Graduating early?

<p>Yeah, our youngest figured out how to empty this nest one year earlier than I'd anticipated. I should have known. His suprise homebirth was a 30-minute event from start-to-finish. He's always been moving ahead of me, and I try to figure out WHAT JUST HAPPENED? My MIL says proudly, "That one doesn't let any grass grow under his feet." She calls him "that one" because she has 17 other grandchildren, so I forgive her. </p>

<p>Our youngest figured out with his GC how to finish public h.s. in 3 years, but here it's dubbed "skipping 11th grade" so he currently enjoys eligibility into all the senior year excitement of the school, such as prom. Understand how ironic this is, since one reason I first agreed to him finishing h.s. in 3 years was to avoid senior prom, but I lost that round.</p>

<p>He continues to socialize most with junior friends, but is schoolwide sociable, with friends from fresh-senior each year, as is the pattern with many theater kids. He's just hardwired that way. Being parachuted into the senior class would not have been good if he dreamed of elections or school leadership positions, but he does other things, mostly theater which is talent-based primarily. </p>

<p>Academically and socially, he's at home with the seniors (and he has a Dec.31 birthday, so is one day different than a senior, anyway). Another maturing factor is that he only has older sibs, and patterns himself after them. </p>

<p>A big disadvantage is that he applied to colleges with 4 AP's on his transcript, but no exam outcome from them on his college app. ALthough he reported a "5" on the one he took in l0th grade, which we hope is predictive, the colleges weigh merely a hint from his first semester grades, against others who can report AP exam results on their college apps. </p>

<p>Two SUMMER COURSES. Financially, a negative because he couldn't get a fulltime summer job. Academically, a positive experience. For summer after 9th grade, he took the required second year of Global Studies, and after l0th grade finished off Math. That first course made him eligible for AP US History as a l0th grader, while the second freed up his schedule during his final year of h.s. for every subject he liked including 4 AP's in the Social Sciences. </p>

<p>The summer course after 9th grade was a suggestion made to him by the Global Studies-I teacher, but it opened up worlds and made his 10th grade wonderful b/c it included an AP US History class that he loved. </p>

<p>The summer course after l0th grade was Math. Although his Math teacher told him he'd fail it (..nice) my S kept his wits about him, showing grit and maturity. I notice he managed Math much better when it wasn't sandwiched among all the other courses during a regular school year. Although summer math is intense because it packs a yearlong course into 10 weeks, and attracts top math students trying to clear their schedules for more advanced courses in the coming year, he did okay on the grade. More importantly, he felt more successful because he could think Math all day, then take as much time as needed for h.w. each evening. </p>

<p>On English, to get in 4 courses, he had to double-up and take AP Language and another Honors English class this year. English, however, is his most joyful subject (second to History). I did inquire if he double up with AP Lang and AP Lit, rather than just another Honors English, but the GC sweetly shot me down there b/c the rest of his schedule included AP Econ, APEuroHistory, AP Government and the AP Lang. In the school's experience, AP Lit requires too much reading to be compatible with the rest of his reading-heavy schedule. So, in a way, that's a downside, because I'm sure if he'd taken the normative 4-year h.s., he'd have taken APLit.</p>

<p>A VERY good thing is that I see not an ounce of "senioritis" this year. He remains very eager, chipper and engaged academically; doesn't want to miss a day of school, because he loves this learning. By contrast, some of the seniors who finish up their important AP's jr. year and know their college outcomes by now don't appear very enthused for h.s. on a day-to-basis, which is not so, here. So that's nice for the spirit of the household!</p>

<p>Sidenote: he brought in from middle school two h.s. course credits that helped this process quite a bit. He completed the foreign language graduation requirement before 9th grade. That's because NYState Regents tests Hebrew, and he attended Hebrew Day School from Grades 3-8. So, once he got to h.s., he wanted to take Spanish, which he began in 9th grade with Spanish 2. That he did by taking a bit of late-summer tutoring, enough to parachute him into Span 2, skipping over the whole year of Span 1. But there was a downside, too: his freshman year transcript begins with "Span 2: C, B-, B, A. and I'm sure a "C" is noticed before somebody can put it all together, oh yes, well not bad for starting out a year head in the first year of a language, plus he's graduating with TWO foreign languages completed. I think perhaps the application review registers the dreaded "C." But I don't really know.</p>

<p>Overall, I think it's made it harder to write the college app without the strength of completed AP's, enriching summertime activities or a responsible fulltime job, and faults in his GPA.</p>

<p>It's harder to deal with the college apps unless the child is SO superior that all this could happens AND achieve top grades. </p>

<p>Harder yet, to find the exploration time to visit colleges and interview them! </p>

<p>If he doesn't like his outcome next week when he hears results from where he applied (theater-strong B.A. and B.F.A. programs in playwriting, screenwriting not acting), then he could take the gained year as a GAP year and strengthen his application that way. So I can't tell you how it all "worked" because it's all still a work-in-progress.</p>

<p>I second looking at schools like USC that have established programs for entering one year early, in which case they admit students every year without HS diploma or 4th year of english and know how to properly evaluate applying juniors, even if technically you're graduating HS and applying as a regular freshman anyway (possibly applying to an early-entrance program might actually be easier than regular freshman admission w/ HS diploma one year early!)</p>

<p>Personally I found USC admissions to be quite helpful in terms of seriously considering my application (which was somewhat nontraditional) and they did end up accepting me...so there it goes :)</p>

<p>Our D is graduating early. When she "informed" us of her decesion back in Sept., I was extremely skeptical. Over time, I have come around to her view that it is the right thing for her. I now feel that making this call is very individualized, and it totally depends on the child. W/R/T meeting the HS requirements, our district doesnt have a middle school advanced/enrichment program, so D began taking classes at the HS in 6th grade. But, it was actually a bit of a problem (since resolved) to get the district to recognize the HS classes she took before 9th grade.</p>

<p>D has chosen Honors program (full ride) at a top-10 public over top 25 LAC's.</p>

<p>Nngmm, sometimes the schools make some exceptions with the students they are interested to have, just in case, call the colleges you think your D will apply asking about requirements in special cases. Good luck to your D, I?m sure she will be fine and happy.</p>

<p>I think as others have posted, it really depends on the individual. Many kids are ready for college after three years of high school. Some schools invite juniors to apply. My HS junior S got such an invitation from USC to apply as a HS junior. In our case, my S did consider going to college early. He is probably more than ready - he took college classes at Chicago after his HS sophomore year and did well. He will also run out of math courses at his HS after this year and so will have to take math at a college when he is a senior. His HS does not have an early graduation plan - he would not have a HS diploma if he left his junior year - but that was not an issue.
In the end we decided not to pursue early college for a variety of reasons. One of them being, so he could spend more time with his 8-year old brother (his only other sibling). I think the value of this last year of staying home with the rest of the family will be priceless. He is also enjoying time with church activities and growing as a mentor to the younger kids there. Musically, he is also doing things now that he probably will not be able to do in college. So, in the end, it is all good.</p>

<p>Thesiren....bravo on your admits so far and good luck with Brown and Northwestern. You already have great options. Good for you for going for it as you knew you were an appropriate candidate. Like you, my D also sent a supplemental statement about graduating early and her recs vouched for it as well. </p>

<p>Paying3tuitions....I don't think the lack of AP scores is going to matter for your son. His record will be looked at in the context of what he could take given he is an early graduate and so on. I don't know if this helps....but with my kid (also a BFA candidate), she went to a rural public high school and at the time, the school had hardly ANY designated AP classes (we have Honors classes). I believe the only offerings were AP Calculus (which she was in as a junior though as an indpendent study due to schedule conflicts), and AP Physics which only seniors can take and she had to take Honors Chem given the sequence at our high school (no acceleration in science). So, she applied with no AP scores. Actually, even had she been a regular senior she'd have had no AP scores (well, except I guess AP Calculus in 11th, like her sister did who also accelerated and they were two of the only kids to ever have done Calculus as 11th graders at our school as that is as high as math goes there). Anyway, the lack of AP scores didn't matter. She took SAT2's however. Two of those were very high. None of her schools required SAT2s but her first choice school, NYU/Tisch recommended them and she took them. </p>

<p>As far as being called/considered a senior or a junior.....when she got to junior year, her last year of high school, she officially moved into senior status in some respects such as her "homeroom" type group got moved in with the seniors. Due to acceleration, some of her classes were with seniors, some with juniors. I thought of her as a junior/senior or "last year of high school"! The prom here was open to juniors/seniors. It was her first year going. Frankly, in her individual situation, I am glad she went because that day was a very big day for her as it was the first day she was able to walk, having just gone through recovery from a car crash with severe injuries. So, it was pretty special. She was out of all her other high school "lasts" in terms of performances. </p>

<p>By the way, I have a sister-in-law much younger than me. I watched her grow up. She did grades 7-12 in four years and graduated close to her sixteenth birthday as valedictorian. She was admitted to all her schools, including Ivies. She chose Williams and won a scholarship that paid for graduate school (through Williams). Her graduate school was Berkeley.</p>

<p>My D is graduating a semester early next year, if she confirms she will not penalized in the college process. She would like to be done now but after sitting down with the GC we came up with a plan that was acceptable to us and the school. In her HS, a semester college course counts as a year hs course so she will meet all hs requirements to graduate. She took a college course this year and next fall will take two along with four hs courses. She is spending the second semester of her senior year in Africa doing volunteer work. She felt very strongly about this and also very strongly that she did not want to do a gap year. She works in the summers so having that experience then did not work either. She and GC will call some of her interested schools to inquire if this will be a problem. The only thing I forsee is that three of her hs courses will be AP courses and she will not have the second semester under her belt. That could also affect her clase rank b/c it is based on a weighted GPA and if she does not take the AP test she probably can't get the full AP weight. It probably would ony make a difference b/t 2nd and 3rd. Not sure that matters as much. ANyone any experience with this hybrid approach?</p>

<p>Thanks for all the responses, they are very helpful!</p>

<p>Graduating from our HS should not be a problem for my daughter - the school is pretty flexible, and will accept some outside classes to fulfill the graduation requirements. My daughter also took some summer school classes in the past, so she does not need that many "extra" credits. Our school only requires 3 years of English (it will change to 4 starting with next freshmen class), but we decided that it will be too risky not to have 4 years of English, so she is taking a course by correspondence, and another one at our local U. Hopefully, combined with AP English Lit next year, this will be good enough.</p>

<p>She should be able to finish HS with 6 or 7 APs. There are many more offered at our school, but she will be pretty much finished with the ones she really wants to take. We don’t have the SAT/ACT scores yet, but she is taking all those now, and hopefully will score well. </p>

<p>The schools currently at the top of her list are WUSTL, Brown, CMU, and possibly NYU and Boston U. If anyone has any specific info about those schools, it will be greatly appreciated!</p>

<p>nngmm.....with regard to NYU, that is the school that my early graduate got into and currently attends. So, they do take early graduates. As well, she applied to CMU and that was one of the schools that we called to ask if they take early graduates. They said yes. She was priority waitlisted (mind you that the program she applied to had 1200 audition, accepted 10 for musical theater, 18 for acting...only three females for MT!). I have a D at Brown but do not know about any of their policies with respect to early graduates. The typical response we got was that as long as she had a high school diploma, they didn't care how many years it took to get it (and thus she was allowed to apply). Again, it is commonly known in admissions, however, that an early graduate will be scrutinized more than a typical applicant.</p>

<p>Thank you very much to all that have replied and shared. Soozievt, thank you very, very much for running the search for me. I plan to review all the results. I really appreciate the help.</p>

<p>As for determining whether this option is a good idea for my daughter, well, I'm still trying to figure out how to evaluate it. She is a freshman this year and did go ask her guidance counsellor. Apparently, it is possible to do; but, her guidance counsellor offered no advise, insight, or suggestions other than 'call the admissions office for those colleges you are interested in.' The guru college counsellor for our large school (3600 students) won't even entertain questions until the students are juniors. Hmmm, a little late for this question, I'd say.</p>

<p>My daughter attended an accelerated curriculum private school (2 years above grade level) from first to eighth grade. We chose the public high school because of the wealth of honors and AP courses available across the whole gamut of disciplines. As a freshman, she was able to take AP World History and will take AP US History as a sophmore. Next year, she will also take AP Art History. She came into high school with Algebra I and Geometry behind her. She took Algebra II this year, will take pre-calc next, and calc her third year. So, she will have completed her four years of math at that point. She will have completed honors biology, honors chemistry, and honors physics by the third year. She should be able to do AP Government and a honors Econ (or something that goes there) if the school will waive the 'seniors only' designation.</p>

<pre><code> She will have had three years of Latin and came in with two years of Spanish from middle school. IF she would agree to take the third year of Spanish at the high school, she would also get credit for the first two years of Spanish. Doing that would actually permit her to have the full 48 credit hours the school requires for the highest academic honors diploma (one below the IB diploma)---but in three years rather than four.

She has been a very active, concentrated athlete from a young age. She began in gymnastics, but changed to springboard/platform diving in the fourth grade. Currently, she is in an elite training level (club) and dives at the National Championship level and has one international invitational to her credit. Despite a significant injury that disrupted her training, last summer she placed within the top 20 platform divers in the country for her age-group. The year before (uninjured) she was 11th in her first Nationals. She trains six days a week, approximately 25 hours/week. In the summer, her training increases to closer to 30 hours a week.

The last B she received in a course was one on her first trimester report in fifth grade. In the majority of her courses, she carries grade averages of 97-100+. Her lowest grade average currently is a 91--in math.

In addition to her sustained diving interest, she has been involved with puppetry since age 7. She has been an apprentice puppeteer since age 8 working closely with two professional puppeteers who mentor a small, hand-picked group of kids. She has learned all aspects of the art, including how to build and string marionettes, hand puppets, rod puppets, the history of puppetry, stage building, performing, and lighting. She is the preferred sole backstage technician for a relatively involved holiday performance the puppet studio puts on each year and has been since she was age 12.
</code></pre>

<p>She is often mistaken as being two-three years older than she is because of her maturity, demeanor, and discipline. At the same time, she is very socially adaptable, dependable, and fun-loving. There is nothing 'geeky' about her---other than she insists on the proper usage of adverbs at all times. :)</p>

<p>The schools in which she is particularly interested in are Stanford and Princeton--at this time, anyway. Stanford did tell me that they will consider three-year graduates, but that they generally recommend the student enjoy the full high school experience. I understand that the early graduation depends on the individual student. My problem is I don't have enough input yet to really get a sense of whether my daughter would be at a disadvantage given her background.</p>

<p>This thread and others are very helpful. So comments and thoughts are appreciated. Thank you all.</p>

<p>Stanford and Princeton admitted two early graduates I know of (one being my S). Some schools require a high school diploma (I believe Brown does) others do not (MIT, Harvard, among others do not). If your d plans on not fulfilling the high school requirements, she should check individual college websites.</p>

<p>Marite, thank you for the info about Stanford and Princeton. It is nice to see that it is not an impossibility.</p>

<p>It is possible for her to complete the full high school requirements for the highest academic honors diploma (with the permission and some allowance for EPYG on-line courses by the high school, i.e., 4th year AP English). </p>

<p>The fact that she actually would have the same diploma after three years that she would have after four years is why I'm not quite sure why she should be at a disadvantage with the college admissions departments. That's where I'm having trouble figuring out what we should be considering and weighing--and why. Hopefully, after I have time to read the threads soozievt so kindly linked for me, I'll have a better picture.</p>

<p>I may already have posted this info here, but let me just reiterate:</p>

<p>After a student graduated early some years ago, our hs instituted some regulations for early graduation: Students should complete all requirements by the time they graduate (except for the fourth year of PE/Health).
They should secure the agreement of the GC and dean of their small learning community (anyway, this would be necessary to make the schedule workable).</p>

<p>Some other things to consider:
Prospective early graduates should take the PSAT in sophomore year (make sure to list the graduation date correctly to be eligible for NM status; otherwise PSAT taken in sophomore year does not count).
Prospies should complete SAT and SAT-II testing (or ACT and SAT-II) by the end of sophomore year to allow for re-taking in fall of junior year as necessary. My S took one SAT-II in freshman year after completing an AP and took the SAT and two SAT-IIs in spring of sophomore year.
College visits need to be scheduled in sophomore year, so college lists need to be established early on.
Teachers recs should be requested by the end of sophomore year.
Summer and fall of junior year will be devoted to summer activities and essay writing.</p>

<p>Early graduates are scrutinized more carefully by adcoms on the theory that if the applicant is not particularly strong, s/he should taken another year to build a strong dossier and grow.</p>

<p>Thank you, Marite. She is planning to take the PSAT as a sophmore---her high school plans that for all. Will definitely keep in mind the National Merit eligibility and the timing of the SAT IIs/subject tests--just in case.</p>

<p>treemaven,</p>

<p>When your daughter takes the PSAT her sophomore year, make sure it is the REAL PSAT that can count for NM. </p>

<p>Our school also administers PSAT to all sophomores. I talked to someone in NM corporation, and they advised me to wait and see how my daughter scores before changing her status - they said it can be changed after she gets the score if she decides to graduate early. Otherwise she is going to be eligible to take it in her junior year, and still compete for the scholarship while being already in college.</p>

<p>When she scored high enough to be NMF in our state, I went to talk to GC about changing her status, and he told me that, unfortunately, the test she took will not count - the school administers current PSAT only to juniors, and the test that sophomores take is the last year's test (it is much cheaper for the school, and the test is pretty much the same...). The College Board still grades them, and they look "real" in every way, but they can't count for NM.</p>

<p>Wow! Thanks, nngmm. I had no idea they weren't the same test versions. Our kids all take the PSAT 'for practice' as sophmores and then again 'for real' as juniors. I will make sure to get that clarified before she takes it next year.</p>

<p>As to marite's comment above: </p>

<pre><code>" Early graduates are scrutinized more carefully by adcoms on
the theory that if the applicant is not particularly strong, s/he
should taken another year to build a strong dossier and grow."
</code></pre>

<p>Is this then a circumstance of 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' and 'no harm done by asking'? That is, if the student doesn't get into the college she's aiming for as a three-year graduate applicant, can she just elect to remain in high school for that fourth year and try again the next year---with a clean slate. Or is she somehow penalized by trying early? </p>

<pre><code> Given that one would know about college admissions in the spring semester, is it difficult to revert to four-year high school status? Does the student just elect not to take the high school diploma that that point?
</code></pre>

<p>Our GC told us that from the school's point of view, the decision to graduate early is "reversible" till the very end, but for the student who is set to graduate it will be very difficult psychologically to revert and stay in HS for another year. </p>

<p>It is my impression that if you and your D think that it is a good idea for her to graduate early (and from what you wrote, I don't see why it wouldn’t be), it is a better strategy to set realistic expectations (be ready not to be accepted to HYPS... which you can't really count on as a senior either), go to the best school you get into, do well there, and transfer if you aren't happy.</p>

<p>BTW, my son had a friend at Stanford who graduated last year at age 18 - she was accepted when she was 14, without ever going to HS. So anything is possible...</p>

<p>Our youngest will graduate h.s. this coming June, having figured out how to finish h.s. in 3 years.</p>

<p>The idea that he could apply during one year and if he didn't like the results, try again was something we all said last fall to one another.</p>

<p>Now that the season is over, and he and we jumped through many hoops to generate 8 applications, financial aid requests, arts supplementary portfolios, phone about items misplaced by ourselves, teachers or admissions offices, spend the app fees (the least of it, really) all the while racing to make up the missing year of not visiting/interviewing so we didn't quite know the colleges applied to...
Of everything, i'd say the hardest piece was that he was writing college apps while also taking the SAT's for the first time in the fall, so often didn't know which to prioritize. Because of 8 college app deadlines, the SAT prep got shortchanged every time, and that cut down on the score strength, which could have accounted for some of the rrjections BTW.
Also, for AP's, he was taking 4 of them during his 3rd year of h.s. while all this was happening. So studying for AP course tests also was signif in the fall, and competed with apps and trying to determine which colleges to apply to. You can see why we never had time to set foot on an actual campus!
I'd never, ever want to redo it. At one point, when the first letters came in and disappointed, I suggested it to our S and he almost flattened me with his gaze...never again. What a process.
The later letters came in happily with acceptances, and it's all worked out fine. He got in to 3 places. He only applied to places he'd want to attend. There were safeties, matches and reaches on the list.
But neither of us has an ounce of strength to redo the process to "improve" on the acceptance list.
I wonder if perhaps some places dismissed his app b/c of the early graduation, but, oh well, we'll never know.
There are some older threads on CC about this, if you use search words such as "early graduation" or even "gap year" which is something that some do with the early grad..rather than race off to college.
We're glad he did this early grade, b/c it expressed who he is; he thought of it and carried it through. Much luck to you!</p>

<p>"if the student doesn't get into the college she's aiming for as a three-year graduate applicant, can she just elect to remain in high school for that fourth year and try again the next year---with a clean slate. Or is she somehow penalized by trying early? "</p>

<p>I am not sure whether or not the student will be "penalized", but it will not be a "clean slate", since there is a question "Have you applied to _____ before?" on every application I've seen.</p>

<p>paying3tuitions,</p>

<p>What kind of art programs was your son looking for?</p>