Editor’s Note: Justin Solis is a former opinion editor for the Daily. Solis was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.
For most Tufts students, senior spring is a ceremonious cap on their past four years. It marks a time to decrease workload, to enroll in fun classes and — perhaps most dauntingly — to figure out plans for the ‘real world.’
However, a small number of students take the far-less common route of graduating a semester early. Tufts undergraduate students are typically required to complete eight full-time semesters of study to fulfill their residency requirement; however, there are alternate pathways for those looking to graduate early. Students can use their pre-matriculation courses — often in the form of Advance Placement or International Baccalaureate courses — or credit from Tufts summer classes to substitute for part of their residency requirement.
For students who take this pathway, the spring before commencement becomes a time of transition. While most Tufts seniors are still attending classes and partaking in campus activities, these students are entering the workforce and looking ahead to their next steps.
What has life been like for these alumni in the months since graduating, and how are they reflecting on their decision now? Four Class of 2026 graduates who completed their degrees this past semester shared their thoughts.
Elijah Albert-Stein
Elijah Albert-Stein had been planning for early graduation two years before receiving his virtual diploma after realizing that his pre-matriculation credits satisfied a full semester’s worth of credit.
“It’s funny because, as an education student, I don’t really think that the AP exams are necessarily the most valuable way of recognizing student achievement,” Albert-Stein said. “But for me, it did make [early graduation a] possibility, and for my family [to be able] to avoid paying for another semester’s worth of tuition.”
Now, Albert-Stein spends his time juggling three jobs, all of which were born out of his time at Tufts. As an undergraduate, Albert-Stein was a part of the Tisch Scholars program, where he was placed with two local nonprofit organizations: The Front Porch Arts Collective, a Black theatre company in Boston, and Enroot Education which supports immigrant high school students in Cambridge. Since graduation, Albert-Stein has continued to work for both of these non-profits; additionally, he serves as a teaching assistant for the Tisch Scholars program.
“The biggest shift has just been [that] my time is spent differently,” he said. “I operate mostly within business hours now, which is awesome. Honestly, it means that in the evenings, I have more time to read for pleasure and [work] on my Tisch Scholars capstone.”
Despite no longer being a student, Albert-Stein is still very much involved with the Tufts community.
“My social life hasn’t changed very much at all,” he said. “I still go out with my friends. I don’t grab coffee with people at The Sink, but I can still grab coffee with people.”
Duncan Johnson
Duncan Johnson arrived at Tufts with over 27 credits — the maximum amount that an engineering student can count towards their degree — largely due to having taken several classes at Ohio State University. For Johnson, the decision to graduate early was based on several factors, including financials and external projects that he hoped to dedicate more time to.
“I’ve always been doing different project work and entrepreneurship work while at Tufts,” Johnson said. “Classes have been a great part of my Tufts experience, but not the primary thing that I was doing at Tufts. [Now I have] more time to work on research [and] other projects.”
Johnson’s work primarily focuses on teaching coding to kids in an accessible way. In 2019, he co-founded the nonprofit organization BX Coding, a programming platform for middle school students that aims to improve computer science learning in classrooms. Johnson has also been able to take on other coding-related projects since graduation, including developing a coding editor to help Tufts students in the School of Engineering build robotics projects.
For Johnson, the ability to travel has been one of the biggest benefits post-graduation, especially since he has been able to expand his projects internationally. Johnson has been working on various contract work and research projects with Ethan Danahy, an associate research professor at the Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach, who is currently conducting research in Denmark. Johnson recently traveled to Denmark in collaboration with Danahy to work with elementary school students on his coding platform.
“We have [the learning language model] talking in Danish, and it writes code for little robots in Danish,” he said.
Since graduating, Johnson’s priorities have remained consistent.
“My projects that I’m most excited about are the same [ones as] in the fall when I was at work still taking classes at Tufts,” he said.
Carly Grossman
Carly Grossman decided to graduate early only a month before finishing her last semester, when she learned that the researcher she had been working with moved his lab to Canada. Grossman found herself facing another semester of college with no required coursework to complete and no lab work. Suddenly, staying enrolled full-time at Tufts no longer made sense.
Grossman’s plans quickly changed when a postdoc she had been working with offered her a lab position at his new lab in Michigan. Now, Grossman works full-time as a researcher in his lab, primarily focusing on electron microscopy of 2-D materials. While the move was a big decision, Grossman is glad she took the leap.
“Moving to Michigan was very new for me, and I’m very glad I did it,” she said. “I have clear research that I’ve been working on for a long time that I get to continue, and I wouldn’t have a similar opportunity if I were to stay in Boston.”
Grossman acknowledged several different factors that allowed her to graduate early, even with three majors in chemistry, math and physics. Like other early graduates, she was able to fulfill the residency requirement with pre-matriculation credits. Interestingly, she opted not to follow the traditional order of classes that would have prevented her from taking classes simultaneously due to prerequisites.
“I took some stuff in a weird order. … I was taking Physics 72, which is ‘Intro to Solid State,’ at the same time as I was taking Physics 12,” she said. “Technically, Physics 72 has [prerequisites] of Physics 56 and Physics 13, which both have a [prerequisite] of Physics 12, so I was just kind of going in my own order.”
While Grossman plans to return to Boston in May to see friends, move furniture out of her apartment and walk at commencement, she is enjoying her time in Michigan ahead of starting graduate school in the fall.
“Looking back on it, I shouldn’t have even considered staying given the fact that I had finished my requirements,” she said. “Not that you wouldn’t get great things out of continuing to take classes, I just think there are other opportunities to take courses and learn that aren’t necessarily $45,000.”
Justin Solis
When Justin Solis received all of his first-choice classes during course registration the spring of his junior year, he realized that he was within reach of being able to graduate early — he was just one credit shy of the residency requirement. Solis ultimately chose to complete a Tufts summer class to earn the credit, a decision he said was fairly straightforward.
“I love going to school at Tufts, but if I can save a semester’s worth of tuition by taking one class over the summer, it’s $1,000 versus thousands of dollars. So it’s a pretty easy tradeoff to make,” he said.
Solis expressed a desire for more accessible information and support regarding early graduation, especially given that he had to confirm his eligibility and research the process himself.
“[Early graduation] sort of fell into my lap, that wasn’t something I set out to do,” he said. “[I would like] a better pipeline in terms of understanding what the requirements are, instead of just researching [them] myself.”
Now, Solis works as a conservation intern at the New England Aquarium and as an environmental programs and outreach assistant for Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association. While graduating early made the most sense for him, he also acknowledges the immense value in completing four full years at Tufts.
“There’s so much merit to going back and doing an additional semester, even if you [could] graduate early,” he said. “When [else] are you going to get an opportunity to take those really interesting niche classes? … As a human, the goal should be to learn as many different things as you can, especially in a liberal arts school.”
Early Graduates
Ultimately, all four early graduates acknowledged that early graduation is an extremely personal decision — what works best for one person may not for someone else.
“My main recommendation is to start early, to start thinking about [early graduation] as early as possible,” Johnson said. “It gives you a lot of flexibility to work on things, [but] I don’t know if it’s for everybody, because [there are] certain things — being on campus and taking fun classes —[in] the spring of your senior year that I think are enjoyable to a lot of people.”
Grossman stressed the importance of being willing to step away from Tufts and embark on something new.
“I thought I was going to be very socially isolated … but I still feel very connected to the Tufts community and all my friends,” she said.
Albert-Stein emphasized that the college experience is one that cannot be replicated; although graduating early may be preferable for some students, others may benefit from having a final low-stress semester.
“The reason that I did it was [that it] made sense for me [but] there’s something to be said for [having] a really chill senior spring,” he said. “This is the only time in your life when you can f--- around and take … random funny, silly classes.”
Solis reiterated that, ultimately, the final decision rests in the hands of what is best for the student and their family.
“My big advice is [to] understand that the last semester is a great time to branch out … but at the same time, it does come down to financials,” he said. “If it makes more sense to graduate a semester early [and] start applying for jobs early, you should do that.”
