May be I don’t fully appreciate the anxiety of waiting for the decision date and the impact of dealing with a rejection on someone that young (and an unnecessary rejection at that).
But, I am thinking that, if she was my child, I’d let her know to expect a rejection, but advise her to apply even if she has very little chance to get in. In the very least, that is a full extra year for her to think about revising her essays and how to position/reposition her extracurricular activities.
Yeah I guess people do sometimes reapply the following year after taking a gap year…but it seems to me then that many people with advanced classes could apply after 11th grade with no risk then, as long as they somehow got their 4 years of English done in 3 years.
I think that this has always been an option for students whose high schools allow for early graduation. The thing is, the student also has to be willing and interested in possibly graduating early and parents need to be OK with it. In the end, with all of those limitations, it is not that many people who would do it.
E.g., we offered our older daughter to possibly graduate early and apply to colleges, and she said no way; because she wanted to graduate with her friends. I still think she should have applied because she would have started thinking about what goes into a college application earlier (she is a procrastinator and she ended up doing her college essays right before they were due). My younger one is considering this. But, she has always been the more organized one anyway.
There’s also maturity to think about to. Living on your own is a huge step in life. I’m on the younger side for my grade and felt it would be helpful if I was on the older end. Going to college as a 16 year old is quite a leap.
@ProfessorPlum168 @gkalman @10s4life UCLA is what I am reaching for, but if I don’t get accepted then I’ll probably go to community college for a couple years then transfer. Since it’s winter break, I still haven’t gone over it with my counselor.
@medigull if you don’t get in this time around and go to cc anyways you might as well wait and apply normally and graduate on time rather than early. You’ll have a much stronger application (than now) and still can do cc in case you don’t get in. But do what feels best for you. I just wanted to bring up this option. Best of luck.
@medigull Why are you so set against staying in high school if you don’t get in after applying your junior year?
In my opinion, there is no clear reason stated that would make CC a better option. Unless there are very good reasons to not be in high school your senior year I completely agree with @10s4life (Reasons to not stay in high school could be: you are already attending your dream college, you are in a private high school that costs a lot, you have personality conflicts with other high school students, teachers or administrators, your high school has overly restrictive policies on whether you can take classes outside of it, there is literally nothing more to take at high school, or …)
If your high school does not offer enough rigor, you should be able to take CC classes next year and the following year to supplement high school. Then, you can apply junior year (and you’ll have a decent shot with a good SAT score). Then, if junior year does not fan out, apply again senior year with stronger stats. And then, if you don’t have enough to get in on the second try in your senior year, you should have enough to apply from a CC as a transfer the following year.
IMHO, likely the same as others on this thread, your best chance at UCLA is in your senior year of high school. I know admission rates are higher for California CC students who transfer, but there is more self-selection with respect to who applies. My guess is that it is actually tougher to transfer than get in as a freshman.