I am a junior at a good high school with a 4.0 unweighted, I took 1 advanced class (my schools version of AP) last year and will take 4 during my Junior year. As far as extra curriculars go, I am on student council, involved in boy scout leadership, I have worked both a law firm and city council campaign internship, I’m a member of swim team, involved in leadership at a national non-profit, and NHS. Do I have a shot of being able to skip my senior year and go straight to college? If so, what schools are there that would accept a junior?
Your likelihood of admission probably becomes much lower than the already very low likelihood unless you have exhausted the academic offerings available to you while you are in high school.
Also, being younger than other students may be more problematic at highly residential campuses.
8 Likes
My first reaction is that you might be underestimating the quality of the students who get admitted to Harvard, MIT, Stanford, or other universities at this level.
You are doing exceptionally well. If you keep up this good work through your senior year of high school then you will be competitive for admissions at the top universities. That does not mean that you will be accepted to a “top 10” university.
I do not think that skipping your senior year of high school would either help you get admitted to a top ranked school, nor help you to do well if you get to attend one of them. However, I think that you are on track to do well when you do get to university.
I think that you should keep doing well, intend to continue to get top grades through your senior year of high school, participate in the ECs that make sense for you, treat people fairly, and read the “applying sideways” blog on the MIT admissions web site.
I also agree that being younger than the other students when you arrive at a top ranked university would not be helpful (I have some personal experience with this – I turned 17 the summer before I started as a freshman at MIT).
2 Likes
CMU has a program that takes kids after the junior year.
1 Like
What’s the rush?
Plus, you have to meet the senior requirements for graduation for your high school.
We had a student, in my son’s class, who was on the teams with our son. He was in line to be valedictorian. He was required by the high school to have bio, physics and another science. Since he was in every AP class and did everything, he opted to not take bio and chose CS, with his tiger Mom’s blessing. He told the counselor that he would take bio at the CC before graduation.
It never happened.
He did not receive a diploma and a number of his elite college offers were rescinded.
He quickly did take a course at the local CC, during the summer, and only one university maintained their offer.
Our son was #2 or 3 after the new valedictorian was selected. He cruised through his senior year and received great letters of recommendation, awards, etc.
I have a friend in Admissions at the local UC. I remember her telling me that juniors did apply, but that seniors just were more “polished” on paper and in their descriptions. They prioritized senior admissions and it was rare that they admitted a junior.
1 Like
Yes CMU does have “early admission” for juniors but they take very few. Much harder to get in than regular admissions. Juniors need to have exhausted all their course options at school like @ucbalumnus mentioned, plus have a very strong rationale for seeking early admission. “I’m very smart and I don’t need senior year” is likely not one of them.
6 Likes
Oh, I forgot to add,
I assume you are not 18 yet?
There is a lot of paperwork at the universities requiring adult signatures.
Depending on the school, you may not be legally able to sign the contracts for housing, the health offices or anything requiring a legal signature (working in the school labs).
Anything requiring a legal signature may require that your parents fly in and sign paperwork.
1 Like
Could you apply? Sure…anyone can apply.
SHOULD you apply skipping senior year? Probably not. You want your application to be as strong as possible. So…in your senior year, take a strong selection of courses, perhaps dual enrollment ones. Take time to do some leadership positions in your ECs. In other words, do what all those other applicants will be doing in four years that you are trying to squeeze into three.
Have you exhausted all the upper level courses at your school? And will you have met the graduation requirements? Have you taken four years each of English, History/social studies, science, math and foreign language? What about classes in the arts like maybe band or orchestra? Or art. Or drama.
7 Likes
Can you do dual enrollment with your local community college? A lot of students in our area do that. They might end up taking 2 classes at their regular high school and the rest at Community College.
A daughter of a friend graduated in December of her senior year from high school, but she was a recruited athlete. Also very smart. She went to a top 20 university and graduated in 3 years. I think she is going to grad school in Microbiology now.
Most colleges want to see 4 years of English, Math, Science, and at least 2 of foreign language.
@Trevor2 have you earned Eagle Scout?
What are your ACT and SAT scores?
Why the rush??
In addition to everything else that’s been said - excellent advice - it will provoke the question “if the applicant is so passionate about these various ECs, why leave them a year early?”
What’s the hurry? Harvard has been around for almost 400 years. They’ll be around next year.
4 Likes
You can definitely apply. You almost certainly will not be accepted.
Like many people your age, you do not really understand what these colleges are looking for. Many people have this idea that they’re looking for the smartest and most talented.
They’re not.
They are, actually, looking for the most accomplished, and they are 100% right in doing so, though these colleges don’t always do it for the right reasons.
They’re right to do so, because talents and potential is far more common than the ability to do anything with that talent or potential. Moreover, despite whatever the creators of IQ tests claim, it is exceedingly difficult to actually know what a person’s intellectual talents are unless these talents are demonstrated in real-life situations.
That is what admissions wants to see - stuff that you have done with your talents and potential. Actually, colleges are actually a lot more focussed on their own image, and they want to point to the accomplishments of the students that they enroll.
However, it comes out to the same thing. admissions want to see that you have accomplished many things.
So, unless your accomplishments as a Junior equal or exceed the accomplishments of the very best Seniors, you are not competitive for any so-called “elite” college.
Why would any college accept you over a senior who has done everything you have done, but has also done it for another year, meaning that they are returning to the activity, and taking more responsibility, and likely accomplishing more?
You know how to compete with those seniors? You continue what you are doing for another year.
You are doing very well. Keep up the good work!
12 Likes
Are you just eager to get on to the next phase of life, or do you have serious reasons for wanting to leave your high school and/or your home a year sooner?
Others have covered the downsides of cutting your high school education short. You could, however, look into other options for a change of scene, such as doing your senior year abroad through an AFS or Rotary exchange. This would make it tricky to deal with the college application process, but not impossible if you plan ahead.
2 Likes
USC has a program for students that have finished their junior year. They actually work with your school so that you still get your HS diploma.
Clarkson has an early college program as well. A friend’s child did it and it was wonderful. Their motivation was exhausting all the courses offered at their HS and no DE option (this was a number of years back).
1 Like
I would really look into staying in high school on paper, but doing dual enrollment if that is an option in your area. That will get you out of your high school building (at least it does in our area) and you can complete the high school graduation requirements as well as earn college credit. A friend of my daughter did a Middle College program (started junior year) and graduated high school and got her Associates Degree at the same time. She is going to college with 2 years of credits and will get out in 2 years. Another friend got her Associates, but didn’t want to miss out so entered college as a first year student and will be there for 4 years, but has extra credits so she can take a lighter load.
Something like this is more likely to work at a state school than an elite private school.
2 Likes
I don’t want this to sound snarky, but why do you think you will get into an elite college after your junior year OR after your senior year? If you’ve spent some time on CC, you have seen that they are hard to get into even for the tippy top student.
You have already received good info here, but if you feel comfortable sharing more info - on ECs, extenuating circumstances, etc - you may get even more.
3 Likes
The big question here is…why do you want or need to graduate from high school one year early.
And second…what elite schools are you considering?
You are talking about an early entry program to college. The list of colleges with early entrance programs is quite short.
Another option to graduating and going to college early is to actually earn your high school diploma at the end of junior year. My own daughter did this. In fact, she also had an early entrance to K, and so she went away to college while still 16. Before we let her graduate HS early, I called the colleges on her list anonymously to ask if they accept early graduates and all said “yes” IF they have earned a diploma. In her case, she did earn a high school diploma by the end of junior year. So, if you want to pursue going to college after junior year, I strongly suggest you have earned a high school diploma because the list of “early entrance” to college (before earning a HS diploma) schools is quite short.
In my daughter’s case, she had a strong rationale academically, personally, socially, and in her case, artistically and she articulated it in an extra statement to her colleges, and her school counselor backed it up. She was accepted to 3/4s of the colleges on her list, applying to extremely competitive programs in her field (acceptance rates in the single digits) and attended NYU Tisch School of the Arts.