Hi, I am in high school and am about to be a junior. I live in Florida and have been taking dual enrollment courses since the summer of my freshman year. I’d like to graduate high school a year early and go to USF. As of now, I am first in my class out of 612 people and already have enough credits to graduate (25). I feel like it is pointless to stay in high school for my senior year when I have already taken the classes I am interested in. Here’s my problem: College costs money, money my family does not have. I have two siblings and am being raised by a single mother. I would need to get a scholarship, like a full scholarship or something close to that. My older sister currently attends USF and has the Jenkins scholarship, which means that she has a full scholarship plus a $2,050 stipend per semester. The colleges I am looking at are USF and UF. I’d prefer to attend USF because it is close to home, so I could live with my mom until I turn 18 (her idea but I’m cool with it). Because my mom is raising me and my siblings by herself and doesn’t make very much money, she receives a check from the government every month. She needs that money to help pay rent. The amount of money she receives will go down significantly once I graduate from high school. This means that graduating a year early will hurt her significantly. When my dad died, his insurance paid money that is set up in a trust fund. My mom cannot access that money because she and my dad were divorced before he died. I can access it once I am 18. I will help her out financially once I have the money. If I ended up graduating from high school a year early, she would struggle financially for about six months (I turn 18 in November) before I could help her out. So you see my dilemma…
I need to be challenged academically. I feel like I’d be held back if I had to stay for my senior year of high school but feel obliged to so. I need advice. p.s. sorry for the long post
If the school/state pays tuition for your day enrollment it would make more sense to do that full time your senior year.
It always pains me when someone as clearly driven and intelligent as you is held back by dilemmas like financial struggles and other things out of their control. I hope everything works out for you!
If you can’t challenge yourself at high school, challenge yourself outside of school. Work to make money, learn skills. Get more social and relax more. As long as you keep your grades up, you should be fine.
I think if I could have rushed my butt out of high school earlier, I definitely would have. I feel you; I freakin hated high school. Easy, boring, and surrounded by annoying/dumb/fake people. But my family doesn’t struggle as much financially as yours. I could have forgone my senior year no problem. If I was in the same situation as you, I would pick my family over me and just try and survive another year. But you’re not me. And my family is not the same as yours.
I would definitely talk to your mom about how you’re feeling. See what she thinks.
Have you talked to your guidance counselor about this situation? If not, I would try to email them and explain the situation. They might be able to find some dual enrollment opportunities or something similar you could do senior year because it sounds like graduating early isn’t financially feasible.
Have you considered graduating a semester early and starting college in spring 2019? That would allow you to remain in HS until you are 18 and you would only have to stay for 1 semester of senior year. I would contact USF and UF now to figure out how scholarships work at each school if you started in the spring if you are considering that option.