<p>The New Yorker is an excellent choice for reading material.</p>
<p>Hey, jamesgig, I sympathize with your plight. Really. As a 14 year old senior, I'm also out of advanced/AP math/science (and actually also english/history) classes to take. Yes, I'm also taking a very challenging courseload. Since I'm too young to drive myself and can't reasonably expect my mother to drive an hour each day to bus me to the nearest college, taking classes there is out of the question - not to mention costs. </p>
<p>However, why can't you graduate with a diploma? It might be worth looking into this. Depending on state/school regulations, graduating after your third year of high school should be plausible - as it was with me. </p>
<p>If the option above isn't available, sure, you could try applying to mit or harvard and then, apply again your senior year if you don't get in. (Actually, I'm not sure about harvard, but I know MIT allows this. They don't even ask whether or not you've applied before.) Otherwise, why not continue self-studying? Although some top schools might not give you credit for doing so, most (MIT for example) will let you test out of them once you are accepted. A friend of mine, an 18y.o. freshman at MIT this year is taking graduate level math courses as a result of teaching himself massive amounts of math as a high school student. Personally, if I had just been out of math/science classes and not also out of english/history classes, I would have opted to stay another year at high school and self-study I think. Independent studying FTW. </p>
<p>Also, there are lots of things to do outside of school concerning math and science, since those are subjects which you seem to like. Consider math camps or science camps in the summers if you really want to learn more. Canada/USA Mathcamp is a favorite of mine. 5 weeks of exhilarating, advanced mathematics you would never be able to find in high school. If you have tons of extra time on your hands (like I did to a degree), work on improving in math and science competitions, or do something awesome with your mathy skills. I started a mathcamp for elementary school kids last year and passing on my passion for math has been a very rewarding experience. You, unlike me, are also involved in sports. Do more if you like it. Compete nationally if possible - and if you want to. And I would really like to stress the "if you want to"/"if you like it" part. </p>
<p>Yes, school can be excrutiatingly boring, but it's not life! Or at least it shouldn't be. Math, if its something you truly love, can be done outside of it. In fact, it's probably best done outside of the confines of the rigid teaching found in most public high schools. </p>
<p>And...I really hate to say this since, overall, I dislike standardized testing imensely and would be quite happy if they suddenly died a horrible, painful death. Plus, as I'm sure you've heard, scores are not all they look for in an application. But, it might be beneficial to work on your verbal scores and NOT JUST FOR RESUME PURPOSES! While math and writing were a breeze and I walked out with perfects, critical reading was a bit harder. Not the vocab part for me though; literary analysis has never been something I excel at. Yes, I complained at having to study to raise it. BUT, it also helped me become better at english in general - the critical reading aspect of it anyway. So, in the end, I got more out of it that just the ability to fill in bubbles on a scantron and type a pretty number on my applications. </p>
<p>Meh, I'm not trying to sound superior, or act holier-than-thou since I'm also graduating at a fairly young age and going to college next year be it UT or <em>crosses fingers</em> MIT. Instead, just realize that there are options out there besides what you're trying to do. Skipping grades as I did is one. Homeschooling (which I also did), though requiring a bit more parental cooperation is another. As is doing other things outside of school. However, if you do skip or get out of high school early, make sure you've done all there is to do and haven't missed out on some important aspects of it.</p>
<p>No, MIT does not require a high school diploma.</p>
<p>Welcome to the forum, Nevermore; your post was very interesting. Yes, I can relate to young people who want to go beyond the meager challenge of the local high school at as early an age as possible. My family is lucky, in our town, to have a gifted homeschooling support group with parents who have been quite ingenious about building academic programs outside the school system. It is through that group that I became a math team coach--even though I was a language major in college. Now that my oldest son's math ability is well beyond mine, we have to scramble to find him advanced learning opportunities, but there are plenty of those for pre-college students in math. We are pretty satisfied with EPGY</a> Online High School, a brand-new program, so far, and I think that will help us let our children grow physically and in life experience before they submit applications to colleges with suitably challenging programs (and forbiddingly low acceptance rates). </p>
<p>Good luck to all of you looking for more academic challenge. There is plenty of preparation to do in the teen years before attempting to apply to Harvard.</p>