<p>There is a concern that if you are put into an environment that you are not ready for you will not have this "forced maturation" but a breakdown. Many older students starting college have trouble adjusting, and their grades suffer. In many cases, mental problems develop which hinder performance, happiness, and the ability to succeed. If you or others (parents, friends, teachers, etc.) have doubt of your ability to handle college at this time, then I think you ought to seriously consider taking another year to mature naturally and develop with your peers. Independence is not something to be taken lightly. An early start to college could be the beginning of a host of problems which may have been able to be avoided by taking extra time to prepare for going away. </p>
<p>Having read through your posts in this thread, I think that you could most certainly benefit from spending some more time at home before going to college. Gap years can be greatly beneficial in helping students to mature and preparing them for college. I do not believe that it is your age; I was sixteen throughout a lot of my senior year. I skipped a grade (and a lot of individual classes), and my school informed my parents and me that I could skip another with no social or academic problems. However, my parents felt that being two grades ahead of my age group would be asking for trouble, so I stayed where I was. I was young at the time I skipped, so I grew up in an older age group, so to speak. It is different when one intends to move up at such a late point in the game, when you are already accustomed to your current grade level.</p>
<p>I think that starting college at the time you intend to begin would be a mistake, and I do not believe that the risk is worth any possible gain.</p>
<p>Hmm, I started school here in 7th grade. Since then I have been skipping around quite frequently: math by two~three grades, Spanish by two grades, and English by one. Since freshmen year in HS the majority of my classmates have been older kids. So basically nothing changed other than my offical status with the skip, and it may have already occurred before I earned official recognition. I appreciate your concerns about maturity. But from your point of view, what are the losses of continuing with my program of studies? I think I probably won't go nuts or claustrophobic if I go to college one year early, since all my friends are older than I am. Would I forfeit a good time? Or would I resign long time friendships too soon?
Thanks.</p>
<p>You said yourself that you were not entirely confident in your ability to adjust. I think the best plan for you is to put college off one year so that when you do go you can be confident that you will be able to adjust to college in order to have success in all social and academic facets. </p>
<p>Many people from all backgrounds face problems when going to college; it's not just the "crazies" from high school who have trouble. Instead of risking four miserable and frustrating years in college, what is the harm in giving yourself one more year to grow and experience life before heading off for independence?</p>
<p>Ah... From your valuable suggestions, I guess I will stick to my plan, apply to Ivies, and if get rejected from all of them, stay for one more year. Maybe the ADCOM can decide whether I am mature enough :)</p>
<p>BTW, I don't think light-language on CC forums equal immaturity. Maybe it represents innocence!
:) :( :-) <3 ^_^ :-P</p>
<p>There are college programs designed for students to skip their senior year and enter college a year early. My son is going to one this fall at University of Southern California. It is called their resident honors program. Here's the link:
<a href="http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/general_studies/RHP/%5B/url%5D">http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/general_studies/RHP/</a></p>
<p>Perhaps one of these programs will smooth the transition to college easier!</p>
<p>I graduated two years early (skipped 6th, graduated highschool in 3 years).</p>
<p>I'm all for graduating early, just I wouldn't advise going into college too young, use your free time valuably. My main motivation with graduating early was that I would have a year free to do something awesome, which most other people don't get a chance to do which turned out to be this exchange program. If it's hard to transition into college after you've left behind your friends, family, hometown, language, and social status then I would be amazed. Anyway, if you want a life-changing experience, do an exchange, it freakin rocks. It's a lot cheaper than a year of college too...</p>
<p>As for maturity, maturity varies much more than a year between people of the same age so I don't really see a year of maturity as a big deal.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Haha Sydney, I didn't really expect you to put it that way. I was expecting a "OMG THIS KID IS A YEAR YOUNGER THAN EVERYONE ELSE!!! ACCEPT!!! ACCEPT!! AHHH NOTIFY HIM VIA NATIONAL TV!!!!"
---That's how immature I was before reading the replies to this thread.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That's what I always thought, too. :D I'd never really heard of anyone thinking it was a bad thing until I came to CC...</p>
<p>And I still stand by what I said, I don't think age is a major factor, regardless of what people here think. </p>
<p>I am so happy I'm graduating this year, I really don't think I would be able to take another year of high school. Also, if you don't think you'd be ready for a huge campus, you could always start at a community college (another thing that CCers see as the plague) or smaller campus and transfer. </p>
<p>I think that if you want to graduate a year early, and think that you'll be fine doing it, by all means go ahead!!! It's not as terrible as the people here make it out to be - take it from someone who's doing it and knows people who have done it. A friend of mine who graduated in 11th (our school only goes up to 11th grade) said that everyone thinks she's some kind of genius. I don't think anyone's ever questioned her maturity level.</p>