help a student in an unique situation!

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi college confidential! I'm in a (somewhat) unique situation right now. I'm currently a junior considering graduating early because I will be spending my senior year abroad studying at a Chinese university. I'll be at Shanghai JiaoTong University taking some international student classes (this is only possible because of family connections) and working on my Chinese. I'm planning on petitioning to graduate early and apply to colleges this year. However, my guidance counselor said that most colleges don't look at graduating early favorably. How will early graduation affect college admissions? I think that my course load is fairly heavy right now (6 AP classes :S) and I have a lot of extracurriculars. Should I just stay at my current high school to improve my lackluster gpa (~3.6ish) or should I just graduate early (I would like to finish the admissions process early so I can just have a stress free year in China)?</p>

<p>For reference, I plan on applying to NYU (Stern) early admissions as well as my state university, Boston, USC, Emory, and Tulane. Does anyone knows anything about these schools and their policy on early graduation? Thank you! :)</p>

<p>GPA-3.6
SAT-2200
ACT-31
APs-comparative government (self study), psychology (self study), world history, macro econ, euro, us history, lit, calc ab, human geo, physics b, micro econ
extra-nothing spectacular, no leadership positions :S-jv sport, part time job, key club (~200 hours of volunteering), best buddies, german club</p>

2

<p>my act score is a 30, not 31. sorry for the typing error</p>

3

<p>Well, if you have four years of english, four years of history, four years of math, and three or four years of science and foreign language, I don't see why graduating early would be a huge deal. BUT, your GC has probably been doing this for a long time so just to be on the safe side, call the admissions rep at your top three schools and ask them what they think. Make sure your post graduate year in China will not a) make you an international applicant, or b) make you a transfer student vs. being an incoming frosh for admissions purposes.</p>

4

<p>My first thought is that your ability and initiative to pursue out of the box educational opportunities is EXACTLY the kind of spark that competitive adcoms would notice. They want learners -- without other metrics, they are left w/GPA and transcript and scores. But the opportunity that lies before you is a clear indication of your academic initiative, IMHO.</p>

<p>Good luck to you and enjoy the Chinese food!</p>