<p>Advantages of regular graduation trumps your other arguments for graduating early.</p>
<p>Again, graduating early is only seen as an advantage for students that have exhausted the most rigorous curriculum offered by their high school.</p>
<p>I’m going to tell you right now that chances are slim for acceptance to HYPS for even the brightest students in the country. Our local valedictorian of 2 years ago (100+GPA, Intel Semi-Finalist, Varsity Athlete, 9 AP Classes, attended summer research program at Brown, school band member, in the school play every year, many hours of community service, many leadership positions) was rejected from Brown. She did everything right—great student, athlete, musician, gave back to the community, did research during the summers, Intel semi-finalist, numerous AP’s, perfect GPA, strong SAT scores, a great all-around kid—but still didn’t get accepted into Brown.</p>
<p>It’s great to shoot high in the application process but it’s more important to remain realistic.</p>
<p>“…often a heavier course load during your remaining time at high school, it says something to college admissions officers about your dedication to your studies.”
^but you see, you will not be taking the heaviest course load. You will be taking PRE-AP classes which are not at the level of AP courses. Harvard is looking for much more than the Pre-Ap level.</p>
<p>“Would it be very unwise to ask the advice of, say, the Harvard admissions office on this situation?”
^It’s way too early for you to contact Harvard or any other college. You haven’t even taken your PSAT or one AP class yet. Wait until the summer before your Junior Year and during your Junior Year to seriously begin looking into colleges. You don’t have info yet to even begin making a college wish list. You need to have a clue as to your SAT/ACT scores and your GPA over a longer timeframe to see where you stand compared to specific college’s Common Data Set.</p>