<p>I don’t think there’s anything wrong with graduating a year early. Why do you need to take classes during that internship? You could graduate and still take an internship. </p>
<p>Graduation will not be a magic bullet that informs you of the best industry for you. Time and work experience will make that clear. I think there may be more of an advantage to getting out in the labor market than you think.</p>
<p>tnn01:</p>
<p>I can well understand your parents’ financial concerns. Against these, there is the issue of preparedness. Depending on your major, staying another year may not make much difference to your prospects either on the job market or graduate school, or it may have a large effect. This is regardless of the fact that you may have fulfilled the requirements for your major. For example, you may be majoring in biology. However, taking stats and com-sci courses in addition to biology may make you more marketable. If you want to go to grad school, taking more advanced courses will give you an edge over other applicants.
In other words, it all depends. Another variable is the job market. We don’t know what it will look like come June. But the better prepared applicants will have an edge. Since you are a sophomore, now, I would suggest to see how things work out over the next year. Take as many courses as you can to fulfill the requirements if you must graduate in three years, but leave the door open to graduating in four.</p>
<p>I think the biggest reason why I don’t want to graduate early is because of my insecurities. My major is Economics and my minor is Business Administration by the way.
I don’t know how many jobs will be out there in 2011. I also don’t want graduating early to become a disadvantage when applying for jobs or graduate school. I will talk to my parents more on it but thanks everyone for their input!</p>
<p>Ask your parents whether they would be willing to subsidize you for an unpaid or low-paid internship in the 4th year. Maybe you could graduate in 3 years, and then use that 4th year to take an internship. Since you don’t have to pay tuition for an internship, the expense to your parents would be far less – but if you had the freedom to accept a position with no pay or with a very small stipend you might find that post-college work experience to be far more valuable in terms of finding employment than another year in school.</p>
<p>Stay in college as loooooong as you can! You will regret leaving one year early. When you are older and look back that one extra year will have the equivalent memories of 10.</p>
<p>Sometimes you won’t be allowed to have an internship unless you are still a student. That happened to the son of a friend of mine. I think the idea of an internship and some more classes might well be a good idea.</p>
<p>My D graduated a whole year early. She found a terrific internship on her own upon graduation and we supported her financially during that internship period. The internship led to a job. She found no disadvantage to graduating in 3 years. As a matter of fact, several employers saw it as an indicator of her strong work ethic and focus. My D graduated with no debt. It all worked out very well for her. In a few years she may return to school for her MBA.</p>