After hitting an all-time high of 33.7% last year, Oxford College’s early graduation rate dropped this year after previously steadily increasing for six consecutive years. Of the 432 current Oxford sophomores, 91 students, or 21.1% of the class, will matriculate early to the Atlanta campus after the Fall 2025 semester, according to data from Associate Director of University Communications Rachel Smith.
Last fall, Oxford announced and enacted a new credit policy, after which many students expressed worries that the policy would make it more challenging to graduate early. Under the new policy, students are limited to transferring up to eight credits earned through Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or college credit toward Oxford graduation requirements. Before the policy was implemented, Oxford allowed students to transfer up to 18 credits.
According to Oxford Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Valerie Molyneaux, the college implemented this change “in the interest of equity and to ensure that the quality and rigor of outside coursework meets university standards.”
Priyanka Mohanraj (26Ox) shared that while she initially wanted to graduate from Oxford early, she was one credit short from doing so.
“Last summer, when I found out I couldn’t graduate early, it was very confusing,” Mohanraj said. “The credit policy, it inhibited a lot of people that initially came in with the goal of graduating early.”
Mohanraj mentioned she wanted access to more of the research opportunities on the Atlanta campus.
“If I were able to graduate early, in terms of pre-professional goals, it would put me more ahead,” Mohanraj said. “I know with research, when I was reaching out to Atlanta professors, they very much preferred people that are on the Atlanta campus.”
Mohanraj highlighted that the new credit policy, which began for her class, affected her four-year plan.
“I already prepared a lot of my classes before I came into Emory,” Mohanraj said. “With the transfer policy and especially with my credits, a lot of them didn’t really transfer smoothly. It made me take a lot of classes I took in high school, like stats or econ. It put me a little behind in that sense.”
Shraddha Vanaparthy (25Ox), who plans to graduate early from Oxford this fall, said she wanted to graduate early as part of her plan to graduate from Emory University a semester early.
“With the gap semester, especially as I’m on the pre-med track, I thought it’d be cool to have that time, so I could, for example, study for the MCAT, or if I wanted to work a full-time job, I could pursue that within that semester, instead of having academics,” Vanaparthy said.
Vanaparthy also said she needed to take up to 19 credits for several semesters in order to fulfill the requirements to graduate early. In addition to that, she took two summer classes.
“Financially, yes, it was expensive, but I guess my mindset was like, you do these two courses, or I spend an extra 45k for a semester,” Vanaparthy said. “In the long term, it felt more financially responsible.”
Divya Nagarajan (26Ox) said she initially wanted to graduate early but ultimately did not because she lacked the necessary credit hours. She said her perspective on Oxford influenced her original desire to leave campus a semester early.
“I really didn’t like Oxford, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to be stuck here,’” Nagarjan said. “I was like, ‘I’m so jealous of everyone in Atlanta who gets to be close to everything, and I’m far away and in the middle of nowhere,’ so I’m going to graduate a semester early.”
Even though Nagarajan dislikes Oxford’s credit policy, she also shared that she was glad she did not end up graduating early because she now appreciates her time at Oxford.
“I think it’s dumb, but also good, because now I really like Oxford,” Nagarajan said. “So, I’m kind of glad that I didn't graduate early.”
