<p>First off, I disagree that Pre-Calc is a review of Algebra 2. That isn’t the case at DD’s school anyway. </p>
<p>I do have some questions for you -
Have you already skipped a grade?
Does your school have accelerated (honors) classes you can take?
Have you talked with your guidance counselor?
Depending on what state you’re in, and if you’re TAG (Talented and Gifted) or an equivalent, your school may have to make special accommodations for you.
Is there a Community College or University nearby where you can take dual credit classes? If so, talk with a campus counselor.
What do your parents think about your plan? Are they ready to fund your college a year early?
My sister went to UCLA on a full ride scholarship at 16. The academics were a breeze, but she struggled for a while with the social stuff. Not every bright kid has trouble in this arena but it’s something to think about.</p>
<p>Op,
I would recommend that you start college on time. If you wanted to, and were able to graduate HS early, then consider doing it, then applying to college, then deferring your admission and taking a gap year before starting college, on time. </p>
<p>The social aspect of college is HUGE. Do not discount what it will be like to live, eat, sleep, and study with other college students 24/7. It is completely unlike HS (unless you are planning on commuting to college). If you are very mature for your age, then you can consider starting early; but it’s much more about getting along socially with your peers, than it is about you being able to handle the classes. I’m sure that you can handle the classes.</p>
<p>Also, D was youngest in her class (Sept Bday). Although she was always near the top of her class, and now attends an Ivy, I have always regretted my decision and felt that socially, she would have had a better time if she was held back by 1 year.</p>
I haven’t skipped a grade but I’m taking classes in high school that are a year ahead of the grade I’m in.
I’m currently taking honors classes and will have taken them all by the end of my sophomore year. AP classes are a different story though.
I have talked to my guidance counselor, and she said it wouldn’t be a problem. She suggested that I do post-secondary rather than graduating early, but I will do post-secondary my last year in high school even if I do graduate early. If I do graduate early with post-secondary, I will have finished all of my general ed classes except for one semester.
There is a University nearby that I can take dual credit (post-secondary), and it is the college I will 99.9% be forced by my parents to go to. Like I said for #3, I’m planning on doing post-secondary even if I do graduate early.
The funding of going to college a year early isn’t a problem for my parents because I’ll have almost all of my general ed classes done and they would have to pay it anyways even if I don’t graduate early, it will just be a year ahead of time. They don’t really have a preference to me graduating early. It’s really my decision. I’ve tried to get them involved in the decision but it never works.</p>
<p>If it’s not too personal, could you give me some examples/details of how your sister struggled with the social things? I’m already in classes with kids above my age so that shouldn’t be a problem, but I’m not the best at making friends because I can be shy at times. But, I would have that same problem even if I don’t graduate early because all of my friends are going to be forced to go to a prestigious college. I’m not affected whatsoever by peer pressure, which is something that I’ve proven many, many times. Lastly, I’m not the type of person to do drugs or go to bars or anything like that, so that also won’t be a problem.</p>
<p>Sorry for the long response, but I tried to give you as much information as I could!</p>
<p>I will be living at home and commuting to college. I honestly don’t know what I would do with myself with a gap year and I feel like I would forget a lot of my academic skills so it would end up hurting me. I am pretty mature for my age and am used to being around older kids. Do you have any ideas on what I could do with a gap year, and also tell me what kind of social problems younger kids have in college?</p>
<p>If you are going to live at home and commute to college, then starting college early will probably be fine. Commuter college experience is different that living at college experience. </p>
<p>The reason that it’s hard for a young person to live at college is that you actually spend very little time in class (compared with HS). You are expected to learn a lot of info on your own by reading and studying. Thus, a student has a lot of time on their hands which is spent by: eating, ECs, sport/clubs, work, sorority/frat, drinking, sleeping, but mostly hanging out with other college students and exchanging ideas, gossiping, questioning. You will find threads on cc where new freshmen feel excluded because they don’t have people to fill all of this time with and they struggle or get depressed. And it’s harder to fit in socially if one is very young, and the youngsters may get excluded.</p>
<p>However, commuting students usually go to class, maybe study, and go home. If they don’t have any close friends at school, it’s pretty easy just to go home or find friends around home. If they do have close friends at school, then even better. So the social piece doesn’t matter as much.</p>
<p>That being said, I hope that you can convince your parents to let you live maybe 1 year on campus (any year). It will be a completely different experience.</p>
<p>I will be living at home and commuting to college. I’m Lebanese, and our culture is very social so I have a lot of friends at home. Also, I’ll still be in touch with my friends from high school because since they won’t be graduating a year early and the high school is in the same area as the college. That being said, I do want to make friends at the University because I feel it would be important to having a good college experience. I can be shy at times, but that’s not from being younger, it’s just that I’m shy in general until I get to know someone. </p>
<p>About living a year in a dorm, I can imagine that it would be a completely different experience. That being said, I’m not the kind of person who would want to live in a dorm. I don’t want to live with people who are going to be drunk half the time, share a room with a stranger, and not to mention the dorms are not located in a good area at all. I’m hoping that I’ll eventually save enough money from a job and working co-op that I’ll be able to make a down payment on a house (only if I know for sure that I will be living here for a long time) and then I’ll move in to the house and pay off the mortgage monthly as if I were paying for an apartment, but I get to keep the house in the end.</p>
<p>@tt6238, you seem to have covered my concern. IF you want to apply to college as a freshman, you shouldn’t graduate from high school, then take college classes, then apply to colleges. You’re already talking about dual enrollment, which is what I was attempting to say - just make sure you’re taking your college classes simultaneously with your high school ones.</p>
<p>TT: My sister’s case was a bit different than yours because she was so young. She had a late birthday and skipped a grade, probably should’ve skipped two. She’s also profoundly gifted with an eidetic memory. She had trouble finding peers because her social skills were not fully developed and she was often in classes with students 2 or 3 years older. </p>
<p>What helped is that she joined a sorority and that gave her some structure. She went to school in the 70s and it was a very tumultuous time – riots, free love, a lot of pot. Basically sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. </p>
<p>Are you challenged academically? Will the school pay for you to take college level classes? Often they are required to pay for these. Consider carefully the benefits of graduating early and staying in high school the four years. Don’t be in a rush to be an adult. Enjoy your youth.</p>
<p>ETA: I want to add that if you’re NOT challenged and you’ve exhausted your school’s advanced classes, and you haven’t found your “people” then maybe it is time to move on.</p>
<p>Son is also gifted- with a fall birthday he started kindergarten while still 4 and due to multiple grade elementary classes got the second grade ahead. He was able to do 4 years of HS with all of the AP classes and activities including academic, music and sports (running). He had friends and went off to an excellent flagship when he was 16. He had a peer group with the same experiences but couldn’t go to bars et al with them later in college. There were HS students in his Honors freshman Physics- a 14 year old girl to his 16 year old age; age did not matter in the classroom or dorm. He could have graduated in 3 years with a math major but that would not have prepared him well for grad schools- he did do some grad school math as an undergrad.</p>
<p>Academics are another matter. Not all college courses are equal in material presented. The mother of a gifted girl told me her D said the ranking of calculus courses was lowest for the good HS AP class (again, not all AP classes are taught equally), local college, then flagship regular (not Honors), then her Ivy. Likewise a computer science class at one college may not cover everything that a course at another does. Also, UW-Madison often tells students with AP Calc to start over with their first course- many who start with the second won’t be well prepared (of course this depends on how well they do on the AP exam, a passing grade alone isn’t learning all that is needed).</p>
<p>A major question for you. Do you want to prepare yourself for the toughest/best colleges and take advantage of all of the activities available, or do you want to forge ahead with lesser intellectually stimulating academics? A gap year- will it be intellectually stimulating? Our state offered youth options whereby HS students could take college courses at the state’s expense if not offered at their HS, hence the above knowledge of calc classes. Why hurry through HS if you can enrich your life with all of the varied experiences available. Life, even for the gifted, is not all academics. Take advantage of each stage in life. There is plenty of time to do so- and do not give up your freshman year in college living away from home, and with your intellectual peers.</p>