<p>My D is bright, motivated, old for her grade, and socially mature. Ever since she was young, she has spent all her time hanging out with friends who are a couple years older than she is. Now, as a junior, all of her good friends are in college and she usually spends at least one weekend a month visiting them. She is very responsible and we give her a lot of freedom. She has been talking about, and planning for, attending college after her junior year since she was a sophomore. Vanderbilt has been her dream school since she was younger and she has been to visit many schools. She applied regular decision only to Vanderbilt this year as a junior. She has a 1480 SAT score, a 33 on her ACT, and takes mostly APs/some Honors classes with straight A's, has worked a part time job for a year and a half, has booked many modeling jobs, has many extracurriculars, etc. Her highschool, a well-known top private school, refuses to allow anyone to recieve their diploma in less than 4 years. To graduate early, she must recieve her GED. I was wondering how much of a difference the GED makes in the Vanderbilt application process, as I am worried that if she does not get in she will be very dissapointed at spending another year in HS. I do not know much about the GED versus an actual Diploma...Also, we live in the state of Florida, if that makes much of a difference. Does anyone know much about the GED/ or how much of a difference it makes to schools when a student has not completed the senior year?</p>
<p>I doubt GED is going to make that much of a difference. The real difference is that the competition is going to have one more year to get all sorts of things on that resume. Considering the competition nowadays, that ain’t good. You can try, but it’s hard for seniors, much less juniors.</p>
<p>I bet she can get a diploma from teh state as I expect she has met state requirements for graduation.
Colleges are generally more interested in entrance requirements being met- & on students readiness rather than fixating on whether a student has a diploma</p>
<p>[College</a> Search - Vanderbilt University - Vandy - Admission](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)</p>
<p>High school diploma or equivalent is not required</p>
<p>Some colleges say that they will only accept early applicants who have the full support of their high schools. Does your daughter have that? </p>
<p>I have a friend who went to college early (age 15); her high school granted her a diploma after one year in college, which was when her class graduated. Other students graduate high school a year early or never officially graduate. Some colleges state that all applicants must graduate high school before matriculating, so you need to consider that. Even if it’s not a requirement, does your daughter want to graduate high school? Is a diploma something she values?</p>
<p>x-posted with Ray</p>
<p>How many credits does your D need to graduate? Has she taken classes at the local CC?</p>
<p>FL offers a FREE online program to take HS classes. My S only needed English IV to get his HS degree. He took this online with a prof from a state school. </p>
<p>If your D is only a few classes from graduating, I’d encourage the online courses. The GED is for people who have officially left HS before graduating.</p>
<p>It seems like Vandy doesn’t require the HS degree. Many colleges do, and students planning to graduate early begin planning for this by soph or jr year.</p>
<p>Let’s say she receives the GED…and doesn’t get into Vanderbilt. What is plan B? Is she planning to apply to other schools? As the posters above say, you would need to investigate which of those schools will accept the GED.</p>
<p>The colleges that do not require a HS diploma are generally the most selective ones, precisely to leave open the possibility of early enrollment. Their main interest is to ensure that an early applicant is ready for college both academically and socially. </p>
<p>Most of them consider whether the student graduates late (some high schools will recognize the freshman year as fulfilling senior requirements); earns a GED; or never graduates at all more of a personal decision. I would be astounded if a GED made a difference, but to be 100% certain, you should ask Vanderbilt. Good luck!</p>
<p>I don’t thing GED is a good idea in her case.</p>
<p>First of all, as Ray192 pointed, Vandy does not require high school diploma. Second, in order to be eligible for GED, she will have to drop out of high school first (and in some states she also must wait several months before she will be eligible to take GED). I am pretty sure that Vandy will rather prefer her to finish 11th grade that drop out in order to get GED.</p>
<p>If she was planning to get GED in summer, it will have no bearing on the admission process.</p>
<p>Many kids go to university after their Junior year; and it looks like your D is a good candidate. Her application should make a strong case and clearly show WHY she wants to go to college early; it also should be clear from her application that she will not have a diploma by the next summer. That’s all she needs, imho.</p>
<p>This is much more common than people realize, going to college after junior year. (I did it back when.) In my case, in California, I had to take the California-equivalent of the GED, it was required by the UC system. </p>
<p>Once they accept her, which they probably will, just double-check if they want her to get a GED or not. If not, it’s up to you, couldn’t hurt to get it. I speculate that the high school might relent, once this is a done deal. They may be trying to discourage you from doing this, but once it’s decided, it might be in their interests to grant you the diploma. Just speculation.</p>
<p>As mentioned above, many (perhaps all?) state education departments will issue a high school diploma-equivalent to students who have successfully completed their freshman year of college, so taking the GED exam may not be necessary for college entry.</p>
<p>For example, the Pennsylvania Dept of Education will issue a “Commonwealth Secondary School Diploma” to students who have completed 30 semester hours of student at an accredited college–no GED test required.</p>
<p>[022</a> Pa. Code § 4.72. Credentials other than the high school diploma.](<a href=“Pennsylvania Code”>22 Pa. Code § 4.72. Credentials other than the high school diploma.)</p>
<p>New York State Education Dept will issue a
The New York State High School Equivalency Diploma Based on Earned College Credit to students “who have completed 24 credits (or its equivalent) as a recognized candidate for a degree or a certificate at an approved institution.” (There are specific distribution requirements, i.e., 6 credits of English, 3 of math, 3 of science, etc.) Again, no GED test is required. Details are at:</p>
<p>[Other</a> Services](<a href=“http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ged/otherserv.shtml#college]Other”>http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ged/otherserv.shtml#college)</p>
<p>As far as I know, pretty much all states offer this sort of option for a high school diploma based on college credit and have done so for many years. I considered taking advantage of it myself when I was a 16-year-old junior in high school (back in the 1960s!) I ultimately didn’t do it myself, but I knew others who did.</p>
<p>Search your state education department on terms like “GED” and “college credit” and you’ll probably find something similar.</p>
<p>In at least some states, local school districts have the option to issue these diplomas recognizing the credits earned at college as finishing high school requirements, and students actually come back for graduation with their original senior class based on their freshman year credits.</p>
<p>But that’s at the discretion of the local school district to work out details. The state education credential is the backstop option available to everyone.</p>
<p>The one problem with this option–students are not eligible for federal financial aid until they actually have a high school diploma or equivalent in hand. So a student who will not get his high school diploma until the end of freshman year of college will not be eligible for federal financial aid in their freshman year. </p>
<p>Taking the GED before college entry would solve the financial aid problems.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt’s Common Data Set for 2007-2008 states that a high school diploma IS required, but also that a GED will be accepted. </p>
<p><a href=“https://virg.vanderbilt.edu/virgweb/CDSC.aspx?year=2007[/url]”>https://virg.vanderbilt.edu/virgweb/CDSC.aspx?year=2007</a></p>
<p>See point C3. (This is a new policy, I believe. I’m pretty sure I saw older CDS forms that indicated that Vanderbilt did not accept students who had not graduated from high school.)</p>
<p>The number of applications to Vanderbilt, both early decision and regular decision (as of end of December) has increased over 40% from last year. The newsletter I received recently indicates that the quality of the applicants (rank, gpa, activities, service, etc.) has also increased a lot. That might not be good news for a junior, but it depends on your daughter’s record.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great suggestions! My D would not be planning on dropping out in order to get her GED, she would wait until April 1 to find out if she is accepted to Vanderbilt and, if she is, would finish her Junior year, get her GED during the summer, and head to Vandy in the fall. She indicated this plan of action clearly on her application. If not accepted, she will remain at her school, start senior year, and reapply to Vanderbilt as a senior. Her college counselor at her HS has spoken with the admissions office at Vanderbilt, and they said that they would prefer her to go ahead and get the GED this summer though it is not exactly necessary. So if the GED versus state diploma does not matter to Vanderbilt, will it matter later in life? Should she go ahead and get the state diploma by taking english IV online (the only credit she is missing) instead of the GED?</p>
<p>Since you have been in touch with Vanderbilt admissions, this note may not be necessary, but I noticed on the CDS that they are “requiring for SOME students” the writing component of the ACT and SAT. I have no idea who “some” are. I only mention it because you gave your daughter’s SAT score as a fraction of the 1600 total, not 2400.</p>
<p>Thanks midmo, she has definitely taken both the writing section of the ACT and the SAT, and did very well. I still have trouble remembering that things are now out of 2400, since I have spent so many years thinking of it as out of 1600!</p>
<p>I think the GED should be sufficient, once you have the college degree high school is pretty much irrelevant. The only time in my life I’ve needed to “use” my GED (specifically the California High School Proficiency Exam) was for admission to college, I’ve never once had to refer to it again.</p>
<p>Lww
As previously posted, FL offers Eng IV online for free. They have first semester and second. What was offered in 2nd semester could be duplicated at my S’s college. Thus, he only needed to take first semester English online. Without pushing, he finished this in 3 weeks. After he completed the English class at college, he received a HS degree. Will it matter in the future? I doubt it for your D. My S, however, was the type who seriously considered leaving college to work in a start-up industry. I knew his personality, so encouraged him to get the degree. If it hadn’t been so easy, he would not have bothered.</p>
<p>Lww,
I graduated at the end of my junior year of high school and went OOS for engineering school. I was also mature for my age with older friends and plotted to graduate in 3 years in my freshman year. Looking back, I think it was a huge mistake, but still a great experience. As mature as I (and my mom) thought I was, I really wasn’t ready for all the social life that college offered. Really think this through carefully, though if she’s set on doing it like I was, just make sure she takes easy classes her first semester and is very focused on her priorities.</p>
<p>There is another way she can get her high school diploma in FL and that is to transfer to her home public high school this semester. The legislature approved provisions for students to have certain graduation requirements waived if they were graduating in 3 years. You may have to speak to someone at your local school district to make this work properly, but try first with the counselor at your local public high school. This would be a far better option than a GED.</p>
<p>Your daughter could also do what I did. Go directly to her Principal and present an arguement for him granting her the exception to graduate early showing extra courses she’s taken and her application to college. I also had a teacher advocate in my behalf. When my Principal realized how serious I was about graduating a year early (and I threatened to drop out) he allowed me to graduate 1 year early.</p>
<p>But like I said, really think this over very carefully. Good luck!</p>
<p>I went to Vanderbilt after my junior year (in a Florida high school). At the time, there was no high school graduation requirement for Vanderbilt. I remember writing a short explanation of my reasons for wanting to attend college early, but I never bothered to inform the high school until I was accepted - and since I chose to attend summer school (which started before high school exams began), I never finished my junior year, either. I second 2forcollege’s comment that, while it seemed like a great idea at the time, in retrospect, it was not really the choice I should have made. One more year of maturity can make a difference. Give this a lot of thought – but it may well be the right decision for your daughter. The two of you know best.</p>
<p>What is this maturity issue everyone alludes to obliquely? What exactly will one more year in high school have gotten you?</p>