With close to 100 credits as a first semester Junior, you can say that I am a bit ahead of the average college student my age. I have always been a focused student. I took 5 AP courses in High School, took full course loads as a college freshman, enrolled in summer courses 2 years in a row, and always pushed myself. A dedicated student, I also have a part-time job, and am a member of a sorority.

Transferring into Rutgers University last year from a small Catholic College on the outskirts of Philadelphia, it was my plan to graduate a full year early. Yes, I wanted to eliminate an entire year from my college experience, and for what reason? To travel. To take that extra $25,000 or so and backpack for six months. Or to have the ability to just say I beat the system; by not staying a 9th or 10th semester, as a startling amount of students are now accustomed to doing. Or to frivolously purchase a new car. Or to start a retirement fund. Or invest.

But after two short semesters at Rutgers, I realized just how fast “the best years of my life” were flying by, and I became frightened. At how I would be pushed into the real world in less than a year. At how I had yet to intern, and how I had no time to do so with only one year left of college. And how I would only have one year left to spend time with my wonderful, beautiful, and inspiring sisters.

So I made the decision to stay the full 4 years, and to experience everything that Rutgers has to offer, in full. I was scared to tell my parents of my decision in anticipation that they would be disappointed in me. I was afraid to tell my adviser that my plans had changed. But, no one seemed to care. In fact, each person I told was happier than the previous. They only wanted me to be happy, and make the best decision for myself.

I picked up a second major to fill my schedule and made a bucket list of everything I still have left to do at Rutgers. Like visit Rutgers Gardens, Passion Puddle, eat at Neilson Dining Hall, dance in Dance Marathon, go to a football game (Yes! I've never been), tailgate, participate in an all-nighter, go on a bar crawl for my 21st (and 22nd), and so much more.  

My advice to anyone thinking of graduating early is this: don’t. Don’t give up the short time you have as an undergraduate. Do spend those 4 years learning and growing as a student and a person. Try new things. Make new friends. Go outside of your comfort zone. Take a dance class. Go on a road trip. 

Make a list of everything you want to accomplish in 4 short years, and check off the boxes as you go. Make the best of every single day you have left as an undergraduate and do not take any single one of them for granted.

I am not telling you to unfollow your dreams. If you want to graduate early and be absolutely amazing, then do it! But I am saying that these 4 years are the few that we can never repeat and the 4 that are the best years of our lives.