Would you give up Greek life to graduate early or 'on time'

[GammaGirl1908]

I think you may have misunderstood, or your source was misinformed. I think most people graduate at more like 21-23, and even 21-23 is assuming they take 4 years to get through school, and don't change majors, take a year off, take a couple of light semesters, or study a subject that commonly takes 5 years, like engineering or architecture (all very common events).

I graduated at 21. I took exactly 4 years to finish college (no summer courses, no time off, etc.), and I have a very late birthday AND I started school early. I started kindergarten at 4, whereas it's standard to be 5 or even 6 when you start kindergarten. I'm definitely considered to be on the young side for my class. Most of my classmates who graduated at 20 or 21 after 4 years skipped a grade somewhere. Most people I knew who finished in fewer than 4 years came in with a lot of credits (I came in with only 6 credits), and/or took a lot of summer courses, and/or had insane course loads and were crazed all the time.

But to answer your question, if I had my preference, no, I absolutely would not give up the social and networking aspects of the activities I was involved in during college just to have graduated at 20. I got almost as much out of my extracurriculars as I did out of my classes, plus people were impressed at how much I balanced while a student when looking at my resume. My activities and projects and jobs made for a good resume when I got out of college and started looking for work. If I'd taken a much heavier course load (and I usually took 15-17 credits), I wouldn't have been able to fit in anything but classwork.