My daughter wants to graduate high school early. She is currently a sophomore, so next year would be her senior year. II was wondering how admissions officers view students who do high school in three years instead of four. My daughter is planning on applying to college next year. Any insights would be appreciated.
Why does she want to graduate High School early? Is she trying to impress the admissions officers, is High School too easy for her?
In terms of how colleges will look at her:
I have a few friends and have met a few people who graduated High School early and went to college. My friend, currently 16, is a freshman at college. Is it a big name University? Nope.
Another friend of mine went to college at the age of 14. Big name university? Nope.
Then I met someone who is working on his PhD and will get it when he is 16. Big name university? You guessed it, nope.
Most people who graduate from High School early go to smaller universities; which is actually really good.
This is often asked on this forum. Many applicants to top schools have achieved way beyond the minimum requirements to graduate. But they WANT to take AP Calc BC or AP Physics etc. because it’s important for them as they anticipate heading towards a meaty college curriculum. Or they are involved in ECs that are best played out through four years. Does your daughter’s schedule next year resemble other high achieving 4 year Seniors’ schedules?
In general if your DD is applying to selective colleges, her competition will have HS transcripts full of 3.5 years of top classes. What will your DD’s transcript look like? If she’s not chasing that, what StanfordSwag says is true – if she opts for a smaller program with less selectivity (and has the maturity), it’s a viable option. Otherwise she’s mistaken about her uniqueness.
I wanted to graduate early – last year I was a sophomore, and this year is my junior year (but would have been my senior year) just like your daughter.
My mother didn’t let me for maturity reasons, but I am glad she didn’t as I would not have been able to go to any of the schools I am currently looking at (University of Michigan and Chapel Hill are top choices).
Basically, in December of my sophomore year I only scored an 1800 on my SAT. Had an UW GPA of a 3.7. Nothing too impressive – if I had applied to the schools I’m looking at now in the fall, I would’ve been rejected.
I also did not know as much as I do now (sounds silly in just a year), but my sophomore year I wanted to go somewhere like Ohio State or Syracuse – somewhere easy to get in to with name recognition and good sports.
I thought I wanted to major in finance but now I’ve decided I want to do computer engineering.
My SAT score went up to a 2250 (this January) and I have been able to take more competitive classes (AP Calculus BC, AP physics, etc.)
I agree with the earlier posts – those who graduate early do tend to go to smaller schools. My cousin did it and went to Stevenson University and then transferred to UMBC.
I have asked MANY schools (UMD College Park, UDel, UMich, OSU, etc.) how they feel about early graduation and they either don’t care, or like UDel, they dislike it. Some schools would rather see loads of AP courses on a transcript to show college readiness.
It is best to make her stay in school and take more rigorous courses to better prepare her and also impress the adcoms.
If she has a good idea of where she would like to go that is based on academics/her interests and you feel she is mature or making the right choice, go for it. I recommend calling the schools she’s interested in and asking how they feel about early graduation.
Good luck!
Think about it this way: if she’s done with everything her high school offers, she can take community college (or even regular college) classes for FREE through Dual Enrollment or PSEO, thus decreasing the cost of her 4-year degree and making herself more competitive for admissions. She could well take 5 classes at college and be full-time there, only going to high school for sports and clubs (and she could get involved in clubs at the college, too).