<p>I need some help. I would like to graduate early from high school with the class of 2012 due to more reasons than I can list (but read on please). I am a current junior with a 4.2 GPA (GIEP in Art with an IQ of 136) who does winter/spring track, Girl Scouts, Art Lessons (and I also teach at the art studio as a job), Student Council, Key Club, Interim Club, and I am in different art organizations outside of school. My school has not given out the senior projects yet and I am taking the SAT on November 5th. I also have volunteered on my own with 240 hours since freshman year. I have taken as many honors classes as I can so far in high school (including a class called "Great Books" last year which is an equivalent to 12th grade english. It is a prerequisite to AP enlgish for senior year. But I also had 10th grade honors english in the same year) I need 22 credits to graduate and I would have 21.75 by the end of junior year. The only requirements I haven't fulfilled class-wise would be another social studies/or social studies elective and senior gym. I've heard that your senior year gym can get waived though. If I took a social studies elective class online I believe that would fulfill my classes and credit requirements as set by my school district. I have yet to ask my parents (who say I should enjoy high school). Some reasons why I would like to graduate are mental maturity and because I'd only have 2 required classes next year (Great Books counts as a fourth year english class). I always feel kind of strange at school since I've always been more mature for my age and I (and other adults I know) feel that I would be ready to start college a year early so I can get "ahead of the game". This would help me to be academically challenged/feel more fulfilled with school knowing that I am not wasting time of petty, not useful high school classes (yes senior gym and home ec are a couple of them). My plan is to go to my local communtiy college for Social Science with a minor in Art for two years then transfer to another college (possibly Marywood in Scranton, Pa.) for my masters in Art Therapy. Or do my as many courses at I can at Penn State Main Campus to save on money before going to Marywood (both Penn State and LCCC are far cheaper than Marywood). On a side note about being mentally mature...I meant that i am not one for the "waaaah my shoe's untied the world's going to end" or "come and fight me, girl". I just steer away from drama/complaining/slacking with school or life. It's hard to describe my maturity but I'm sure any of you who are on this blog would probably understand what I mean. I also am very used to an extremely heavy workload and busy schedule in and out of school. When I sent a request slip to have a meeting with my Guidance Counselor, i put the reason as "Questions about graduating early". The sad thing is that she called me during Trig class and said "Oh honey we don't do that here, even though youre ontop of your credits and extracurriculars you need to do four years. I'll just give you some extra electives for your senior year." HA, more electives with slower kids, thanks mrs. guidance counselor. Anyways, I didnt know what to say back to her since I know of a kid last year from my school who graduated a year early. He said that he took courses over the previous summer since he was behind on requirements. So do I need to petition to graduate early (how does that work?) or combine my senior year with my college freshman year? I'll stop at that so I do not write too much, but any suggestions or advice would be extremely appreciated. Nervousness is filling my brain about what you've written on petitioning to graduate a year early and also I am worried about what my parents will say. Thank you to anybody that responds!!</p>
<p>You don’t need to graduate high school to go to college. My brother and I both dropped out of high school to attend Caltech. Many community colleges do not require high school diplomas either. If you really need a diploma later, you can get a GED, which should be easy for you.</p>
<p>As a side note, one aspect of maturity is being able to tolerate those who aren’t - and as a person with a mental illness, it angers me when people think they are superior to me just because they can work harder or have better control over their emotions.</p>
<p>Why don’t you consider taking some more advanced classes and get a well rounded education?</p>
<p>I’ll take into consideration the GED option, I was really hoping to attain my diploma though. Has not having your diploma affected you in any way n27? I’m just curious 
Also, I am very tolerant with those who are less mature (Including kids, I’m great with kids) and also the mentally ill (my bestfriend of 10 years, Amber, has an older sister, Kali, who is severely mentally ill and I am the only friend of hers over the years who has been kind to Kali). I am a floater at school, by the way. As in I am friends with mostly every type of person within my school, even the immature. I am not saying that in a bad way of course, I am nonjudgemental and do not think I am superior to others in any way. Uncle, there is only AP english (which I would be taking senior year) AP physics and AP chemistry (none of which apply to a master’s art therapy degree) at my school and no more dual enrollment. Right now my schedule is Honors English 11, Honors Spanish 3, Honors American Cultures, Advanced Art 3, Chorus, Honors Trig/Analyt/Pre-Calc, 11th grade gym, and Honors Physics.</p>
<p>Oh okay, that makes much more sense. I would never want to destroy myself with AP chem unless I was going to take STEM classes in college.</p>
<p>That’s exactly what I am thinking as well, if I’m never going to need chemistry for my college degree then why ruin my GPA by taking it as an AP class? Of course I took honors chem last year and did well with it but I’d rather not take any class involving chem ever again haha.</p>