phrase meaning "to progress through an outlined set of steps/time"

Question

How do you refer to a person continuing along an outlined path through time? Specifically, what do you call the actual action of progressing from the earlier stages to the later/older stages?

I'm trying refer to the path a person takes through college (year 1, then 2, then 3, etc.), and what you would call the act of going through those steps/ progressing to the later ones.

The sentence I'm trying to complete is "it is common for students to do this as they _____." It needs to mean something like "progress through their years at school" or "get older", but "older/aging" only in reference to them rising through the grades. I just don't know how to say that in a shorter, more concise manner instead of literally stating "progress through their time at school". I know there has to be some better phrase that means "the act of someone moving through this specifically outlined set of time".

Answer 1

The word "advance" is currently used in this way.

Oxford Dictionaries offers this definition, marked 1.1:

advance : Make or cause to make progress

An example sentence: "Michael advanced from third to fourth grade."

When progression is marked by a series of steps, this is the most common word used to describe progression through the steps in my experience.

Answer 2

They go/progress through their rites of passage (the broader sense given by Collins ):

rite of passage noun

1.a ceremony performed in some cultures at times when an individual changes his status, as at puberty and marriage

2.a significant event in a transitional period of someone's life

Answer 3

Although the wording is no shorter than that of "progress through their years at school," "continue [or progress or advance] along their academic path" offers a fairly relaxed, figurative way of describing what you refer to in your question title "progressing through an outlined set of steps/time."

Answer 4

The formal set of experiences necessary to fulfill the requirements of a degree or certification is often known as a curriculum. Sounds like you want some variation of an broader idiom which connotes either adherence, accordance, or lack thereof, to the requirements stipulated.

• on track
  “That person is on track to complete their degree — in ten years!”
• on the way
  “I'm well on my way to an early graduation.”
  Note: do not confuse this with similar idioms such as ‘along the way’ or ‘by the way’.

Well, I suppose I shall leave it at that for this answer.