Hi
I am currently a sophomore at high school. I recently passed my CHSPE which basically means I can leave high school early and can go to my local community college. I dont like high school, the atmosphere, the teachers - I just hate it. I genuinely feel half the stuff I study at school can be done in a week or so. I am way ahead of the standard curriculum and rlly want to go to college and do actual college courses instead of doing AP which is rlly just work ive been doing for the last 2 years but with a tonne of homework.
I feel I would prosper far better at a community college while im 16-18 years old and possibly transfer to an actual selective college by the time i would of finished high school.
However, this aspiration conflicts with one of my other dream - OLYMPIADS and Engineering competitions. I’ve been admitted to USABO, UNSCO, AIME, ISEF, Siemens and have been very close to achieving International standard. One of my all time dreams is to be entered into one of these international olympiad or continue entering engineering competitions
Will I still be able to enter these competitions while in community college.
The list of competitions that I want to enter are IMO,USAPHO,UNSCO,IBO, google science fair, Siemens and Intel ISEF
I believe that you need to be in high school to compete in the Olympiads but hopefully someone more knowledgeable will chime in. Will your high school allow you to dual enroll and take your courses at the community college but still technically be a high school student? If you can do that, then you should still have access to your high school teams.
Rather than leave high school early can you look into doing full time dual enrollment through your high school taking all your classes at the community college. My daughter does that. She takes all of her classes on the college campus. However she can still do all the school extra curricular she wants to do that don’t involve being an a class for a grade. For instance she can do key club, orchestra (which is an after school club), figure skating team which she is the founder of, NHS, or any other sport/club/activity she wants. She can also do any of the college activities she desires though she did find a few of the volunteer things required being 18.
She will receive her high school diploma with her high school class. She is still eligible for senior scholarships, senior prom, worked with a high school guidance counselor as needed for college applications etc. The one thing she opted to do different. Also in her case the classes and book rentals are free. If she did the same thing though was not a high school student she couldn’t do the high school activiites and would have paid over $10,000 for classes, books etc for 4 semesters.