<p>I have a sophomore D who has been asking for the last several months if she can graduate early. I have, for the most part, just listened. I thought her comments were born out of end of the year frustrations and a bit of boredom. She has persisted and so I am trying to keep an open mind. She attends a Catholic school that requires four years of religion to graduate. SHe also needs four years of English. She will have met all other requirements after her junior year. She is on the older side to begin with, having just missed the cutoff for starting school. She is also very mature and three of her closest friends have just finished their freshman year of college. She wants to meet interesting people, do something different, learn in a more exciting environment and still start college at the same time as her peers. She would like to have some sort of adventure before starting college but a "gap year" following high school does not address her concerns. Namely, she does not want to put off going to college for a year, she wants to start an adventure earlier. She also does not want to go away during the summer to do this b/c she really enjoys working and having some down time. I am wondering if finishing high school after the first semester her senior year would address her concerns, keep her on track for standardized testing and college, let her enjoy some of being a senior, and also give her the time to plan an adventure. Of course, she would have to figure out some way to make up a semester of religion and a semester of English. But, that is possible with on line courses and summer college courses and easier than cramming two courses in over the summer. I would love any insights, feedback or experiences any of you have to share. Thansks.</p>
<p>You can go to college without graduating from high school. There are lots of colleges--some of them excellent--that accept students after their junior year. My son went to MIT after his junior year of HS and has been successful there (he just took a semester off after 2 1/2 years and will be going back in the fall). He did not get a diploma from his private HS however. </p>
<p>There are several threads that have discussed this issue before. Of course, I can't remember which ones--perhaps someone more adept at searches could post the links?</p>
<p>Movinmom:</p>
<p>Much depends on which type of college your D wants to apply to. Some do not require a high school diploma, so needing one more semester of religion and of English may not be important if she applied to those (they tend to be more selective, however). Some high schools also allow students to complete their requirements when they are already in college, with Freshman English serving as the fourth year of English.</p>
<p>The more significant issue is whether your D will be competitive with other applicants at the schools she is interested in No bonus is given to applicants who graduated early. In fact, any hint of weakness in the transcript will be taken as a sign that the applicant would be better off staying in school the full four years. As well, will she have completed all the standardized tests by the time she applies?</p>
<p>For the record, my S began taking APs in 8th grade; he took college courses in high school as well as more AP courses. He completed all the standardized tests by the end of sophomore year, so he was able to apply EA in the fall of his junior year. He completed all high school requirements by the end of junior year (he doubled on English in his sophomore year). His last year of PE was waived.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>has she considered a year abroad? not a gap year, but her senior year? that would be an adventure, help on language skills, look good to selective colleges and might be an excellent possibility</p>
<p>My oldest two both graduated a year early, but they accelerated from fifth to seventh grade, and spent four years in high school. So, it's a bit different. I have to agree with Marite in that I have heard only having three years in high school <em>can</em> put you at a disadvantage in some of the competitive school admissions, particularly if you have to compact your schedule to accommodate those one or two senior classes. In our instance that would mean eight fewer classes taken for someone that graduates a year early, unless the student has done a lot of work at the college or through distance learning. That is probably why we have a lot of December grads, but very few full year early grads (the school uses 4 x 4 block) There is a small stipend towards state school tuition if you graduate early in Texas. The school loses money on attendance, so naturally they do not encourage it. </p>
<p>We could have compacted high school--same situtation of basically tapping out of advanced classes--but that would be two years early. They actually wanted to stay the fourth year because they were at the top of their game for debate and UIL competitions. I would imagine that spring athletes, and those students involved in student council, yearbook etc...where senior year is the year they get to be head/president/editor in chief would feel similarly. </p>
<p>You are going to get answers all over the map on this one!</p>
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<p>having three years in high school <em>can</em> put you at a disadvantage in some of the competitive school admissions</p>
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<p>I agree, too. You're giving them a shorter list of achievements. My mom experienced this more than 45 years ago. She was bound and determined to graduate early (age 15.5), even though it meant she had to go to her safety. She was able to transfer to a great match school after one year, though.</p>
<p>That being said, if you're not that focused on getting into ultracompetitive colleges anyway, I have a strong bias toward letting kids escape high school if they don't like it there. For some kids, a job at Wendy's would do them a lot more good.</p>
<p>Mine "graduated" two years early. And it wasn't an issue at ANY of the ultracompetitive colleges. (We also have two friends at H., one who entered at age 14 without ANY high school, much less graduating, and one - an "unschooler" (meaning she had zero in the way of high school grades) at 16. Both are graduating next year. </p>
<p>Of course, the plural of anecdote is not evidence, and colleges can find plenty of reasons to reject an applicant if they choose to.</p>
<p>There are many threads over the years here on this topic and you may wish to search for them. I also have a daughter who came to us in tenth grade strongly desiring to graduate HS one year early. It was never in our plans for her. However, I will admit that she articulated a strong case academically, socially, personally, and artisitically (her field is in the performing arts). She is a very driven and strong willed person and it would have been very hard to hold her down given her strong desire to graduate early. We went along with it.</p>
<p>In her case, she had always been accelerated in school. She also entered K early so was already a year ahead in school in terms of placement and then was going to graduate early as well, resulting in graduating at 16. She had also been accelerated academically in her schoolwork....taking classes with older grades all along. In middle school, she took many HS courses as the MS and HS were at the same location and we were able to work out this accomodation. By the time she finished her junior year, she had taken most of the HS curriculum and had completed what was available in a couple of subjects. There were a few courses left she could take but not a real compeling curriculum left for one more year. She had the requisite four years of English due to acceleration in MS with the HS coursework. Early graduation had not been why she took HS classes so young but simply was part of meeting her learning needs at the time. Socially, she was always friends with older kids. She was a leader even though much younger than those she would "lead". She had spent her summers in a summer program out of state in her field and all her friends at that point were either in college or going to college and she wanted to move on with that peer group. She had pretty much topped out and reached her artistic goals locally and was ready to move onto the next level of her training, too. Like Marite's son, once she put this plan in motion, she took all the standardized tests by the end of tenth grade. Therefore, in the fall of her junior year, she was doing college applications. The decision to graduate early was firmly put into place by Jan. of tenth grade. We also called every school on her college list and just blindly asked if they accepted students who graduated HS in three years and all said they did as long as they had a diploma (some schools will take students without a diploma but that was not her situation). We just wanted to make sure that she was not going to hurt her chances of college admissions if they did not accept early graduates. However, as others have mentioned, and I do agree, there must be a strong case for early graduation and support for it. In other words, the recs from teachers and/or guidance counselors should also speak to the student's readiness for college. My child included a personal statement (in addition to the regular app essays) explaining why she chose to graduate early. I agree with others that colleges will take an EXTRA look at an early graduate...kinda more scrutiny, if you will. So, there should be just cause for graduating early academically, socially, and personally. My child's admissions results were very positive and she did end up going to one of her first choice schools and just finished her freshman year and this was definitely the right choice for HER but not for everyone. Anyone who knows her cannot imagine her having been a junior in HS this past year (her true chronological placement) or even a senior (her real class). She just is in a different place than peers in those grades. She fits in great at college and has fared very well so far in all respects. </p>
<p>For the OP's D.....it is on the late side to make this decision and squeeze in everything in the next six months but not impossible. However, it sounds as if it would be difficult to get the English and Religion classes in unless there was summer school or distance learning or some plan to double up. The suggestion for a semester abroad was a good one. If I understand it, you are considering her graduating just one semester early so that is not such a big deal because it doesn't mean applying to college one year early. It simply means getting out of high school mid year of senior year. Perhaps that semester can be spent in a job, internship, volunteer work, or travel of some sort. That sounds doable because she won't have to apply to college just yet and may not have her testing done, etc. How to get those required classes would have to be figured out. It seems worth looking into and frankly not as big a deal as graduating after junior year and applying to college during junior year. The spring semester abroad sounds like a good way to handle it, if she is interested. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Thank you all for the good advice. I think there may be a few things going on for D2. THis hs school may be too confining for her. It was perfect for D1 but this child is very different. THat has to be addressed. Beyond that, a semester abroad second half of senior year may be perfect. I will start researching that option, too.</p>
<p>My daughter did a semester abroad during her junior year, and also had to worry about filling an English requirement. What she did was arrange to do an independent study with the honors English teacher at her high school -- they drew up a reading list together before she left, partly based on her interests and partly based on the teacher's curriculum goals, and I shopped with her to purchase all the books she would read before she left. (All were readily available in paperback). The plan was for her to email back book reports and specific assignments, and it worked out very well for her -- she took her laptop computer with her so she would type the assignments on the computer, then put them on a disk and upload them with her email when she went once a week to an internet cafe. The nice thing is that it also gave my daughter something of a respite when she could read & think in English -- since everything else involved trying to keep up in a foreign language. So in a sense it was probably very nice for her to be able to settle down in the evenings with a good book. In any case, an independent study for literature is pretty easy to set up. </p>
<p>I don't know about religion, because I don't know what the high school expects in the class (my kids have attended public schools only), but I even have a suggestion there. My daughter didn't plan this, but she was staying in Russia and one day her host mom insisted that she go on a tour of a several Russian Orthodox churches. Well, "tour" meant to ride on a bus with a lot of old women and to actually attend services at each stop... and the Russian Orthodox have very long services and they stand up all the way through. But the point is, even without planning, my daughter experienced an interesting unit on "comparative religions." My son visited Thailand on a summer exchange, and his trip included visits to many Thai Wats (temples) - so again: "comparative religions". </p>
<p>If your daughter's school would be receptive to the idea, it is possible that an independent study could also be designed for the religion class. If she goes to a Catholic country, she could of course visit missions or cathedrals in her host country; or if, like my kids, she chooses to spend time in a country where a different religion is predominant, then she could follow the "comparative religions" idea. Before she goes a set of plans and independent assignments could be drafted up. </p>
<p>I hope this idea isn't too outlandish -- as I said, I honestly have no clue what goes on in a senior year religion class at a Catholic school -- I just know that just about every country and culture in the world has churches and monestaries and temples and cathedrals - and many are very accessible to travelers and often are tourist destinations that regularly offer tours. There is a lot that you can learn by visiting places and observing or participating in local religious customs and services. I don't know whether your daughter's high school would see that as a legitimate alternative to classroom instruction, but with independent study your daughter could have her adventure and graduate right on schedule.</p>
<p>My S took a semester of English IV with an on-line course, and then a course in college. His college didn't care about a HS degree, just his mom did.
By the way, my S decided to try 2 days before winter vacation, and rushed to get interviews within a week and letters of recommendation in a day. Its quite possible and appropriate for many kids.</p>
<p>My mother went to college at about age 16. It was not a good idea. My nephew went a year early and seems to have done well.
I would separate the two ideas: 1)finishing HS early and 2) starting college. One local educator, advising a couple whose son was offered a place at a prestigious university at age 13, told them he shouldn't go until: A) he had a driver's license and B) he had gone on his first date. You may not agree with these exact criteria, but you get the picture. Your decision will be based on some nonacademic emotional growth criteria. Calmom's suggestion is a perfect example of a noncollege growth experience to have before starting college. Others will suggest community college as a way to gather academic experience that is challenging without facing college life before one is ready.</p>
<p>My D went from being an 11th grader (at a private church-based school) first term to becoming a 12th grader 2nd term. We had just moved her to that school for 11th grade and were facing a likely family move, she did not want to change schools again, so we accelerated her. The school was incredible, they changed all her classes second term to make sure she covered the additional religion & English classes needed and it has worked out fine. Don't be afriad to talk to the school, but you would have to have a "spin" that does not cause them to be defensive about why they are not meeting her needs, you would need a special administrator who works with you as a team member, you may get some staffers who resent any one doing something different like that.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>