I am currently in 9th grade and only one credit short of being a Junior next year. So, I was thinking about graduating early. But I’m really conflicted about whether I should do it or not, I’ve changed my mind several times but I really need to decide soon. So basically right now I have 4.3 GPA and I’m tied for 2nd in my class. This is excluding the AP class I took this year so I’ll more than likely be #1 or tied for first place after our 2nd semester classes are calculated into our GPA. My school is very small and we don’t have a lot of class options in my field of interest, I will have met my graduation requirements well before my senior year. I would stay the extra year and take AP’s but most of the AP classes that I want are held at the same time so it seems pointless for me to stay. The only reason I am scared to do it is because I don’t want it to effect my chances of getting into college. UVA is my first choice and even if I stayed all four years, my chances of getting in out of state wouldn’t be great. But I figure if I graduate early then I would be okay with going to UNC Chapel Hill, Asheville, or Wilmington as long as I got into Duke for med school. But obviously I’m hoping to get into my first choice.
If I graduated early I would basically just skip my sophomore year by taking English 2 this summer. But the class I am moving into is VERY competitive. They currently have 12 people tied for 2nd place. So if I did skip my sophomore year then it would make being valedictorian a lot harder than it is now. So I just need some objective opinions.
What APs could you take if you spent another year? Would it be possible to enroll full time as a dual enrollment student at a local college? I know someone who did this and had like 5 college classes a semester. This could be an option, but I am not sure if the colleges you are considering accept dual enrollment credits.
@JadeRock The only AP’s offered that I would be interested in are AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Earth Science, AP Pysics, AP Calculus and AP Stats. Those are the ones that would be relevant to what I study in college. If I skipped my sophomore year I could probably only take AP Bio, AP Earth Science, AP Physics and one of the two AP Maths listed. My school does offer college classes through the local community college but I’m unlikely to take those because for some reason at my school they are weighted like academic classes so taking those would ultimately hurt my GPA.
I wouldn’t make plans on the basis of whether or not you could be the valedictorian. Unless you are applying to colleges that have a scholarship especially for valedictorians, it really doesn’t matter.
@JadeRock I could also take AP US History, AP English 3 and 4, AP European History, and AP Government.
AP Earth Science is not a real class. You are thinking of AP Environmental Science, which is still a complete joke of a class.
Talk to your school counselor, your teachers, your parents – I feel they’d know better than we would. If you do decide to graduate early… For a medical degree, Chemistry would help a LOT more than Physics so drop the Environmental Science and the Physics so that you can take Chem and BOTH of the math ones.