Ramifications of 3 year graduation

Applying to College
1

<p>Hello everyone,</p>

<pre><code> I have decided to graduate high school in three years and was wondering whether this would negatively (or positively) affect my admissions to a Florida college/university (preferably UF). I have a 4.0 GPA (unweighted), a 2010 SAT score, extracurriculars (chess and mu alpha theta), and some community service (45 hours). Currently I have 5 credits in mathematics, 4 in the sciences, 2 in English, 2 in Spanish, 2 in Social studies, and 1 in physical education. I have taken two AP courses so far, and, plan on taking the following courses next year: AP Calculus BC, physics 1 H/G, AP macroeconomics, AP US government, AP English language, English 4 H/G, and AP American History. Assuming I pass all my classes next year, I will have a net of 22 credits (which is low). Will colleges give me any leeway based on the difficulty of graduating in three years?
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<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

2

<p>I wouldn’t, colleges like to see you do more then that is required of you, ie. more credits then necessary. My friend did the same and didn’t make it into one of his schools and is currently at CC. He did carry AP and honors too. Just my input.</p>

3

<p>That’s quite unfortunate for your friend; however, I find it hard to believe that he was forced to go to community college just because he had a low number of credits. Was there another underlying cause such as low SAT, low GPA, or low leadership skills or was the rejection fully based on his graduation in three years. Also, I suppose I forgot to mention that I have entered into a BINDING three year graduation. If low credits are such a handicap is there a way to alleviate the aforementioned handicap; for example, writing about the dedication required to graduate early or by taking more summer classes to add additional credits.</p>

4

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<p>There’s no particular reason to expect that they would. I feel for you in wanting to get out of high school sooner (I wanted to also, in my day), but see what challenging activities you can get involved in and whether you can still add advanced classes to your transcript as a high school student. That may give you more choices and better chances in your application year.</p>

5

<p>When one daughter was a freshman, we looked into the ramifications of a three-year graduation situation. If she planned right, it would have been possible for her to graduate after three years having all the typical college requirements (3-year Science, 4±year math, 4-year English, 4-year foreign language), but we were advised to ask the colleges she was interested in what their take on it would be. So, we did.</p>

<p>Essentially, we found that the State schools didn’t really care one way or another. However, the private and more competitive-admissions schools did. It is not that they would actively discriminate against a 3-year grad in the admission process, but rather that the 3-year grad would come up short in many of the areas they compared/contrasted. Specifically, leadership opportunities, maturity, etc. Many of the more intangible, non-grade driven considerations. The Admissions personnel we spoke to encouraged her to go the 4th year of high school and use it as an opportunity to ‘branch out’–i.e., take some classes that weren’t mandatory for the 4-year English, 4-year Math, 4-year Science core litany. The Admissions personnel also told her that 4th year would give her opportunities for school club leadership positions (not with her club athletic activity, though).</p>

<p>They were unanimous in saying that although she wouldn’t be penalized at the admission process for graduating in 3 years, she would be at a disadvantage when compared with the 4-year grads, primarily in terms of those non-academic considerations. So, the pluses we thought there might be in terms of handling an accelerated schedule with aplomb, really weren’t advantages that the Admissions people would attribute to the 3-year grad.</p>

<p>In the end, our daughter decided to continue on the 4-year high school track and will use that senior year for exploring classes (seems to be art classes) that she would not otherwise have been able to fit in.</p>

<p>I would also caution that all of the Florida state schools–and particularly, UF–have become very competitive in terms of admissions, even for Florida residents. Many top students with very high GPA and academic credentials have been denied admission and routed through the Florida community colleges. Several members of my family and their kids’ friends and classmates have had less than satisfactory experiences with the Florida state university system in the last several years.</p>

<p>So, it might behoove you to ask these questions of those schools’ admission personnel to get the best advice/answer pertinent to those schools.</p>