<p>I believe a lot of top school do not care if you have a diploma … they do care about how many college prep courses you have taken so if you have those covered you should be OK at a lot of schools. The bigger issue is having one less year of school means one less year of everything … less classes, less ECs, less leadership … you will not be given a break for skipping a year … and in many ways it makes it a little tougher since you have one less year of accomplishments.</p>