HE WAS 16, a 10th grader at Heritage High School in Brentwood, feeling that he had outgrown the pace of his classes. Instead of asking a counselor what came next, at home he turned to Reddit with a question he couldn’t find an answer to at school: How early could he actually leave high school?
That search pulled him into online forums where students shared stories about alternative pathways and escape routes out of the traditional system. Within months, he was on a different track entirely: leaving Heritage for community college while still a teenager. The year was 2022, and as far as anyone knows, he was the first East Contra Costa County student to blaze this trail. Others have followed.
From there, Charanvenkata Kanchana, the son of immigrants from India, moved quickly. He completed three associate degrees at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg before transferring to UC San Diego. He is now a senior there, preparing to graduate next month with a degree in public health, with plans to attend medical school and become a cardiothoracic surgeon.
His path reflects the range of options available for high school students, including enrollment in high school and college at the same time (dual enrollment) and passage of exams that allow early graduation (GED/HiSET). Educators say these options can create opportunities, but heavily rely on individual readiness.
The GED (General Education Development) and HiSET (High School Equivalency Test) are nationally recognized equivalency exams. More specifically, in California, students may also take the California High School Proficiency Exam (later replaced by the California Proficiency Program), which allows eligible students to leave high school early and receive a state-issued certificate legally equivalent to a diploma.
Standing at the crossroads
Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools Lynn Mackey said students who leave high school early typically follow one of three routes.
The first is a state-approved alternative program, such as Assembly Bill 167/216, which allows certain students with disrupted schooling to graduate with adjusted credit requirements. The second is the passage of a proficiency exam, like the GED or HiSET. These are tests that certify a student has knowledge comparable to a high school graduate without the traditional four-year path. The third is “acceleration” through independent study and dual enrollment, where students complete credits at their own pace or take college-credit classes while still in high school to earn more credits quickly.
Dual enrollment, Mackey said, has become increasingly common, noting students can earn college credit while still in high school.
But she stressed that early graduation is rarely straightforward. Districts often weigh whether students could instead stay on track through recovery of lost credits or flexible scheduling.
Even so, Mackey said early graduation can be beneficial when tied to clear goals. “It makes college cheaper and keeps students from getting bored,” she said. “But it is more of an exception to the rule.”
For Kanchana, the decision began outside of school systems entirely.
“The first time I heard about it was from a YouTuber,” he said. He later turned to Reddit, where he connected with students who had taken similar paths. “I was mostly asking people about their experience and how long it took to prepare,” he said.
A community college adviser helped with logistics, but his high school counselor discouraged early graduation. “He highly suggested I don’t take the test and stay in high school all four years,” Kanchana said.
Still, he was drawn to the structure of community college. “It felt more aligned with how I learn,” he said. “High school was memorizing; college let me apply it.”
He began taking college courses through dual enrollment, which helped him transition into community college while still in high school.
Looking back, Kanchana noted the biggest challenge was balancing the workload. “To me, every semester was an adjustment, because I didn’t have that basic foundation of studying that rigorously in high school because I graduated as a sophomore.”
Financial and educational efficiencies
Ashmitha Vadla, another former Heritage student, left school in 2025 after passing the HiSET exam. She said her decision to graduate early was driven more by efficiency than dissatisfaction with high school.
“I saw a lot of people from our school go to LMC or DVC and then transfer to a UC later on and save a lot of money,” she said. “I thought, why not just go now and cut down that year and a half?”
Her advice to those considering early graduation: “If someone is doing it just to get out of high school, it’s not a very good option,” she said. “But if they’re doing it to save time and move forward, then it can be a good pathway.”
Now, Vadla is focused on transferring to a UC school and eventually pursuing medical school.
“I saw a lot of people from our school go to LMC or DVC and then transfer to a UC later on and save a lot of money. I thought, why not just go now and cut down that year and a half?”
Ashmitha Vadla, 2025 Heritage High School early graduate
Some teachers add a note of caution about challenges beyond academics. At Heritage, AP Chemistry teacher Maxwell Lim said younger students often underestimate the non-academic challenges of college life.
“They’re taking less classes. That’s a big one,” Lim mentioned, noting that younger students can struggle with time management.
He also said the culture around early graduation has shifted. “It used to be AP classes … internships … dual enrollment,” Lim explained. “Now it’s like, ‘I’m going to graduate early.”
His advice: “Ask yourself why you’re doing this; I don’t think a 16-year-old is ready to make decisions that affect their life this much.”
Beating back burnout
Not all students arrive at the decision through planning or academic acceleration. For some, the push comes from burnout. Akshitha Bathula said she first began seriously considering the option around March in the 9th grade after experiencing academic strain.
“I was just feeling really stressed,” Bathula said. “I didn’t know if I could keep doing high school like that.”
Bathula said she did not speak with school counselors at Heritage during the process, noting that she believed they generally discourage early graduation. Instead, she relied on independent research and guidance from family friends who had already taken similar routes.
After preparing independently for the HiSET exam, she completed it over the summer and officially left Heritage shortly after briefly returning at the start of the school year.
“I went to school for two days, and then I signed out,” she said. She said she now views community college as more resource-rich than high school, particularly in terms of tutoring and academic assistance.
“Community college really pushes you to do better,” Bathula added. “There are a lot more resources to help you succeed.”
For students like Kanchana, the process itself was one of the hardest parts. “Not a lot of people take this route, so there wasn’t really a set process,” he said.
Soon to graduate from UC San Diego, Kanchana said success in early graduation depends less on the path itself and more on how students use it. “It has to do a lot with networking,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing a lot of people miss.”
ShraddhaGouri Pallerla is a 10th grader at Heritage High School in Brentwood and a CCYJ reporter. This story originally appeared in CCSpin.