Graduating Early...and what it means in today's college admission...

<p>I don't want to graduate early just to be the youngest at the campus. My high school's atmosphere feels like a never-ending snobby cocktail party amongst the student body. You can't get close for fear of someone back-stabbing you, and you always have to mingle with the right people in order to get all the advantages of a social life and leadership positions. I've read that this is how the real world works, and I play the mingling game very well...but sometimes (well most of the time)..I get tired of it. </p>

<p>This year has been very bad with my school, because the school has had more violence than it has had in any other year. The school administration is suspending anyone who wears certain colors. Most importantly, they are being rude to other minorites depite their innocence. I was running some errands for my teacher, and one of people on the staff asked me where I was going. I told him where I was going, but he didn't believe me (even though I had a note from the teacher), he thought I was skipping class. His words exactly were, "You're probably skipping class to go smoke weed with your people." He took me to the tardy station, and the principal (who sometimes fills out the truancy slips) congratulated me on my class rank and other academic achievements. The guy, who was rude to me, was immediately nice and servile. I want to be intellectually challenged and be in a less immature environment...I want to really learn. I've always been more mature than other people my age. Some would say I have an old soul. Excuse my language when I say this... I'm tired of the bulls*** at my school.</p>

<p>Things were never really good at home for me, but I'm not going to mention any of what happens at home on my application, because it's too personal and I have a younger brother at home. He's treated well because in my parent's culture..the males are the "family" of the home. I don't get that saying/philosophy, but if that logic helps my brother live a better life with my mother then it works for me. Also, my brother and I are two grades apart, so by graduating early, I can give my dad more time to come up with the money for my brother's education.</p>

<p>I have had only one teacher who did not teach to TAKS(the state standardized test). She made us think, wouldn't accept anything that was less than our best, didn't play the favoritism game. She didn't care about incorporating TAKS into everything..she cared about letting us think outside of the box. It just so happened that this woman just happened to had been a professor at UT-Austin a few years ago. She treated us like college students, she didn't give us busy work just so she could have enough grades ny the deadline..she was genuine. If we don't get good enough scores, the teachers will lose their jobs..so the lose sight of truly teaching us..and they teach to the test. </p>

<p>Not only would I have exhausted almost all of the curriculum at my school, but I have other factors thrown into my consideration of graduating early.</p>

<p>I have received replies from three out of the six universities I have contacted through e-mail. </p>

<p>One of the universities said that I should go ahead and graduate early if I'm not interested in business, pre-medicine, engineering, architecture or one of the sciences. They said if I was interested in getting into those fields then I would have to take Physics and Calculus. Otherwise they saw no problem with me graduating early and applying.</p>

<p>The other one said that my curriculum is vigorous and that a lot of the seniors applying would have the same amount APs I would have if I graduated early. When the time comes, they want to have an explanation on why I'm graduating early. They said the big factors would be the essays and the ECs. They were more vague with their answer and said that it depended on the student and that there was no clear-cut answer.</p>

<p>The last one gave me information about their Resident Honors Program, which is for high school seniors who want the challenges of college..the only con is that the high school seniors cannot graduate early and get their high school diploma. The college will be working with them to fulfill their high school requirements (needed to graduate) and begin their major at the university. I do not know if I qualify, because by the end of junior year I would have fulfilled my high school's requirements. I will look into this program and see whether I will be elgible.</p>

<p>Thank you for all your advice.</p>

<p>I graduated a year early, and I applied to ten very good colleges in three different countries (US, Canada, UK) - and I got into eight of them. And I'm no "superstar" or anything (I had almost no ECs).</p>

<p>So I wouldn't say it's a big problem..</p>