<li>I’m fifteen, graduating two years early.</li>
<li>The local community college is like a mile away from where I live.</li>
<li>Staying at home while going to college would save massive amounts of money.</li>
<li>In my state, there is a law that guarantees anyone with an associates degree admission into a public university.</li>
<li>I can’t drive. And probably won’t for a couple more years because my parents don’t want me to.</li>
<li>My GPA is 3.8</li>
<li>I don’t know what I want to major in yet (maybe history), but I know I want to go into medicine.</li>
</ol>
<p>Yes, at 15 or 16 you are too young to live on a college campus alone. CC is a good option. Stay at home, get good grades, and save your money for medical school.</p>
<p>Our daughter started CC at 15 and is doing quite well there. You can get your general education courses out of the way and sample a variety of academic, trade and technical areas. Community college courses tend to be much lower-priced compared to state universities.</p>
<p>Normally I would say NO! Often CCs w/ transfer to a 4 year, end up, in the long run, taking more time and more money.</p>
<p>However, in your case, I say YES! Given your guarantee transfer and age, I think it is a good idea.</p>
<p>You might also be able to transfer into some school other than your state school, w/ financial aid, w/ a high gpa. In other words, you might have a lot of options.</p>
<p>I say go for it because it will give you a more college feeling, but not too much so that you can't handle it. It'd be really hard for you to go to a 4-year now so it's good to take things slow. </p>
<p>I think all HS should take a class at a CC to get the real world experience. In HS you're protected too well in your bubble.</p>
<p>I don't know. I found out recently that my husband's roommate was only 15 when he was a freshman at Harvard. I didn't meet him till spring sophomore year, but I had no idea he was so young. He was somewhat on the nerdly end of the spectrum, but not excessively so. He ended up graduating summa cum laude. And as far as I know has no regrets about start college so young. (He waited till junior year for a serious girlfriend.)</p>
<p>Community college would be a fine option. Just make sure you work closely with an academic counselor so that you take the right courses to optimize your transfer experience.</p>
<p>If you decide to attend a four year school right away, you might consider a smaller, more personal school.</p>
<p>Community college is one option. But there are others which you can do in combination with community college or instead: Consider living at home and working for a year or so. With the money you save, you will be able to assume less debt for college, go to a college you couldn't otherwise afford, or have money for other expenses while at school. Or take a gap year with Americorp or City Year or one of many other fine programs where you provide social service and work-and sometimes get a stipend at the end for college. Yet another possiblity: Get an unpaid internship at an organization that does something that's important to you and work for them as if you were being paid. (Example, my daughter is the in-house IT person for a small non-profit. Son worked as a lab assistant and trained as a paramedic with the local volunteer fire dept.) </p>
<p>I realize that not driving could be a problem for some of these options, so of course, your parents support is crucial.</p>
<p>How will you get to your community college classes and back if you don't drive? (Living on campus in a dorm, you don't need to drive. Being a non-driver is, to me, an argument against community college.)</p>
<p>Check how community college would compare, price wise, to living on campus at an in-state public, and if living on campus at an in-state public is doable for you and your family, visit and check it out. (I would recommend a women's dormitory.)</p>
<p>As for going to school early, it really depends on the student. (When do you turn 16?) There are multiple immature 17-year-olds on every campus every fall. A mature 16 or almost-16 might be fine.</p>
<p>My dad works at the local CC (not a prof. though) so he goes there everyday. It's extremely close to where we live too, my parents giving me a lift would not present a problem to them.
I have a cell, and would just call one of my parents to pick me up.</p>
<p>Youngscholar; The CC might be an advisable alternative. Higher ed is obviously quite expensive and for pragmatic reasons the lower the costs can be kept the better. And for the first two years at any college largely what you should do is the gen ed and intro courses for your possible field.
As an example you'd mentioned medicine as a general field, in the first two years you'd be taking basic courses like macro-micro biology, A&P etc.
And the gen eds and intro courses at competent schools tend to be equivalent. </p>
<p>At this point don't let all the glittering catalogs (which are no doubt being sent to you) allow someone to sell prestige over pragmatism. Much of what's shown in those type of catalogs is glitter such as rec centers, high ticket trophy buildings and etc. And although your going to get charged for these things eventually in your college career, starting out by going to a school (such as many CC's) which do emphasize teaching over academic accessories might be preferable. </p>
<p>And after a year or so becoming acclimated to college courses, then with a good GPA you've got a much better chance of getting the into the scholarship programs. Competition for a increasingly limited number scholarships is going to get much tougher, the corporate people are cutting back and state funded scholarships will be lessened because of the attendant economic situation. So having a demonstrable record of academic success at the initial college level could be very advantageous. </p>
<p>If you do go to the CC find some activity which also shows engagement with the community, as various forms of service learning are going to become a big part of considerations for scholarships and specialty grant programs.</p>
<p>And congratulations on your current academic standing, for 15 it's quite advanced.</p>