How can we end our apartment lease 3 months early?

It is doubtful that you can break your lease merely because you are moving out of town.  You can possibly work with your landlord to try to negotiate an early termination.  As an example, you want to leave 3 months early.  If you agree to leave 3 months early, agree to pay the landlord a portion of the rent, say one month or two, or pay one month, move out without damage and let them keep the security deposit, then let the landlord re-let the property, he or she might be willing to allow you to go without having to pay the entire balance.  Even if you had to give up 1 1/2 months (or whatever you can negotiate more or less than that, it is better than giving up all 3 months. Another practical solution is to find a new tenant for your landlord.  You are graduating from college.  Do you know any juniors who might be interested?  If you hand him a new tenant on a silver platter, he might let you out or them might agree to move in and pay rent early.