@mom4bwayboy that’s actually an interesting question that is possibly worthy of its own thread. It’s really hard to know the answer to it without fully understanding the scheduling and policies of various schools. For example (this is just an example, I don’t really know the answers here), dusing2 is assuming above (as would I) that U Michigan expects you to be in their program for 4 years. But I just looked up their graduation requirements, and on the basis of credit hours, it looks like you could finish early. U Mich doesn’t require any more in major hours than Tisch does and you can finish early at Tisch. But what does that actually mean in any particular program schedule-wise in terms of fitting things in, course sequences, pre-requisites? No idea.
We know there are programs that allow students to spend a semester abroad. Chances are that unless that program is an abroad semester at another theatre program (like Tisch has with RADA for instance), you’d be talking about an academic semester doing something that may be related to theatre but not part of the practical training curriculum and not counting towards those hours. So I’d think if a school allows you to do that, it suggests there could be some wiggle room in when one completes their program. Just a guess.