<p>Maybe a year volunteering or if parents can swing it at a foreign study program?</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies, everyone! Here are my current options:
[ul][<em>]complete high school in four years, like the rest of my friends will probably be doing
[</em>]finish high school and apply to college as a junior
[<em>]finish high school and take a gap year (maybe in Italy)
[</em>]spend part of the first semester of senior year in Italy, and part at my volunteer job, but take classes and graduate in the second semester
[li]take classes in the morning at high school in my senior year (taking AP English and three AP sciences or AP English, two AP sciences, and history), and take college courses two days a week and volunteer two days a week in the afternoons[/ul][/li]Am I forgetting anything?</p>
<p>Our son went through this 2 years ago. He had taken advantage of what his high school could offered (which was a lot,) and there was not much else for him to do. </p>
<p>citygirlsmom is absolutely right, the key question is not whether the student is ready for college courses but for college life. While there is no way to get a definite answer ahead of time, two factors that increased our confidence were: (1) he had spent parts of several Summers away from home and thrived in that environment; and (2) the students he must closely identified with in HS were older than him, partly because he had been taken courses with them since middle school. Two years latter I can say these were accurate indicators.</p>
<p>dmd77: are you by any chance from New Jersey? The State department of Education will give a student a state sanctioned HS diploma if they showed proficiency in the HSPAs and can prove 30 credits of college level work. The trick is the distribution of the courses. In our son's case the core curriculum of the school is heavily biased towards math and sceince. It may take until his third year before he can show credits in the required humanities classes. For now he is just our favorite HS drop out...</p>
<p>Artiesdad--Thanks, no, we're from the Seattle area. If my son had been in the public schools, he could have had a diploma under the Washington Running Start program, but he was in a private school out of state. At this point, he likes telling people he's a high school dropout, and of course, once he has an MIT degree, no one will care that he doesn't have an HS diploma.</p>
<p>As a parent of a child who has skipped a grade and then some, I have to encourage you to do it if it is something you think you will like. My son has always acted years beyond his age and fits in very well with his older friends. He's mature, trustworthy and loves learning. If we had held him back, we would have had a high school dropout on our hands. He was bored to tears in high school even considering the ton of eCs he had. Staying for "the prom" or "senior awards" etc are poor reasons in my book. I know everyones experience is different though and you sound like you have done much thinking on this. You should do what feels right <em>to you</em>. BTW my other children did not skip as it would not have been right for them. Each child has to be looked at individually. My son that skipped does not regret it for one second.</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice, everyone! I talked to my parents, and they will ask my counselors if I may take APs as a sophomore (only juniors and seniors are allowed to take them). Right now, the best option may be to take two to four APs at my high school with two college courses as a senior. I'll give you an update in the next few days.</p>
<p>Hey, sorry if this is a bother, but I want to go to a junior college and will have a degree in time to do it. If I do so, I would be leaving high school without a diploma, but I would then be gettign my associates degree. My father and mother, who are divoreced and my mother remarried, are are against this decision, my dad being the strongest oppresion. They do not support my decision and I don't feel I will be able to go to junior college under there control. I was wondering if there was something I could legally do that would allo me to enroll as a full-time student at a junior college or, in the case of emancipation, how exactly do I emancipate myself from my parents?</p>
<p>I have no problem with your posting on this thread, but you might get more help if you start a new thread (with a detailed title). Good luck! I am sure that the parents will be able to help you!</p>
<p>i did so... but i know that colleges don't look favorably on this... consider taht i got rejected... not even deferred from yale ea mit ea cornell ed... with scores like</p>
<p>800 M 660 V 800 math II 740 chem 690 writing 690 physics
rank 24/410... plus fairly good ecs... i can only assume it was because of age</p>
<p>No offense to cujoe, but I have heard of various top colleges, and have repeatedly heard of MIT, accepting applicants of younger-than-usual age, and applicants who have no high school diploma. Based on the stats cujoe reported, I think the reason for rejection was more likely low nonmath scores and low class rank (low for MIT, although high for lots of other places) not made up for by the STELLAR ECs expected at such a school.</p>
<p>Remember what the sages say about envy - there is always someone better looking (Jennifer vs. Angelina, case in point), smarter, funnier, faster, stronger, sexier, more eloquent, more accomplished, and/or more intelligent than you are - therefore, eyes front, live your own life, and ignore comparisons with others.</p>
<p>On the other hand - colleges these days have tons of applicants, with the big population bump and the street-savvy boomers guiding the process and passing on their achievement obsession to their offspring (How did we get that way? Why can't we chill out any more? When does middle age creep into our perspectives?). Unless you are in college courses every summer, you probably aren't going to be able to come up with quals to equal the most star-studded seniors. Therefore, you will be at a disadvantage in the applicant pool at the most selective colleges. Many years back, I left high school a year early to go to St. John's College. There were no APs or IB programs, just straight 'college prep' courses, and I felt like I was dying on the vine intellectually, mentally choking on high school. In today's educational landscape, I wouldn't have had to leave early as there are more opportunities. </p>
<p>The final word on this comes from The Prophet - "Every man feels that his burden is heaviest, but who feels it knows it." If you have, for whatever collection of reasons, simply outgrown high school, and you really don't think you could stand it one more year, then it is most likely your own inner wisdom speaking, and you should listen.</p>
<p>Thanks, Yulsie. Good post. --s.bugg</p>
<p>tokenadult... none taken... but i was applying to the engineering programs... where the sat verbal score was well in the average of accepted... good thing i get another chance with the new sats... having taken kaplan and with a practice verbal score of 740 ;)</p>
<p>Cujoe: if you want to go to an engineering school, get that Physics SAT2 score up. 690 is really low for that--around the 65th percentile. (Look at page 14 of this report. <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/about/news_info/cbsenior/yr2004/2004_CBSNR_total_group.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/about/news_info/cbsenior/yr2004/2004_CBSNR_total_group.pdf</a> )</p>
<p>And yeah, MIT takes people out of their junior year with SAT 1s in that range. My son was one of them. And he was 16 at the time.</p>
<p>yep 16 then... 16 still...! i'm gonna take physics again most def... i don't get it... 5 on the ap exam... for the b exam* but then... 690 on the sat II</p>
<p>Hi, cujoe, good luck on your next tests. Now here's a question: if someone applies as a junior (or, say, as a soph) and doesn't get in, is there any barrier to applying to exactly the same school the next year? What have you been told about your possibilities in that regard?</p>
<p>I also am thinking about graduating after my junior year, but my parents are very opposed to it. I feel I am ready to be done with my high school. My school has a lot of drugs and alcohol problems, because most of the students are pretty well-off and careless. I hate being the only one with the answers and the only one that really cares about learning. I also feel the classes progress too slowly because I have to wait for the teacher to explain it numerous times so that the other students might get it. </p>
<p>If I stay at my highschool for my junior year, I will have completed AP Calc BC, AP Euro, AP US History, AP Physics, AP Chemistry, and AP Biology. I also am planning on taking a couple college classes in other sciences such as nutrition. I have a rather low gpa (~3.75) but feel confident that I would be auto-admitted into the UW because they use the academic index and mine is above 70. I don't have a ton of extracurriculars but I did compete locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally for almost 10 years (training 10-15 hours week). I also volunteer at the hospital at least 4 hours a week. </p>
<p>However, I have a unique dilemma and would love any advice anybody might have. I have three choices for my junior year; I could stay at my high school and continue to be frusturated but take lots of AP classes, I could enroll in a community college in Washington's Running Start Dual Enrollment Program, or I could apply to an early entrance program at the UW. Right now, I'm leaning towards the Dual Enrollment program at the community college but I am afraid that it will end up being just like highschool; where nobody really wants to learn.</p>
<p>I would say to your parents, and you can show this message to them, as a fellow parent, that it is very important for a young person who likes learning to be in an atmosphere where the peer group also likes learning. That will help your future, I think, and I'm sure your parents have your best interests at heart. </p>
<p>I don't know whether early entrance to U Dub or Running Start at a community college will get you more of a learning-oriented peer group, but that is the question I would ask at each program. Here in my state, PSEO students (the equivalent of Running Start students) usually hang together because they have the same admissions procedures and same advising office, and they are often the intellectual stars at the community colleges they attend. That might be a sufficient peer group to improve your study life. I know U Dub is a fine university, and if you can already be admitted there, the only reason not to go would be to preserve freshman applicant status for one of the few universities that are more prestigious, if that is your family's goal. In my state, we can have our children go to the U of MN as PSEO students, getting the best research university in the state as "high school" classes, and then apply to the various famous colleges that are hardest to get into, with the U of MN as a sure "safety" school. You should check whether U Dub's program counts you as a freshman right away, if you want to apply as a new first-year student rather than as a transfer student to some highly selective school out of state. Other than that, I don't think you can go wrong if you leave high school and do one of the locally available programs. I would be happy to discuss this with your parents by private message if they wish.</p>
<p>"Just make sure you don't get overwhelmed by the extra work (it gets in the way of ECs)." - Marite</p>
<p>No offense marite, but I think there's more to life than accelerated courses and ECs. As a current senior, I can vouch that senior year is a time for big social growth, class bonding, and most importantly, fun. What's the hurry - to get into the workforce 1 year earlier?</p>
<p>ya... i mean... i would have gone if i was accepted... but... YAY TO SENIOR YEAR... it'll be awesome... last year with my friends... tokenadult* no repurcussions whatsoever... that's what they told me... as for zpmqxonw i was in a similar situation... having completed 142.5 credits with only 120 needed for graduation... a 3.7ish gpa... and having ap calc bc, ap bio, ap statistics, ap chemistry, ap physics done by the end of senior year, it seemed like there was little left to do... but hey, next year i'll have 5 or 6 ap's to keep me busy... if you honestly think ur school isn't challenging you enough go right ahead and apply, but be warned ur missing out on a lot for senior year. and also i do know that some colleges prefer not to admit juniors as they're we're not "socially mature" yet</p>
<p>hope i could help... not ranting or anything if it seemed that way... haha</p>