Hi!
I am enrolled in an Early College school, which means I will get an associates degree along with a high school diploma when I graduate high school. The problem with the high school is that there are no sports, clubs, AP, IB etc. Will this hurt my chances of getting into Harvard? Would I be better off if I transfer to a normal high school or should I stay? My grades are currently good and I do extracurricular stuff as well as volunteering.
So, would you then attempt to be a transfer student, coming in as a junior? Or would you apply as a freshman?
The credits don’t count outside NC, (where I live), nor for prestigious schools (Duke, Chapel Hill, Harvard). I would be applying as a freshman.
Then, if you get excellent grades and test scores, write wonderful essays and get fabulous recommendation letters, your chances are as good as most and better than many. Which is still a long shot.
Since the curriculum is a college-level curriculum, I doubt that Harvard will think less of you because you had no APs available. Just try to take the most rigorous curriculum avaialble to you, and do your very best. If you’re doing things that interest you outside of school, the fact that your school has no ECs also won’t matter much.
Anyway, that’s my take. I hope others with perhaps more direct experience in this set of circumstances will weigh in.
Is that course of study going to get you a well-rounded education or an accelerated one?
I would strongly suggest you talk to the admissions office at Harvard about this plan and how it might affect your application chances.
I go to a school like this too, and I have emailed Harvard on several occasions. Honestly, they were a little persnickety about it. They told me my credits would not transfer unless they were in a degree, and that I need to spend at least four years there to graduate with a degree from Harvard. Stanford only requires two years, if you have an associates degree AND Stanford would let you transfer a lot of credits (Like,17?, it was a while ago so I’m not sure of the exact number but I was impressed) Anyway, Harvard said it wouldn’t hurt my chances but the advisor told me to bump up my volunteer work.
HELLO, this is Harvard – of course they are going to be persnickety about it! So too is Yale, Princeton, the rest of the ivies and Stanford.
Here’s the deal: Every college believes they do a better job at teaching a course than their peers. So, Harvard WILL NOT accept a course taken at Yale unless that course has been pre-approved by the registrar’s office and academic department in advance. The same applies for Yale student’s trying to get credit for a course taken at Harvard or Princeton – it’s not just going to happen unless it’s been pre-approved in advance. Now, that’s for college students!
For high school students: most high end colleges, including Stanford, WILL NOT grant credit for college courses taken as part of a high school’s graduation requirements – and that includes early college: http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/registrar/students/credit-policies
Im not worried about taking in a college credit. I figured they wouldn’t accept my credits. I just want to know if not having AP, clubs, sports, etc. will hurt my chances.
Would I be better off transferring to a normal high school or staying where I am?
Colleges judge you in the context of your high school, so if your high school does NOT offer AP’s, clubs, or sports, Admissions will not hold it against you.
However, if your high school does have clubs and sports, but you don’t participate in them because you are constantly studying for those college classes, that is not going to look good, as Admissions wants student’s who have the energy, drive and commitment to pursue something beyond academics.
For example, here in New York there are high schools affiliated with Bard College called Bard High School Early College: http://www.bard.edu/earlycollege. Students earn their high school degree in the first two years of high school, and then work on college level classes for their junior and senior years. Bard High School Early College does have clubs and some sports, so I imagine Admissions looks for Bard High School students who participate in those EC’s, or participate in EC’s outside of the classroom.
Thank you so much gibby, your post helped me out a lot!
Harvard wants leaders (whatever that means) If you excell at your college classes and are a leader in the classroom that is more important than joining a bunch of clubs Harvard is an academic institution first and foremost