My son is a rising HS junior in the fall. He decided two weeks ago that he will graduate in a year. I am freaking out on his decision. What should he and I be doing now since the application process will start after the summer?
His decision is based on he will be fulfilling his H.S. requirement after his junior year. He has no interest in taking more AP classes in his senior year. He is a year older than his peers BTW. He will give up his Ivy dream but he thinks he will eventually get it when he goes for his graduate study. He will still apply for MIT, Stanford, U of Chicago to see where he can get in.
He has not taking his ACT or SAT recently. Here are some of his past scores
ACT 23 (7th grade)
ACT 28 (8th grade)
SAT 2100 (9th grade Math 700, Reading 670, Writing 730)
SAT II (Math 1 - 760)
GPA 4.0/4.0 (maybe a little less after this semester). His high school is on board.
He will take ACT and SAT II in June. ACT minimum 33 or may be higher. SAT II in physics and Math 2.
He will have to double on English next year plus 5 APs. He is a smart but lazy kid.
In my time (1970s), graduating a year early was common. My best friend did it. My sister did it. I would have done it myself except that I was already a year young for my grade and I didn’t want to go to college at 16.
But it sounds as though your son will go at 18. I don’t see a problem with his experience once he gets to college.
He may be at a slight disadvantage in the application process because he won’t have as many advanced courses or leadership positions in extracurricular activities as he would if he had stayed for his senior year, but it sounds as though his credentials are good. And if his school approves of what he’s doing, he’s probably going to get a good recommendation from his guidance counselor.
A few things are crucial now: (1) figuring out the family financial situation and how it affects his choices; (2) choosing a good safety school or two; (3) deciding whether Early Decision would be an appropriate choice for him, and if so, at what college. He might also want to talk to a couple of his teachers right now, before school ends, to see whether they will write recommendations for him. He will need two, from teachers in two different subject areas.
Also, if there are schools in the Ivy League that appeal to him, I don’t see why he can’t apply. He sounds science-oriented. Maybe he would like Cornell.
My son made the same decision 2 days before winter break, so we had one evening to download LORs and give a list to his GC. Since it was GC’s suggestion, she went all out. We had an inappropriate list of colleges, with too many reaches and left out at least one good college, and wasted another application.
So no reason to freak out. Your son has more than enough time to come up with a list, and even to some visits.
Two of sons friends decided to do the same. One applied just to the flagship. The other was a year younger, so had plenty of time to make a good list.
I think that you need to think about why your son wants to graduate early. There is a difference between graduating early if he has exhausted all that you high school has to offer and wanting to graduate because he is a year older than everyone else.
Some of the things to consider;
because he is not part of the cohort, if your school ranks, he may not be part of the ranking
Speak with his counselor to find out how he will be evaluated as compared to the graduating cohort; will he receive the most demanding check box as far as his curriculum is concerned.
If he stays for senior year, what would he be programmed for?
Run your numbers through the net price calculator to see if the schools he is looking are financially feasible options for your family
He needs to touch base with the teachers that he wants/needs to write his recommendation letters
Will his graduating early result in his changing counselors? If yes, then you and he should definitely schedule a meeting to make sure that you are all on the same page as far as programming him to graduate at the end of next year.
Will he consider dual enrollment and finish the last year of high school in a college? Since he has not had a final test score yet, it may hurt his chance in applying EA/ED. With one more year of preparation, he may get a much better score and receive some merit scholarships. With dual enrollment, he may catch up in college with the extra credits just as if he is graduated a year earlier.
OP, I’m more familiar with the option billcsho is suggesting. Some colleges have specific programs for this and work with the HS to allow the student to graduate there using the freshman classes as well as using them for college credit.A young lady at D’s HS did this 4 years ago and enrollment in a special program at Bard College. They offer them in several locations and a specifically for highly motivated students. The girl at D’s school transferred after that first year and graduated a semester early, and will start med school in the fall. You might want to look into that type of thing.
My own D is looking at similar programs at HBCU’s because several offer what they call “early enrollment”. Because her HS has experience with this, they’re working with us on this. It helps that we are a small school with no huge selection of courses or school-based EC’s. There’s definitely some options going early will offer her.
“He will compete next October as a first year college freshman. Don’t know how it works.” The PSAT is a scholarship competition for high school juniors. There is no purpose in taking it as a college student. As a rising junior, he should take it this fall in case he changes his mind about graduating early.
If you’d like us to suggest additional colleges for his list, we need to know more about what he wants. What’s his intended major? Does he have strong preferences for any type of college or environment over others (for example, some kids say “no big cities” and others say “no tiny colleges”). What part of the country do you live in? If you feel comfortable enough, you might even want to tell us what state you live in. There are probably people here who are familiar with your in-state options and can give you good advice about them.
It would also help if we knew more about your financial situation because that has a huge impact on college selection.
Do sort out your money issues, then go read through the threads pinned at the top of the Financial Aid Forum. Your son’s SAT score and GPA already guarantee admission and merit-based aid at a number of respectable places, which could serve as his safeties provided he gets the applications in on time.
Your son is clearly gifted judging by his GPA and test scores in such early grades. I hope the ACT and SAT tests he plans to take in June are not last minute decisions, that he has at least some time to prep for those exams. If need be he can retake the ACT and SAT early this fall. You are right what he will miss out on will be AP test scores, I imagine they will be important for schools like MIT, Stanford and Chicago. Did he take any honors or AP classes in his Freshman and Sophomore years? He can always take a couple more SAT II tests in the fall, perhaps Chem and English. He can also take a CTY class this summer, either online or in residence to show he can handle high level classes.
In our area many gifted kids graduate high school early as well. Some graduate in 3 years, others do Running Start and start taking most if not all of their classes at a local community college in Junior year, graduate high school simultaneously with an AA degree, and enroll in college as a junior as soon as they graduate high school. There are also kids who start at our local flagship after sophomore year at 16, some as young as 14 (right after middle school). For many gifted kids, high school is a waste of time.
Don’t worry about him being “lazy”. I doubt that he is, few gifted kids are; he just needs to find something that really motivates him. It’s quite possible that he is not challenged by school thus far. Lack of challenge often demoralizes gifted kids in K-12 and turn them into unmotivated learners. College might just be the motivator that he needs. I think he made a good decision to graduate early.
“Bard College at Simon’s Rock is the only four year college in the United States specifically designed to allow bright, highly motivated adolescents to fully realize their intellectual and creative potential by beginning college immediately after the tenth or eleventh grade.
Offering students both significant autonomy and appropriate support, Simon’s Rock fosters a diverse community of intellectual and chronological peers. Under the guidance of talented and dedicated faculty, students learn to formulate and defend their own ideas; to engage with the ideas of others; and to become innovative thinkers who contribute with purpose to the world around them.”
The program @bopper talks about sounds great for kids in that situation.
I wonder whether the OP’s kid fits the mold. @herewelearn, do you feel your son isn’t quite ready for full time college? Or do you feel he’s ready, but that you were just unprepared for his decision to graduate early? Also, is his motivation for graduating early that he has used up the academic opportunities at his high school? This is not always the reason why a young person might want to go to college early. Some are simply sick of high school even though the high school offers good academic opportunities for senior year, and some are motivated by other things, such as the desire to get out of an unpleasant family situation or make new friends.
We live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We do have a 529 plan for him. So it is not an issue financially if he attends a college this year or next.
He spent the past 4 summers at a college (U of Wisconsin Madison) for summer camps (CTY camps). He likes there very much. It is his motivation to move on. Univ. of Wisconsin Madison flagship is our safety (I would like to think).
He is a very good test taker. He didn’t study for ACT or SAT in the past. He does well if he is more relaxed.
What can be his safeties? He likes to have major in physics / astrophysics / engineering. He is ok with big schools or medium size schools. So far our list consists of –
MIT
Stanford
U of Chicago
U of Wisc Madison (home state)
U of IL Urbana- Champaign
U C Berkeley
Cornell
Purdue
Ohio State
U of Indiana
Rice Univ
Case Western Reserve
Georgia Tech
Harvey Mudd
So, does that mean he hasn’t taken any AP courses yet? What courses has he taken in physics / astrophysics / engineering to have a good idea that he wants to major in one of them? Non-AP physics is very different from the math content in AP physics. Where is he in math?
For many universities on your list, one would need to decide whether to apply to the College of L&S for physics/astrophysics or the College of Engineering for some type (which one?) of engineering. If he applies to L&S, it is often difficult to transfer to Engineering. Is he going to be ready to make that decision by Oct/Nov/Dec of this year?
As far as I know, the CTY summer camps aren’t going to count as AP courses even if you got the HS to put them on his transcript as credits.
UC Berkeley and all the UCs have some very specific rules about what credits are required and what courses are weighted (for OOS, pretty much only AP courses). For example, he will need a year-long visual/performing arts credit, 3 social studies including econ and US gov, 4 English, etc.
He has AP statistics this year. He is also in Honor English. Math wise he is in Pre-Calc this year. Next year he will have AP physics, AP comp sci, AP Calc, AP Spanish, AP US History. He is very interested in Space stuff since baby.