<p>I am currently a sophomore in high school. For a while now, I have been pondering over the thought of graduating early, I am not missing a lot of my required credits. Quick recap of my high school career so far...</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Freshman year= I studied abroad for a year in Spain. Classes:
English 1
French
Spanish
Biology
physics and Chemistry
Music
Art
World History</p></li>
<li><p>Sophomore year ( Miami). Classes I am currently taking
English 2 honors
chemistry honors
algebra 2 honors
multimedia
personal fitness
Careers and research
Human Anatomy and Physiology ( Dual enrollment)</p></li>
</ul>
<p>For my rest of the year I am planning on taking some the credits that I am missing with Dual Enrollment: I would take Government, Us history, Introduction to Literature.</p>
<ul>
<li>Junior year
Ap calculus
Ap Language
Multimedia
Internship
And the rest of my classes at college</li>
</ul>
<p>Apart from my academical curriculum I am also actively involved in my community. I volunteer at a local museum and at a hospital. Furthermore, I participate in many of my school's clubs such as: NHS, NEHS, Key Club and Shape(community service coordinator).</p>
<p>I am ging to take the psat next week based on my score I will strongly consider wether i should start taking it this year or not.
The workload is not really a burden. But my concern is whether or not graduating early would be a set back in my college applications. I plan on attending schools in florida like: FIU, USF, UF, UM...</p>
<p>Graduating early is generally irrelevant for college admission. One thing you may want to consider is studying for the PSAT your junior year. If you make National Merit Semi-Finalist there are some great scholarships available. But that would only apply to the PSAT taken the year before you graduate. I believe there is a way to have your sophomore test count if you graduate early but you’d have to check with the College Board about how.</p>
<p>You don’t really have Physics or Biology…you haven’t taken Geometry or Pre-calculus.
What is wrong with Dual enrollment? Isn’t that basically free? If you graduate early, what are you going to do then?</p>
<p>Your courses are not really advanced. They are advanced in comparison to your peers, I am sure, but not to many/most on these boards.</p>
<p>Personal opinion: I would look into a combination of Home-School (or on-line high school) through your district- and concurrent enrollment, and send some time working on my passion- find a mentor and volunteer heavily in a political campaign (if you are looking at Poly-Sci), do a Maker Fair type thing, or a Burning Man project if you a re more interested in making things (engineering), get a Raspberry Pi or Arduino kit, or build a website if you are into that. Explore math competitions if you are into that. Find some things that really give you spark! This will also enhance your college application (to the extent that you care about that).</p>
<p>Our district has a program where if they can find an in-district teacher to grade your tests (they usually can, for about any course), you can essentially self-study a course, and meet once a week at the home-school center to take tests and to have your progress coordinated and monitored. It is a little-known path. It adds no additional work to the parent (which is why I did not want to home-school my kids) and gives a lot of freedom with time allocation. Call the office of the superintendent for your school district and neighboring districts (NOT your high school, this would be at the district, not school, level) and ask about alternative education options.</p>
<p>Take advantage of this time and really enjoy it. Don’t rush through it, rather expand your life horizons through it. Sure you can graduate early- Whoo-Hoo!! But you have a golden ticket, why burn it just to get to the next step? There is zero advantage in that.</p>
Unless you’ve exhausted the offerings at your HS I don’t see a compelling reason to graduate early. If applying for more competitive colleges you miss a chance for an extra year participation in ECs, especially a chance to show accomplishment and leadership instead of just “participated in this, took part in that.” There is also the question of college readiness and maturity. You are at an age where a year makes a difference. If you start college at 17 there will be frosh on your floor who are almost 19. And the age gap will stay with you thru college; your senior year you will turn 21, while some kids have been 21 since junior year. Nor are future employers impressed by kids that finish early; some HS kids think they are showing “look how smart I am!” while future employers look more to grades and internship experience than age as a guide to the kind of applicant you are.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t rush off to graduate early. First of all, I don’t think graduating early would be a plus for college admissions. I would keep going with APs and dual enrollment classes. I’d also try to get some leadership positions in your clubs over the next two years – it will be personally challenging/rewarding and would have the side benefit of enhancing your application.</p>
<p>College is more than academics – it is important to fit in socially and make good decisions away from home as well. When I was a freshman there was a girl who lived on the same floor of my dorm who was 16 and graduated her HS early – she was very academically able and had no trouble with the classes. However, she didn’t make her way as well socially and she made some poor choices as a freshman. Looking back, I can’t help but feel that if she had stayed one more year in HS that her college career might have started on a much better and easier path. Of course this is not a comment on your maturity level but rather it is a first hand observation of another student who made a choice to graduate early. The key is to be aware that college life is much more than academics and that you have to be prepared for a very different life as a college student. </p>
<p>You will have plenty of years to be an adult. My advice is not to rush through your education but to savor it. But ultimately this is a decision you and your parents must make together.</p>