<p>I feel that my high school is not very academically challenging and I long for harder courses and more challenges. There is a local program set up at a local college that allows high school students to take college courses for college credit. However, at my high school, there is quite an abundance of cool ECs (math team, sci oly, but especially FIRST robotics, which I am very interested in) which I am afraid that I am going to miss out on if I change schools. Any advice?</p>
<p>Take the most rigorous courses your high school has to offer. From what you said, this should leave you with a good bit of free time, so you can use that to study for math/science team or build robots :)</p>
<p>I took courses at my local community college through all of my Junior and Senior years, and I have to say I wouldn’t go back to my high school if they paid me. I get to take courses that go beyond anything they teach in high school, and I’m usually only in class for, at a maximum, four hours a day. I’ve found that this opens up my EC schedule quite a bit - I volunteer twice a week while everyone else is still in school, for example. Keeping up with high school clubs is no problem if you manage your schedule properly, and most colleges have clubs of their own. The independence is great, the faster coursework is fantastic, and if you think you can take charge your own life, I’d recommend it.
However, every individual is different. You do lose a lot of the social life that comes with high school, and there’s nothing wrong with taking the best courses you can find. Figure out what kind of year you want to have, then base your decision around that.</p>