January is approaching and that means seniors who decided to sign up for it will be graduating early.

Students choose to graduate early for many different reasons. Senior Destany Dykes plans, “to work and save up some money and then start to tour my trade school for the medical field and get more information about it.” 

The process of graduating early from Dover is easy. You need to be sure you have all your credits first, and then you can email your guidance counselor and ask to fill out the required form. Getting credits on time is simple if you plan it out from 9th grade. Dykes said, “I laid all my required classes out and took them accordingly, but I also made sure I had useful electives put into my schedule that could potentially help me out.” 

The decision to graduate early is solely based on the student and their family. Some want to work full time while others want to prepare themselves for college or trade school. Some students just choose to get a head start on life after high school.

Senior Maitlan Hoffman-Roach says, “I am going to go directly into the workforce after I graduate in January, and then take a gap year to decide if I actually want to go to college. If I do decide I want to go back to school, I will go for two years at a local college.” 

The idea of completing everything early can be stressful to some, but time management is what will save you from those worries. Hoffman-Roach just has to complete the senior project. She said, “It is somewhat stressful, but I just need to take a little bit of time to finish things and I know I will be done.”