Two College Credit Plus high school students receive bachelor’s degrees from UC

Caden Elrod and Sai Gollamudi are part of a select club.  

Both are high school seniors and celebrating their undergraduate commencement at the University of Cincinnati this week, nearly a month before their high school diplomas arrive.

Elrod, who attends Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati, is also majoring in mathematics in UC’s College of Arts & Sciences. Gollamudi, a student at Centerville High School in Centerville, Ohio, is majoring in neuroscience at UC. They were pursuing their bachelor’s degree as they worked to complete their high school diplomas.

They started taking classes at UC during middle school as part of the College Credit Plus Program. It allows students in grades 7-12 who qualify  to take college level courses at UC and other Ohio universities.  Elrod and Gollamudi are the first high school students in UC's College Credit Plus program to earn bachelor’s degrees.

Their stories were featured recently by Fox 19 in Cincinnati. 

“It’s very rare that a seventh or eighth-grader makes it into the program or qualities for the program,” explains Lorrie Bishop, director of Launch UC, the university’s early enrollment program for students in high school.

Bishop says about 5,000 students participate in the College Credit Plus program at UC and that on average students are able to pick up 12 to 18 credit hours before graduation. 

“My mom found out about College Credit Plus and it was free college classes that I could take in elementary, middle and high school,” says Elrod, during an interview with Fox 19. “I started taking those at the end of my 6th grade year and I took enough to graduate with a bachelor’s degree and high school at the same time.”

Jack Miner, vice provost for enrollment management, says he couldn't be prouder of Elrod and Gollamudi.

“Think about yourself graduating from high school at 17 or 18 years old and also graduating from college at 17 or 18 years old, you are getting a jump start on your life like so few others ever get an opportunity to do,” Miner told Fox 19.

Elrod has a job and will work in the Department of Defense on a US Navy base doing AI research. Gollamudi is looking to get a second degree, possibly in business, and has been accepted at Yale, Princeton, Cornell and Duke. He wants to eventually go into medicine.

“I am not only interested in pursuing medicine, but I want to pursue the business side of medicine because I want to make a larger, more impactful difference in the world,” Golumadi told Fox 19.

Listen to the Fox 19 interview online.

Learn more about College Credit Plus at UC.

Featured top image shows UC Spring Commencement 2025 at Nippert Stadium. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand.