This week my daughter Claudia has unceremoniously completed her studies at the University of Vermont, even though we have no graduation gathering to mark the event. She simply turned in her last paper, and that was that. She has written this blog about how she unexpectedly graduated in just five semesters at UVM, describing some of her choices that made this path interesting, efficient, and relatively-speaking inexpensive. Much of what she writes is familiar to the North Star community, as we have celebrated the path of homeschooling to community college to four-year university (particularly the University of Massachusetts) for decades. We know that there are many ways to handle the years from ages 13-25 outside of the expected path, and Claudia illuminates one of them here.

One highlight for me is how Claudia has separated her “college experience” from her “taking classes for credit” coursework. Even though she has now finished the University of Vermont experience, she remains socially enmeshed with her friends, household, and potential work opportunities in Burlington. Many of her friends still have a year or more to go with coursework, so Claudia is in no rush to move on from her current life. Her world is open and fluid.

I am grateful she is sharing her experience because I believe many people will benefit from better understanding what she has done. Her experience is widely replicable, and the path can be utilized by many young adults seeking to diminish the dominating emotional and financial role college has in their lives.

Congratulations, Claudia!

https://claudescafe.blogspot.com/2020/12/playing-for-credit.html