By Sadie Urtz
In highschool, I completed my two year associate’s degree along with my regular highschool degree so, when I came into college, I was already a junior. Now I am a 19-year old senior and I’d like to share my opinion on graduating early.
I thought for the longest time (all of highschool) that I would want to graduate college as quickly as possible and start having a real job and a “real life” as fast as I could.
Now I am on the fence on whether or not I made the best decision.
Coming into college as a junior, I was immediately put into difficult, major specific classes with people two or three years older than me. Not having any gen-eds to complete was so much more difficult than I anticipated. I changed my major three times because the classes were so specific I couldn’t even tell if I liked the majors or not prior to getting into the meat of the classes.
I’m now graduating with a communications degree, and I am pretty happy with that decision seeing as I found interest in advertising. Prior to communications I tried business economics and healthcare management. Although I did eventually get the hang of the class load as a young junior and a young senior, it was definitely not what I anticipated.
The hardest part however was the friends I made. Coming to Cortland, I met so many amazing people and I clicked with many people in my classes. Unfortunately, most of them were graduating and leaving, or a good bit older than me. Most of my best friends here are all 21 and 22, graduating and moving away from Cortland and I am still a teenager who will be stuck in this town trying to figure out what to do without them.
When you’re put into upper level courses, there are not many other people the same age to connect with. While I am so grateful for the friends I have made, the age gap has made it difficult for us to all be on the same page all the time.
On a positive note finally, I can confidently say I don’t regret graduating early for a few reasons. First and foremost, I will be saving money. I will be saving two years worth of tuition as well as all the other expenses that come along with that. Saving money was a large reason I took so many classes in highschool. I also do enjoy the fact that I will be able to get a “real job” pretty soon into the future. While I don’t know where I will be or when it will happen, I do enjoy having a jumpstart in that aspect.
I don’t think I made the wrong choice graduating two years early, but I will be certainly missing all the friends I’ve made here at SUNY Cortland, and I wish I had more time to make more memories.