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Essay Samples on High School Graduation

Plans after graduation: exploring career opportunities beyond college.

Rethinking Higher Education Every year in the United States, another wave of young men and women graduate from high school to begin their adult lives. Each one tries to decide what they want to do for the rest of their life. The culture, and most...

• College Education
• High School Graduation
• Plans After High School

Continual Growth in Life After High School

Celebrating My High School Journey First off, I have to thank everyone that has helped me achieve the goals that have made me become the person I am today. Especially, my friends, faculty members, teachers, and my parents. If it weren’t for them I wouldn’t...

Fundamental Chapter of My Life: My High School Experience

It’s true when people say that high school can either be the best or worst four years of your life; For me, it was definitely a combination of both. My high school experience certainly had its highs and lows and many confusing moments in between....

• High School

Prom Night and Prom Limo Rentals as Integral Parts of Graduation

Do you want you make your child’s prom night or graduation one they'll always remember? With reasonable and dependable prom limo service in San Francisco, you can achieve this goal. A graduation or prom night is an important occasion for any youngster and as a...

The Negative Preconceptions Surrounding the Prom Night

Prom is like the Met Gala of highschool, it is your exit from highschool and it is customary to look damn good on your way out. I remember when I was a sophomore, a girl in my grade was going to prom with her cousin...

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The Search for a Suitable Limo for a Prom Night

For youngsters, prom is an extremely uncommon night, and thus, everything should keep running as easily as would be prudent. So for the individuals who choose to contract a prom limousine benefit, there are a few things that ought to be done before calling and...

How Well Do High Schools Prepare Teens for Life after Graduation

I knew that high schools did not teach teens how to do any checks, bills, etc. To begin with, did school teach you how to do any of those before you graduated? Schools do not get teens ready for the life of adulthood. I choose...

Looking Back at the Many Years of a School Life

High School takes up 720 days of our lives. 720 days of sitting at desks with people you probably won’t talk to outside of class. 720 days of waking up early with the intention of actually getting ready but then hitting the snooze button so...

My Highschool Reflections Before Graduation

Many people would tell us that our high school years “are the best years of our lives”. How when we walk across the stage in June, nothing would ever be the same, for the better or for the worst. As a graduating senior, I thought...

Best topics on High School Graduation

1. Plans After Graduation: Exploring Career Opportunities Beyond College

2. Continual Growth in Life After High School

3. Fundamental Chapter of My Life: My High School Experience

4. Prom Night and Prom Limo Rentals as Integral Parts of Graduation

5. The Negative Preconceptions Surrounding the Prom Night

6. The Search for a Suitable Limo for a Prom Night

7. How Well Do High Schools Prepare Teens for Life after Graduation

8. Looking Back at the Many Years of a School Life

9. My Highschool Reflections Before Graduation

• Importance of Education
• Elementary School
• Middle School
• Brigham Young University

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Home — Essay Samples — Education — Graduation — Life After High School: Setting Goals and Exploring Career Options

Life after High School: Setting Goals and Exploring Career Options

• Categories: Graduation High School

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Words: 701 |

Published: Sep 7, 2023

Words: 701 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

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The importance of setting life goals, the significance of career exploration.

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Prom night, a rite of passage for high school students, holds a unique significance in the American cultural landscape. It symbolizes a blend of tradition, expectations, and realities that shape the teenage experience. This [...]

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How to Graduate High School Early

Lisa Freedland is a Scholarships360 writer with personal experience in psychological research and content writing. She has written content for an online fact-checking organization and has conducted research at the University of Southern California as well as the University of California, Irvine. Lisa graduated from the University of Southern California in Fall 2021 with a degree in Psychology.

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Graduating high school is fairly uncommon in the U.S. It seems most students don’t consider it, and those who do sometimes don’t know how to graduate high school early. Perhaps you are reading this article because you want to graduate early and get a head start on college. Maybe you want to take up an interesting internship offer. Whatever the reason, you should know that it will take a lot of planning on your part.

Luckily, we’re here to help you out! This guide will give you all the information you need to know about graduating high school early. Most importantly, we include a step-by-step outline on how to do it!

What does it mean to graduate high school early?

Graduating high school early means exactly what it sounds like – that you’re graduating before completing the typical four years of high school. This is usually done within three or three-and-a-half years. Completing high school any earlier than this is nearly impossible for students unless they are homeschooled or attend a non-traditional school.

While students have a variety of reasons for wanting to graduate high school early, there are a few most common reasons. Let’s get into them!

Also see:  Free summer programs for high school students

Common reasons for graduating high school early

Each student’s specific reason for wanting to graduate high school early will differ.  The reasons can most often be boiled down to reasons related to one’s career, academic plans, opportunities, or personal reasons. Let’s get into some of the most common reasons students graduate early.

Many want to graduate early so that they get into the workforce earlier and start building their earnings or establishing their career. Graduating high school early and starting  postsecondary school or a career will quicken a student’s transitions into adult life. If this is your plan, though, make sure you’re prepared to give the full energy and effort needed to find success. Remember, you’ll likely be younger (and less experienced) than both your classmates and your coworkers for the next few years.

Other students choose to graduate high school early solely so that they can start college earlier. This is more often done if the student plans to do a lot of schooling in their life. If they plan on pursuing graduate school or another professional program after undergraduate school, they will graduate earlier (and younger!). 

Also see:  High school checklist: Freshman through senior year

A chance to pursue an opportunity  

Great opportunities often manifest in the form of internships, jobs, or other unique experiences. Some students want to take advantage of those opportunities when they come along.  Somewhat similarly, many students choose to graduate early so that they can take a gap year before starting college . Some may also take this opportunity to travel, start a personal project, volunteer, or really anything they like.

Not enjoying high school

This last reason is a more personal reason that some high school students choose to graduate early,  and it is a completely valid one. If you feel that school is negatively impacting your mental health, you might be thinking of graduating early. It will take some time and effort to plan out your early graduation, but it is doable.

Now that we’ve gone over some common reasons for graduating early, how do you actually do it?

How to graduate high school early: An outline

Graduating high school early, like any long process, will take some planning and preparation. However, it’s not too complicated. Let’s break down the steps you should take if you’re planning to graduate high school early.

Pick your graduation date

If you’re graduating early, you first need to determine when. Within 2.5, 3, 3.5 years? How early you want to graduate can typically be determined by how long you want (or need) to spend doing the activity that you’re graduating early to do.  This might include starting a career, college, or taking a gap year rather than attending high school. 

Also, keep in mind that it is easier (less stressful!) to graduate high school a semester early, rather than a year early. If you do this, you will still have around 8 months (from December to September) to pursue your goals. 

Ultimately, if you’re still not sure how early you want to graduate, we definitely recommend reaching out to an advisor or counselor. They can give you helpful advice, an alternate perspective, and even help you plan out your classes for the remainder of your time in high school.

Determine how many credits you need to graduate

Now that you’ve determined how early you want to graduate, it’s time to do some calculations. You’ll first need to figure out how many credits you need to graduate and what class requirements these credits must fill. While most every high school requires their students to have a certain number of credits to graduate, this number varies by school, so we recommend checking with a school counselor (or any faculty that may know).

Once you’ve figured that out, find out how many credits you’ve already completed, and how many credits a typical class is worth. To find how many credits you’ve already finished, you can check your transcripts or report cards. Always ask an advisor to confirm your findings. Then, subtract the number of credits you’ve finished from the total number of credits you need.

This number (the difference) is the number of credits you need left to graduate. Now, to find how many classes you need left to graduate, divide the number of credits you need left to graduate by the number of credits that a typical class is worth.

For example, if you need 80 credits left to graduate and a typical class is worth 5, you will divide 80 by 5. Since the answer (the quotient) is 16, this means that you’ll need to take 16 more classes to graduate. 

Figure out what classes you need to graduate

Once you’ve figured out how many credits and classes you need left to graduate, it’s time to find out what requirements those credits and classes must fulfill. To find out what your school requires for graduation, we would recommend checking out your student handbook, searching your school’s website, or talking to an academic advisor.

Generally, to fulfill such requirements, you must take a certain number of math, science, English, and history classes, as well as a few “random” (often physical education or art) classes. 

After you find out what the requirements are, we highly recommend that you create a list of those that you have not yet fulfilled. Make sure to pay extra attention to the requirements and their wording, so you don’t miss anything. Hopefully, you’ll have enough space in your schedule to fulfill all your requirements on time and take a few classes you enjoy.

Find out what classes your potential colleges require

If you’re planning on graduating early to go to college, we would definitely recommend finding out if there are any class requirements that you must fulfill to attend your prospective college(s). If there are, remember to add these onto your list of class requirements. However , remember that your high school graduation class requirements should take priority over these (your potential college’s requirements), so only take them if you have time in your schedule. 

To find out what classes your prospective colleges might want you to take, we recommend looking over the admission requirements for these universities (which can usually be found on their websites).

Similarly, if you know what you plan on majoring in during college, it is a good idea to take as many classes in that subject as possible during high school. For example, if you’re planning on majoring in chemistry, you should not only take the standard chemistry course, but also the Honors or AP Equivalent (if available). This will show colleges that you’re dedicated to your course of study and are willing to go to extra lengths to show it.

Map out your plan (and follow it!)

Last, but perhaps most importantly, you should plan your class schedule to ensure you graduate by your desired date. To do this, we recommend making a table listing each semester that you have left in high school. Then, make an empty/blank schedule under each semester. Using the list of class requirements you made before, you should now use this information to fill the empty schedule with the classes you plan on taking each semester. As you do this, we recommend also writing down how many credits each class is worth, so you can see if you’ll have enough credits by graduation.

Once this is done, double check your schedule. Go through your list of class requirements and make sure the classes in your schedule have fulfilled them all. If all your requirements have been fulfilled, that’s great! 

And, if there is still empty space left over on your schedule, feel free to go through and add whatever extra classes you would like to take (but make sure to first add those classes required by your prospective colleges, if you haven’t yet!). Once every space for each semester is filled, go through your schedule, and count how many credits you’ll have completed. Ideally, all your class and credit requirements will be fulfilled by following the schedule you have made.

If this is not the case, however, you will still need to take more classes or finish more credits. There are a few (relatively) easy ways to do that. You can either take classes over the summer or take classes at a local community college. If you prefer, online classes could also fulfill the rest of your requirements. Before you sign up, confirm with your school (or academic advisor) that they will give you credit for these courses. 

If these courses are eligible for credit, we highly recommend that you add these extra classes to your schedule. Then, we highly suggest that you have an advisor look over your schedule. The advisor can confirm that you will be able to graduate as early as you want. If they approve, you’re good to go!

Should you graduate high school early?

Onto the most important question of all – should you graduate early? It really depends on you, your goals, and what you value. 

For example, would you rather get a head start on “adult life”? Or, would you rather take it slow – not focusing too much on the future quite yet? 

Ultimately, if you feel like what you’d be doing with your time off (after graduating early) is much more valuable than staying in high school, graduating early might be the right option for you. However, if you don’t think that what you would be doing is very important, it might just be better to remain in high school. This is because graduating early isn’t necessarily impressive to colleges. After all, it means that you would be competing against college applicants who had more time to perfect their GPAs, get involved in extracurriculars , and prepare for standardized exams .

However, we’re not saying that you shouldn’t graduate early – we just want you to consider whether it’s really the best option for you. 

To help you decide, here are some more pros and cons of graduating high school early:

And that’s it! We hope that all this information helped you figure out how to graduate high school early. By now,  it should be easier to decide whether or not it’s what you really want to do. No matter what you decide, we wish you good luck in your future endeavors!

Frequently asked questions about graduating high school early

What is the earliest age you can graduate high school.

Great question! The earliest age that you can graduate high school in the U.S. is 16. This is as  long as you have fulfilled all your state’s graduation requirements . What this means exactly differs by state though; in the majority of states, compulsory school attendance ends at age 16 . In the rest of the states, though, you have to be 18 to leave school. But keep in mind, you can attend any other type of school from age 16-18. So, no matter what state you reside in, you can still graduate high school at age 16.

Can you still get scholarships if you graduate early?

Yes, definitely! Rather than preventing you from getting scholarships, graduating early often opens you up to more scholarship opportunities. This includes scholarships specifically made for students who have graduated early! So, whether you graduated early or not, make sure to search for scholarships that match your location , major , background , and more!

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Essay on My Plans After Graduation

Students are often asked to write an essay on My Plans After Graduation in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on My Plans After Graduation

My goals after school.

After I finish school, I want to keep learning. I plan to go to college and study to be a teacher. I love helping others and think teaching kids would be a great job for me.

Traveling Dreams

I also dream of traveling to see new places. I want to visit different countries, learn about other cultures, and make new friends from around the world.

Helping My Community

Lastly, I want to give back to my community. I hope to volunteer at local places like libraries or animal shelters, because I believe in making the world a better place.

250 Words Essay on My Plans After Graduation

My future steps.

After I finish school, I have many ideas about what I want to do. First, I plan to take a short break to rest and think about my next steps. This time will help me relax after all the hard work in school.

Further Education

I am very excited to keep learning. So, I plan to go to college. I want to study subjects that interest me and can help me get a good job in the future. I will choose my courses carefully to make sure I enjoy what I am studying.

Getting a Job

I also plan to find a part-time job. This will help me learn new skills that are not taught in school. It will also give me a chance to earn my own money and learn how to manage it.

I believe in giving back to the community. I plan to volunteer at local organizations. This will allow me to help others and make new friends.

Staying Healthy

Lastly, I want to stay healthy and active. I will join a sports team or a fitness club. This will be good for my body and mind.

In conclusion, after graduation, I look forward to learning more, earning some money, helping my community, and staying healthy. I am ready for these new adventures!

500 Words Essay on My Plans After Graduation

Introduction.

After I finish school, I have many ideas about what I want to do. Graduation is a big step that means I am growing up and can start making my own choices. In this essay, I will share my plans for what comes after I graduate.

Going to College

First, I plan to go to college. College is a place where I can learn more about the things I am interested in. I want to study subjects that will help me get a good job in the future. I also want to make new friends and learn about different cultures. College will help me become smarter and more ready for the world.

After college, I want to find a job that makes me happy. I hope to work in a place where I can use what I learned in college. I want to help people and make a difference in the world. I know that finding a job can be hard, but I am ready to work hard and be patient.

I also dream of traveling to new places. Traveling helps us see new things and learn how other people live. I want to visit different countries, try new foods, and speak new languages. I think traveling is a good way to learn, and it can make me a better person.

Helping My Family

My family is very important to me. They have helped me so much, and I want to give back to them. After I graduate and start working, I plan to help my family with money and other things they need. I want to make them proud and show them that their support was worth it.

Saving Money

Saving money is another big plan I have. I want to save money for things like a house and to have a family one day. It’s important to think about the future and be ready for whatever comes. I will try to be smart with my money and save a little bit every time I get paid.

Staying healthy is something I want to keep doing after I graduate. This means eating good food, exercising, and going to the doctor when I need to. Being healthy helps us do our best in life. I plan to join sports or go to the gym to stay fit and strong.

In conclusion, my plans after graduation are all about growing up and taking care of myself and my family. I want to learn more, work hard, travel, help my family, save money, and stay healthy. I am excited for the future and ready to start this new part of my life.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on My Personal Ethics
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• Essay on My Mother My Hero

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

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