Asaad Manzar’s desk is crowded with textbooks and homework as he hunches over his desk, working all night. Taking multiple AP classes and constantly studying to keep up his GPA, Manzar has been working hard since freshman year.

His long nights of studying are paying off. Junior Asaad Manzar will graduate at the end of this school year along with this year’s seniors, a full year early.

Manzar decided to graduate early because of the lack of courses he would need to take in twelfth grade.  

“In 10th grade when I met my counselor, she told me that in 12th grade I would only have to take two classes; so, I thought that instead of that I could just skip one whole year,” Manzar said. “Otherwise, in 12th grade I would only have to take English 4, government, and economics. So, if I just took those earlier, I could just skip a whole year.”

Manzar took economics last summer in order to graduate early, but has worked out all of his other required credits in just three years.

“Freshman year I took pre-calculus, so I finished all of my math,” Manzar said. “And science classes I think I finish this year because [of] Physics 1 [and] Physics 2. The only thing I had to double up on was taking English 3 and English 4- at the same time.”

His family has supported his decision to graduate early; in fact, they were a deciding factor in his decision to graduate early.

“I have three siblings and I want to go to college to be a role model for them,” Manzar said. “I’m the oldest of four.”

His friends, on the other hand, have had mixed feelings.

“Some of them were impressed, some of them were skeptical, and some of them just didn’t really care,” he said.

Manzar is applying to mostly in-state colleges in the DFW area, but he has applied to a couple of out-of-state as well.

“The in-state ones are SMU, UNT, and UT Dallas,” Manzar said. “The ones out-of-state are just dream schools, MIT and Stanford, to see if I can get into them.”

Manzar is uncertain what his future entails in college and beyond. As of now, his most pressing issue is what to major in.

“I want to major in biology, but that could change to psychology or chemistry,” he said. “[I want to be] either a professor or a doctor. If I [were] to be a doctor, I’d probably do a specialty- maybe orthopedics or something.”

Manzar, however, does not know whether graduating early from high school has given him an advantage in college applications.

“We’ll see after I get accepted or rejected,” Manzar said.