Why being a fall graduate is actually the worst

Being a fall graduate is always a weird experience. You’re either taking some extra time trying to savor that college experience, or you’re finishing early to try and get the hell outta dodge. You have one foot in the door and one foot out, and you sort of don’t know which leg to stand on.

Sure, it can seem cool. While other classmates are trying to figure out how to fit in the rest of their classes for their last spring semester, you are kicking your feet up, relaxing in the fact that you are (almost) officially done, and no longer need to sit by the computer counting down the seconds until your time slot opens up. While all of your friends are stuck in lectures until 9pm at night, you’re (hopefully) ending your day at 6pm and heading to happy hour. You get to be done before everyone else.

However when you really start to think about it, being a fall graduate is actually pretty horrible.

You have to figure out your life in a matter of four months

While all of your friends get to party fall semester and able to take spring semester to try and figure out what they’re gonna do after college, you don’t get that same luxury. You need to have a job lined before finals start in December, and if you’re anything like me and procrastinate like it’s your damn job, you probably only have a mere weeks before finals start (aka the beginning of the end) to lock down a plan for after graduation.

This folder gets opened more than the texts I send to fuckboys at 2am

You may have to wait until May to walk 

UConn doesn’t have a graduating ceremony for fall graduates. This means that everyone has to wait until May to walk and get that fancy little piece of paper that’s worth more than I will ever be.

When you’re a fall graduate, and you don’t have a ceremony to celebrate it, it almost feels……incomplete? Like you’re supposed to be going to class and the end of January, but you just aren’t. Like you’re skipping all of the classes you never signed up for in the first place.

You miss out on most graduation activities

Senior pictures, senior week, senior breakfast. Since all of these activities usually happen in the spring semester, you my friend are shit out of luck. I mean, sure, you could still attend these events, but it just doesn’t feel the same. Are you still a senior since you haven’t had the official graduation ceremony? Are you technically an alumni now? Are you even allowed to go to these anymore? WHAT IS THE RIGHT SOCIETAL PROTOCOL FOR THIS?!

While most of my friends are sleeping off their hangovers, I have to be an ‘adult’

You don’t get the joy of celebrating your final days at school with your friends

If everyone graduated in December, then it wouldn’t be cool to do it (It would also mess up the entire collegiate process, but that’s beside the point). You’re probably in a very small group of people who are also graduating. So while your friends are posting snaps and Instas in March about their final countdown of days, you can barely have a chance to breathe before September turns into December and you’re being forced into the real world.

Getting in one last Halloweekend before having to face reality

But if everyone was a fall graduate, then it wouldn’t be cool to be a fall graduate. Just remember that you’re getting out early while your friends are stuck sitting in class for the next four months. You’re out in the real world doing whatever the hell you want to do.