Senior year abroad?

Hello,

I am moving abroad with my mom who has a work abroad opportunity. I am currently a junior in a High School in Georgia. Knowing we were going to move, I fulfilled all high school requirements in order to have all needed to graduate early. They agreed initially but now are claiming they would prefer a dual enrollment which clearly would not work with our abroad situation next year. My mom will have a very flexible schedule next year so I am thinking of homeschooling but I am not sure what I would need to do since I already took all my high school classes.
Could I finish my senior year abroad? Is homeschooling the solution? Will this hurt my chances for college admission?

Thank you for your help,

You are moving abroad, and won’t be included in their student count anyway, so ask your high school again about graduating now. Precisely which of the graduation requirements remain unfilled? Specifically, which summer (if you will be here through the summer), or distance ed courses would be acceptable to cover those missing graduation requirements? Take this past the high school to the superintendent or the school board if needed. If GA will consider you in-state for the public colleges and universities provided that you graduate from an in-state HS, you would absolutely want to graduate there. Once your mom is out of the country, you will probably lose your GA resident status for tuition and fees purposes. Not a reason to not take the job opportunity, of course, but something to keep in mind.

Where will you be living? Is there a US-style “International School” available? Often those schools are really good at graduating students who arrive for a senior year. What are the local requirements for school attendance? Some countries don’t recognize home schooling and might require you to be in high school if you haven’t officially graduated and are too young to be out of school yet.

Going abroad will not hurt your college application. Don’t worry about that. Since you will be out of the country, line up your letters of recommendation now. Be sure to keep in touch with those teachers while you are away, so that they can write good letters for yo.

What country will it be? If you graduate from high school you could enroll in a local school (if it’s safe and you have some knowledge of the local language) just for the experience. It’d be a terrific (well, growth-inducing), free Gap year experience.

There is no more requirements, I have finished all the required classes but they won’t agree to let me graduate early. Not sure what to do then. I will be in France, I am turning 18 in October, will it be a problem to be homeschooled with a US company and curriculum in France?

Ask them if they’d consider you enrolling in France sufficient for them to grant you graduation.
Do you speak French?
French schools have pre-major tracks. Depending on what you’re interested in and what AP you’ve already taken (or what sort of classes if not AP) I can tell you which one would be the best fit for you.

If you have fulfilled all of the graduation requirements, then there is no good reason to be denied your high school diploma. Your parents need to meet with the people in charge at your school and find out what is going on. Are you missing some unspecified elective? Would your graduating this year mess up the class ranking? Do they just not want you to walk at graduation and give other students ideas?

What you need is your diploma. You don’t need to walk at graduation. You may not even need a class rank (and that is something that has a certain flexibility anyway). Figure out what you can offer them in exchange for your diploma, and see if a deal can be worked out.

Who have you talked to? The Guidance Counselor? The Principal? Then your mom may need to talk to the Board of Education. Are you sure you have met all graduation requrirements?

You may be giving up all in-state college options with this move. It is something to consider. If your mom maintains residency in GA, and just “travels” for work, you could probably maintain your in-state status for lower cost college options. I’d make sure you and she look at this carefully. I’d also look at the impact of this on the automatic scholarships available to GA HS graduates.