Graduating high school a semester or a year early is an option for all students at this school who have met Indiana’s Core 40 diploma requirements, but few students choose to do so. Rather, most say they want to participate in high school sports and other extracurriculars, take advanced classes and fun electives alike, pad their college applications and enjoy the social experiences of senior year. 

But for junior Bhavi Vishnumolakala, who plans to graduate a full year early and is currently in her final year here, cutting her time in high school down has opened up new opportunities.

“(Graduating early) really works with what I want to do. Ideally, I want to take a gap year. I’m not taking one between high school and college but I was thinking between college and graduate school,” she said. “So, would I be here for an extra year and do nothing or is it better for me to get out and do what I already know that I want to do?”

Vishnumolakala is unique. According to counselor Kevin McDonough, most students who choose to graduate early do so only a semester early to take a college course (most often at Ivy Tech Community College), work many hours to save money for college, go on a mission trip or volunteer for a service-oriented organization. 

“For some students that are ready to move on to that next level, whether it be getting a full time job or one of those other experiences, (graduating early) might be beneficial for them,” he said. 

Early graduation also means less choice for students. Senior Shreya Krishnan, who considered graduating early but ultimately decided against it, said she wasn’t willing to give up scheduling flexibility during her junior and senior years. 

“It’s a lot of extra courses that you have to take that are the core courses. So, you don’t have time to take electives, and obviously, electives are a lot of fun to do. For me, it didn’t make sense because I’d have to give up a lot of things that I really love doing in high school,” she said. 

Indiana’s Core 40 diploma requirements specify students must take, among other courses, economics, government and eight semesters of English to graduate, which are traditionally completed during their senior years. Other diplomas, including the Core 40 with Academic Honors Diploma and the Core 40 with Technical Honors Diploma, require 47 credits to graduate.

McDonough said the opportunity to take these additional classes, and/or classes at a higher level of difficulty, shouldn’t be skipped lightly, especially if students have no plans to fill the time. 

“Graduating early just to graduate early, and not doing anything different in those six months, I don’t think that’s necessarily a good reason to do it because you’re missing out on other potential classes that might prepare you for college,” he said. “You’re only in high school once, so you’re missing out on one more semester of experiences and activities.”

According to Vishnumolakala, who said she plans to go to medical school for pediatrics with a focus on public health and policy, graduating early can eliminate a “buffer” year for students who are motivated to pursue their dreams for the future. 

“I’ve reached everything that I want to reach within my activities, my extracurriculars, my grades and my testing scores. I know this is kind of pessimistic, but there’s nowhere else for me to go. I’ve peaked as much as I could in high school,” she said. 

Krishnan said a major reason for her decision not to graduate early was that the intense demands of junior year, when she and many other students have their most rigorous course load, didn’t give her enough time to complete college applications. 

“You have senior schedule, so when you start doing apps everything is so much easier than having to deal with a full schedule of insanely hard classes that you haven’t put yourself through before,” Krishnan said. 

However, Vishnumolakala said besides including an extra statement on her Common App, the process was no more difficult than it was for students graduating in four years, and her experience even made her a stronger applicant. 

She said, “Even in my college interviews, (graduating early has) been a pretty hefty topic of conversation, but it’s usually been good things. It does get a lot of praise, even though I would argue it’s easier to graduate early than stay another year.”

McDonough said applications are slightly different for seniors graduating a semester early who plan to immediately go to college (starting in January), which they must indicate on their Common App. 

“That becomes sometimes difficult (because) a lot of times you won’t qualify for financial aid during that term. That could affect your financial aid for the next year and your status for whether you’re a first year or second year student,” he said. “But the timeline for applying is going to be very similar.”

Vishnumolakala said counselors like McDonough encouraged and supported her endeavor to graduate early and guided her through the application process, especially since she was so confident in her decision. 

“There was little to no advertising on (graduating early), so even if students wanted to do this, not many of them know it’s an option, so that’s one shortcoming of the CHS resources,” she said. “But once I decided that I wanted to do it, the help was so easy, it was great. They were super helpful, very comforting, they knew what to do, and it was a super fast process.”

McDonough said while some additional opportunities open up to students who graduate early, like the one-time $4,000 Mitch Daniels Early Graduation Scholarship, they also lose chances to earn college credit with AP and IB courses, making it not always in their best interest. 

“We’re going to look at (early graduation) on an individual basis,” he said. “There is a form a student has to fill out and you have to have a meeting with a counselor, and usually the principal’s involved with that as well, to make sure they meet all graduation requirements.”

From a more social perspective, Krishnan said she didn’t want to miss out on quintessential high school experiences by graduating early. McDonough said while mid-year graduates couldn’t participate in spring extracurriculars or go to prom without an invitation from a current student, they could choose if they wanted to walk the stage at graduation or not. 

Provided they have prepared properly, Vishnumolakala said graduating early is a good option for students who have gotten all they can, socially and academically, from high school. 

She said, “There’s two misconceptions. You either think that I’m really lazy or you think that I’m really, really smart, and it’s neither of those. Graduating early is not super difficult to do, but it does take effort and it does take proactiveness.”