Graduating After Junior Year?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi, everyone! For the past two years, I’ve been deliberating graduating after my junior year. There are some personal reasons for doing so, as well as I feel like I’ll have exhausted many of the resources available to me. After getting my first ACT score back yesterday, I’m very seriously considering it again.

ACT: 34 (36, 27, 36, 35…yes, I know my math score definitely needs improvement!)
GPA: 4.4 W, 3.9 UW
Rank: #1 out of 175 in my class (would be #1 in current junior class as well)
APs completed by end of this year: AP Gov, AP Psych, AP Stats, APUSH, APES
Junior year schedule: AP Lang, AP Physics, AP Comp Gov, AP Micro, AP Spanish, AP Euro, Pre-Calc, Latin II
Will have completed 5-6 CC courses as well, not including dual enrollment classes (for reference, avg. number of APs taken at my school is about 3 and low pass rates)

Extracurriculars:
1.) Debate (Varsity, won conference award)
2.) Contributor for political podcast/blog
3.) Vice Chair of statewide political organization
4.) Organizing youth track for a lobbying day
5.) Introduced and lobbying for my own legislation
6.) Volunteered for campaigns and political groups
7.) Academic Decathlon (lots of regional awards, one state award) and various quiz bowl teams
8.) Managed cross country and girls’ track
9.) School play
10.) Regional officer of statewide youth congress

The ECs at the end aren’t particularly significant, but I’m planning to get more involved with other organizations and do some more volunteer work. I will also be getting a job within the next month or two.

Intended major: Political science
Income bracket: $125,000-$150,000
Region: Midwest
Hooks: N/A

Colleges I’m interested in: Wellesley, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, MIT, UPenn, UCLA, Georgetown, UChicago, UMich Ann Arbor, American, Barnard, Grinnell, Macalester, Smith, and UNC Chapel Hill (plus in-state safeties)

Do any of these colleges seem attainable, or, despite personal qualms, should I stay wait until after my senior year to graduate?

Thanks!

2

I honestly have a very hard time believing any of this is true.
If it is, then yes, you can probably graduate early because you’ve met your credit requirements and you’ve pretty much exhausted all the available AP courses in your school. There is no point in wasting another year in high school.

I take it you’re a sophomore, right?

3

I would only check with your parents and make sure they have the $50-60K per year for those schools on your list.

4

In my personal experience (which admittedly is 25 years old), Yale does not prefer 17yos with only 3 years of high school.

If you’re miserable at your high school and happy with your safeties, go for it. Alternatively, consider something like an exchange year abroad.

5

I think @allyphoe is correct – few schools of the caliber you seek will want to take an accelerated student that has only had 3 years of HS and they would probably only do it if the student were light years ahead of his/her peers and had maxed out the curriculum (3 years of English and Pre-Calc is hardly maxing out the curriculum; you need AP Calc AB at a minimum and ideally 4 years of English).

There is one student at my daughter’s school that is finishing out the last semester of his senior year of HS at a CC, but he has a full time paid internship and had already been accepted ED to his top choice school. He informed the college after his acceptance of his plans and they were fine with it. They likely would not have accepted him had he applied during his junior year; he was a senior at the time he submitted his application (he also had AP Calc AB under his belt junior year). There is another girl that graduated a year early, but she had done a big chunk of her HS classes through an alternative HS program over summers and by doubling up during the year. She also happened to be 18 and was more mature than your average HS student; moreover, she was very focused on what she wanted to do in college and had internships in university labs, etc.

There are a few programs that let you skip your senior year of HS and have programs for early entrance to college (University of Southern California’s Resident Honors program; Bard College at Simon’s Rock are a couple of them).

Sorry to be so blunt, but you should try to get your test scores up and finish the coursework you need at HS or through dual enrollment. Graduating early will likely shut you out of your top choice schools.

6

@LoveTheBard I was worried about lack of AP Calc as well. I was supposed to take pre-calc this year and AP Calc BC as a junior, however, I had to take AP Stats instead due to a scheduling conflict. What you said about the internship is interesting, as that is also something I was weighing doing my senior year instead of graduating early. Thanks for your input - it’s given me a lot to think about!