<p>I'm homeschooled and i will probably be done with HS at 16. How would colleges feel about that? I take the SAT in Jan to assess where I am and depending on my score, I will graduate at 16 or earlier. I am currently studying 7th, 8th and 9th grade level in various subjects. Would I even be allowed to go to college out of state to the college of my dreams(Stanford, if I am accepted)? I know my parents support me and I would be able to pay tutition so theres no worries there. I am just concerned about my age.</p>
<p>“I take the SAT in Jan to assess where I am and depending on my score, I will graduate at 16 or earlier.”</p>
<p>The SAT isn’t a measure of all you should learn in high school and would be a poor way to decide when to graduate. Colleges list expectations on their websites in terms of years of different subjects. Check with each college you are interested in to find out age policies. 16 might be old enough that it wouldn’t be an issue anywhere. There are certainly kids younger than that in some colleges. Stanford has about the lowest acceptance rate of any college. You would be competing with incredibly talented kids who’ve had an extra year or two to build their records. Regarding the grade levels you mentioned, kids applying to schools like that usually will have done several college-level classes during high school (eg. APs, dual enrollment, classes at a community college or local 4-year college).</p>
<p>My son was accepted to college at 14. He had no problems with applications and acceptances and his age never seemed to be an issue with most of the schools. However, and this is a big however, he was very academically advanced by that time. He had been taking college classes for several years and had finished most of the undergraduate courses in his major already. He had a proven track record of success in a college environment, so his age was not seen as a liability.</p>
<p>Applying to college at a young age is not going to give you any bonus points. If you want to go to a selective school like Stanford, and at 16 you have completed an advanced, beyond the norm, rigorous highschool curricula, then I say go for it. However, if you have only completed a regular run of the mill curricula, then I think you would be wiser to delay graduation and maybe take some dual enrollment courses, find internship or research assistant opportunities, etc.</p>
<p>(as far as age specific concerns, you should check dorm requirements/restrictions at each school. Housing seemed to be the biggest sticking point with schools when it came to young age, though 16 is not too far from the norm to be a major concern)</p>
<p>You should also think seriously about whether you really want to go to college so young. It may be a bit difficult socially. You will have to make decisions about your major and career at a younger age. If you aren’t really sure, and I mean really sure, what you want to do, I think it would be beneficial to spend more time exploring things at the high school level. Some of the people I know who went to college early didn’t get much use out of their degrees in the end since they realized too late it wasn’t actually what they wanted to do. Of course that can happen to anyone, but I think it helps to have a little more maturity. If it’s just a matter of feeling that you are finished with high school level work, there are lots of options for doing college level work or some major project before enrolling as a freshman and you should think about that. It will also give you more time to pursue activities of interest to you, and perhaps to job-shadow, volunteer, do a research project, or something like that to explore your potential major.</p>
<p>My son started college at 17. I strongly recommend NOT starting too young if you want a traditional residential experience. Take the time to do in depth focus of a subject you like. Author Chris Paolini did this and spent his time writing a highly successful book.</p>
<p>A few things we did not consider: Age to buy cold and allergy meds (we were surprised son can’t buy his own until he is 19 in the state attends college); ease of travel when underage (son could not book a hotel room or change his own flights)</p>
<p>I attended college when I was 16 and it was no problem at all; however, I attended a local school so housing wasn’t even a question. Contact the schools you’d like to apply to regarding their housing policies if you think you’ll want to reside there, but there’s no rush to move out. If you choose to attend a local school for a while, you can still have a great experience in college and save some money. Student loan debt can add up quickly. I have only $9k in loans and will be paying $97/month for 10 years to pay them off, so keep an eye on how much you’ll need to borrow.</p>
<p>Starting early wouldn’t be good for me, but for you it might be different.</p>
<p>Stay “enrolled” in homeschool and ask for dual enrollment options. You may be able to attend college classes for cheaper or free. In addition, taking college classes as a high school student allows you to be considered as a freshman, ie., to compete for merit scholarships, honors programs, etc., not to mention that highly selective schools admit very few transfers but admit a lot of freshman with advanced credit (AP or dual enrollment classes, ie., college classes or college-level classes taken while in high school).
Try to do that until you’re a 16-year old senior.
However, if you’re really itching to get away, there’s a special college for 16 year olds. It’s a residential college called Simon’s Rock
<a href=“https://simons-rock.edu/”>https://simons-rock.edu/</a></p>
<p>I went to college at 16. Being that I am female, no one really knew how old I was unless I told them. Males may look much younger at that age. I did go away to college and did live in a dorm. If you feel you are socially mature, I see no issue with it. Sixteen isn’t twelve.</p>
<p>I went away to college just after I turned 16, but I wasn’t homeschooled. I attended a large public school in NYC. My parents insisted that I go to CUNY for a semester first, which i did, since I graduated HS in January. I did well that semester and went away to school in the fall. having said that… I was not mature enough to go away to school. I really wasn’t a serious enough student in my first 2 years of college. I wish I had waited. I needed some social maturity, time management skills, better boundaries… </p>
<p>It really depends what you are looking for. </p>
<p>When I went to college some years ago and there were a few guys 15 and 16. They could handle the work, but it must have sucked for them. Why? No girl would date them. In fact, it was a known kind of joke that they would get no dates. </p>
<p>The girls were all 18 and 19, even as freshman. I was one of the 17 year-olds (made 21 just 2 months before I graduated college) and basically just got under the girls’ age radars, but I never told my age. Literally impossible at 15 and early 16 to hide your age, thus no real social life.</p>
<p>If you want to date, have fun and be equal to your peers socially, wait and then go at 17 or 18. 18 really is the age. Everything in college at that point is the way it should be.</p>
<p>I cannot tell if you are a girl or a guy, but the same is true (actually worse) if you are female. You would be considered underage (illegal) to guys, period. </p>