I get out. When I realized I had the opportunity to graduate early, I thought it would be better to get money.

Q: What did you do to be able to graduate early in terms of credits?
A: I didn’t take too many study halls during my freshman, sophomore, junior year, and it helped out in the end.

Q: In your opinion, what are the benefits of graduating early?
A: I think [graduating early] will help me get ready for college. I think it’s good that I can start my career a lot earlier and it will help because in my field, experience plays into a lot into job opportunities. The more I can get the better.

Kathy Wojtala

Reason for graduating early: never felt “high school was her time”, attending classes, in January, at Harper college

Q: Why did you decide to graduate early to go to college?
A: I feel like I will get a better education than what I’m offered here. Looking farther down the roads to graduating college, I could cut off a year to save me more money.

Q: How do you feel about the high school experience?
A: Some people do like the high school experience, but for me, personally, it wasn’t about the memories. Honestly [high school] is not as beneficial as I liked it to be, and I felt like I could put the year to much better use than staying here and being told the same twenty things over and over again.

Q: What is advice you would tell someone who is thinking of graduating early?
A: Don’t make it your first choice [and] make sure you actually think it through before you sign off on it. At the end of the day, colleges will base you off of that choice.

Sean Brown

Reason for graduating early: hoping to work to save money to attend his dream school at Northern Illinois University

Q: How do think the time off will help you as a student?
A: [The time off] will help because I’ll have more time to go to colleges and see what I like so it will help with the decision process for college. It also gives you a better feel about what you want to do.

Q: How were you able to graduate early from school?
A: You just have to keep up with your credits throughout the year. This year I am taking an online math and two English [courses].

Q: What are some positives and negatives to graduating early?
A: One of the positives is that you are less stressed throughout the year. College already adds stress to your year, so if you get out early, you don’t have to worry about high school for that second semester. This isn’t the case for me, but some colleges require the full four year of math and science.