If you don't do an accelerated program, then I have some tips for graduating early at a regular undergrad program! I graduated a semester early with a major in speech path and a minor in Spanish. I definitely could have graduated an entire year early, but I did the Spanish minor and I also took a few electives.
I came in with a lot of AP credit (32 credits according to CSDCAS - Bio, US history, Euro history, English comp, and Literature). I got out of a ton of gen eds thanks to this. If you can take AP classes and pass your AP tests, this will definitely help you.
I also took the maximum amount of credits/classes almost every semester. At my school, a full caseload was 3.5 credits, but they allowed you to take a maximum of 4.5 credits. So while most students took 4 classes, I took 5. It was hard at times, but doable.
Taking classes in the summer either at your university or a community college is also helpful, especially if you don't come in with much AP credit. I only took 1 class over the summer, but if I had taken 2 or 3 I would have definitely been able to graduate a year early even with my minor and electives.
I also tried to be smart about which classes I took first - I saved classes that were offered every semester at multiple times for my later semesters when my schedule was less flexible. For example, certain required classes at my school like Voice Disorders were only offered during the fall semester. So, I made sure to take that class over a class like Learners with Disabilities, which met 3+ times every semester.
My freshman year of college, I made a word document that pretty much mapped out every semester. I kept track of all my gen eds, major requirements, minor requirements, and a tentative plan for when to take each. This was SO helpful because I could make sure that every semester I was taking the maximum number of credits and that I was on-track to graduate early.
