Dropping out last semester to start early?
Hi all, I am a senior in university with a full-time offer to start at a hedge fund next fall. I don't come from money and I just learned that my 91-year-old grandpa would need help paying his mortgage. Every adult in my family is broke. I have the option to start at the hedge fund in February (there are multiple start date options), but obviously I would have to drop out of college without finishing my bachelor's. I don't mind not having a college degree. I could always go back and finish it anyway.
All I'm concerned about is that HR/whoever might think I'm weird for dropping out to start earlier and have second thoughts about my judgement.
Has anyone heard of somebody doing this in the past successfully? Would I be frowned upon for asking to start without a college degree?
You absolutely need a college degree. Do not ask HR about this unless you want them to send it around the firm for a laugh. The early start date is for anyone graduating in December.
That said, understand you're in a tough spot... why not ask them if you can start early to work part-time your last semester? I'm guessing you don't have too many classes right now. Or if it's not a local job, find a local role for a few months. Even picking up some tutoring or retail work is better than dropping out.
Thank you for the advice. I suppose I can work a $15/hr job, but obviously it’s not $200k/yr. Just bummed out. Bump on this—has anyone really not heard of somebody starting full time before finishing their degree?
I’ve heard of people given offers to start full time before graduation. In those cases the firm expected the degree to be completed (usually evening classes, online or asynchronously).
Had something similar happened last year. Firm wanted me to start immediately in Jan 2023 but my grad date was end of summer 2023. Earliest I could complete courses after absolutely grinding the thesis-type project was May 2023.
Had to let go of the opportunity after getting a verbal offer because my degree would not be complete. And this was a MSF/MFin degree. I already had a prior engineering degree.
They were open for me to work while studying but with the coursework+mandatory co-op, it was absolutely not feasible.
I don’t think firms would let you to start by dropping out of a Bachelor’s degree.
What you can do is like you said work part time. Another possibility is you could possibly get a temp loan given you will have the offer and proof of future cash flow. This will help pay the mortgage for the next few months. And you can start paying with your salary later.
Obviously not ideal but have you considered taking a loan/refinancing the mortgaging under your name? In terms of impact it’ll be one less rung from dropping out to start early.
Can he sell his house and move into something smaller?
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