@Lindagaf It doesn’t matter what the government says about what certain ages can and cannot do. Age is just a number because it doesn’t determine your character or your personality.
Linda, you really seem to have something against me…
Most, if not all, of the schools on your list require 3 years of a foreign language. Even your safety schools require two.
@Sue22 I’ll have that done before I apply
It’s not cruel to ask this poster to consider the implications of his idea. He is planning to live alone at the age of 16 in another state. And I don’t make rules about age. I’m being realistic.
@Lindagaf My family and I have extensively considered the implications. You haven’t just “asked this poster to consider the implications of his idea”. You’ve found just about every way to criticize and attack me. I’m not offended, all I am saying is you have no reason to attack me like its a part time job online.
Age is just a number if you are 50, physically fit, and plan to run a half marathon.
Age is just a number if you are 27 and your significant other is 35.
When you are 14 and think that students in public schools learn less in a month than you learn in one day… your age indicates immaturity and naïveté.
When you are 16 and want to live in the dorms… your age isn’t just a number.
Op, from what I have learned so far on CC, @Lindagaf is a very respected poster and I am sure she has all the good intentions of giving you advices, which I think is one of the reasons you posted this thread in the first place.
You obviously have a very unique learning experience and I truly wish you best of luck. In the grand scheme of things, go through your childhood a little leisurely might not be a bad idea, as a grownup myself, I have to say adulthood is overrated ??, so enjoy while you can.
If you’re enrolling in college-credit classes like calculus next year, you should make sure you don’t officially graduate from high school until you’ve completed them. Otherwise you’ll disqualify yourself for freshman admissions at many colleges and you’ll have to apply as a transfer. CC classes can only be considered “dual enrollment” if you’re officially not done with high school.
Have you taken any foreign languages? MANY college will require at least 2 - 3 years.
While it’s obvious that you prefer and excel in econ and history, some more selective schools might be concerned about the lack of rigor you show in other areas, especially math and English. I wish you’d taken some AP classes in those areas and maybe science as well. While I have no idea how colleges look at self-studied AP classes rather than taking the actual classes, it seems like the ones you’ve taken are sort of the memorize facts and theories type of classes rather than the ones I feel you learn more skills that college look for, such as the math, sciences, and English ones. This might put you at a disadvantage against students who have taken those classes.
Another area where your application might be a little lacking compared to your “competition” is your EC’s. I might have missed it in all these posts but do you have anything that shows any leadership experience?
I’m thinking Linda is right. Your story keeps changing. You graduated after a year. You still haven’t graduated. You took the courses you listed. You somehow have additional courses. You have a way to study 3 years of Latin in one year at community college?
According to Florida Virtual School,
yet somehow you haven’t taken state testing and took 4 years of what should have been sequential studies (English, for example) all at the same time.
@twogirls I didn’t say I learned that much everyday. I meant that I could take a long day and get a good understanding of the same material that public school students would take a month to learn in one subject.
Like I said, age doesn’t determine your character. If I get to live in the dorms at 16, I will. If they won’t let me, I’ll find a place off-campus. Age is always just a number, no matter if you’re allowed to drive, vote, or live in the dorms. Age is ultimately just a number.
@Sue22 That is FLVS full-time. I do flvs flex .This video explains the difference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDHxYanFsIg
I fulfilled the requirements for graduation. I could graduate today if I wanted to. I wont though because I would be considered a transfer.
@Lindagaf of course it’s not cruel to just advise the op and let them know your opinion. What is cruel are all the snarky comments you’ve made about op’s maturity.
That’s just my opinion, however. Maybe I just care too much.
Yes, they will see your age immediately.
“There are no glaring negatives about your resume” Yes, there are.
“Age shouldn’t be a positive or negative” But it is. Like it or not, they are building a college community, one that requires evidence of interpersonal skills, perspective, experiences, commitments, and more. The “passage of time” plays a very large role as they look for how you proceeded, over time, what that shows. (As opposed to treating education dispassionately, as simply a commodity to master.)
Your curriculum: the missing AP courses. Filling in with APES, govt, micro/macro isn’t equivalent to the depth they will look for in a young 'un. You appear to have sacrified a full curric of the right courses in order to be done. Big Oops. Self study only underscores the rush. You could have found the missing AP, if you’d allowed time. So many top self-schoolers do. Then those electives.
Next issue: you do not seem to have a solid idea what these colleges want to see. 10 pages in and you’re still arguing age and maturity, taking a youthful attitude that there are no issues to face.
Worst of all is this race through and it does appear you took learning as a flat challenge: get the grades and scores. Generally suspect, easy to spot. Add that you have no ECs that make you competitive. You have the softer rounding sorts, music and playing golf. But not enough to show colleges you truly were so intellectually advanced and mature that you made the most of this time. The best homeschoolers are amazing for what they did do, how they “went beyond.” They engage in myriad ways. I don’t see this. You’re talking minimums, not the lust for learning that motivates many younger than usual kids. They literally run out of classes, not just check off the degree requirements.
What’s your fear? Or is there an issue behind all this that stops you from recognizing and processing the very sound advice you’ve been given? Or that made public school uncomfortable, socially?
It’s not the “world against me” you are defending with. You’re not listening.
@nomood, this thread isn’t some “kindler, gentler” exercise. The advice given OP is pretty remarkable, more admissions understanding shown than most threads (about what it does take.) OP’s best shot is to stop, listen, process, and learn what does impress colleges.
“I fulfilled the requirements for graduation. I could graduate today if I wanted to. I wont though because I would be considered a transfer.” I don’t see that you even recognized this transfer issue until we brought it up. You really haven’t approached this in a fully informed way, with the right mindset.
Again, nomood, maturity is a very big factor in this. Even with 4 years of hs, many colleges vet for that. Just collecting enough courses for the hs degree and having a few activities on the side aren’t proof.
Adding. Another serious issue is this insistence you learned more than public school kids can. It’s freaking dismissive and not an attitude that flies in the real world. You’re stereotyping, completely missing the level of accomplishment out there (and that you will compete with.) It’s self aggrandizing, but wthout the solid accomplishments behind it to merit forgiveness.
The College Board does not give AP credit - credit is only given at the discretion of each individual college based on the AP score obtained on the exam. I submitted a syllabus for each course so I could list the class as “AP” on my kids’ transcripts. The College Board website will give you the details on how you would go about submitting your syllabus for approval. (I think each of my syllabi were around 13 pages or so)
I put together the curriculum for my homeschooled kids based on their interests. They had many out of the box types of classes in addition to the AP classes.
I don’t think you have a good grasp on the profile of a homeschooler that has been admitted to top tier schools. Your transcript is not remotely on par with the homeschoolers you will be compared with if you apply now. This is one of the reasons why many have encouraged you to not rush through high school. Use the freedom homeschooling provides to explore your interests and increase the rigor of your classes.
Just as an example, my kid had a top 99%+ SAT score and 800’s on the Math SAT II and Physics SAT II along with 5’s on some AP exams before he even began high school. Technically, he had been working at a high school level well before high school age and I could have awarded him credit for the high school level classes and graduated him early. However, we wanted to use the high school years to further explore his interests. He had many classes beyond the AP level listed on his transcript. In addition to that, he had been conducting research 10 hours a week during the school year and full-time in the summers for his last three years of high school. His research was published and won international awards.
His experience is not unique among the homeschoolers who are accepted to top tier schools.
It can be hard to know how you compare to other homeschoolers. You asked how your personal story would be perceived. I will be blunt and tell you that it won’t be perceived well. You have not exhausted all of the courses you could take as a high school student.
I do know of a couple of homeschoolers who were admitted to top tier schools at age 15. However, they had gone way beyond the AP level in their classes and had exhausted all of the educational opportunities available to them in their communities.
You do not fall into this category.
I say this not to be mean or to discourage you, but to provide you with more information so you can better decide your educational journey.
When I asked if you’d completed all the requirements for BF, you said you had. 2 years of a foreign language is required for BF, plus community service, plus a few other things. If you don’t complete those things, you may be passing up quite a bit of money if you end up at a Florida school (about $28k). By trying to finish everything quickly, you may miss some important requirements or deadlines.
It doesn’t appear you have graduated from high school, either in one year or will even at the end of 2 years. You are still taking classes. Why not just focus on taking all the classes you need, many of which may transfer and get you credit as college courses (DE or AP) and not worry about claiming to have taken 20 courses in one year(sorry, I don’t believe that)? No one expected you to do that, and no one will give you bonus points if you do.
Before you get a Florida high school diploma, either from your homeschooling parent or from FLVS, take as many courses as you can at a CC or local university as usually they are free if you are still a high school student. Take the foreign language classes and get credit for them.
There are a lot of things where age really does matter - joining the military, voting, getting married, buying liquor or cigarettes, adopting a child. The ages are set to when the average person can handle that activity responsibly. You may be the most mature 15 year old in the world, but you still can’t sign a contract or buy a cigar to celebrate signing that contract. I’m sure you aren’t trading under your own account because you are too young. You can’t even open a bank account without an adult helping you.
Have 14 and 15 year olds gone to college? Yes. Is it easy? No. When my daughter started at age 17, I had to sign forms for her (mostly medical and NCAA). She continued using her bank account that had my name on it too (it was opened when she was 2), she had a debit card but no credit card yet, didn’t have a car at college, lived in a dorm. It took more work because she was under age (arbitrary though that age might be). She couldn’t apply for her own passport, sign a lease, or buy a car without me. She couldn’t apply to a college ED without my signature.
The system isn’t set up for a 15 year old to do it alone.
I don’t think UF is quite the sure thing for you that others do. It has a holistic admission policy and they really do care about course rigor (your English courses are not the top available), they really do care about activities and what you did with your time. UCF, FAU, FIU? Yes, those are probably safe for you. All the rest on your list are a reach with your rigor (it’s just not there on your transcript) and lack of leadership roles, age (yes, it matters), lack of awards or recognition for any community service you completed, and probably essays that will have no input from a writing teacher or mentor. UF is one of those schools that has 2 or 3 qualified applicants for every seat.
If you need a goal, take the PSAT and score high enough for NMF.
.
@lookingforward I knew about the transfer issue before you brought it up. I’m applying next year so I have time to improve my resume. I’m going to take some science and English AP courses through keystone.
What if I started at a school like Suffolk, Umass Boston, or FAU then tried to transfer to a more elite school? Would I have a better chance after a year or two of college?
What makes you think my essays will have no input from a writing mentor? Of course i’ll have a writing mentor.
No, because transfer rates to elite colleges are even lower. Very elite colleges will scrutinize your app even more closely as a transfer.
Again, you’re just talking about academics. It’s not just about academics, as has been stated already.