The best part about taking more high school courses is that you will have time to also develop great ECs. Any of the colleges you’re interested in will want to see extensive EC activity (note that doesn’t mean many ECs, although it might, it means you have put in reasonable effort into your ECs).
If you will be applying for federal financial aid with the FAFSA, you will need to check the box that asks if you have your high school diploma or a GED. So go sit down with a couple of financial aid officers and find out if you are considered to have met that standard. If you haven’t, you will need to work out a good way to meet it. In some states, the hoops to jump through in order to take the GED exam series are pretty strict. For example in my state, you have to be at least 18 and formally withdrawn from high school. Just leaving high school early as you did wouldn’t meet the requirement.
OP needs to know her state’s homeschool requirements. The “ability to benefit” requirement is to have a high school diploma or the equivalent. In NY, there are several ways homeschoolers can meet the equivalency requirement, and the GED is only one. Few of the homeschoolers I know use it.
@blubeari Have you met with a transfer coordinator at your CC? In looking over your list of completed courses, your associate’s degree is composed of courses that would not actually lead to an associates at many CCs. Unless you have not listed all of the courses, your biggest weakness is in English. It appears as if you have 1 English comp credit. I am surprised that you are planning on more social sciences like anthropology next semester vs. a 2nd English comp or literature credit.
I know you stated that you have outgrown the CC. That is a reality that is very believable. A couple of my kids would never have fit in on a CC campus at all. They DEed for some classes (but definitely not all) directly at our local 4 yr university. I have had kids graduate from our homeschool ready for 400 level courses their freshman yr of college.
If transferring to a 4 yr school that has an articulation agreement with your CC is not an option, I agree with @austinmshauri that you need to make sure you understand the homeschool law in your state and also make sure that you are meeting your state’s high school graduation requirements (and those 2 scenarios might be distinctive and not have the same requirements.) It will be in your best interests to have at minimum the equivalency of your typical state’s high school graduates.
FWIW, if you cannot DE at your local U, you might look into options like Stanford Online High School or Texas Tech’s online high school.
- @bluebeari I think you intuit that you are not going to find a sizable community of peers anywhere. For better or worse, you are pretty much "unique," and one of the things that means is that you have to learn how to get the social/intellectual relationships you need and want from people who are really different from you.
- Here's another, somewhat off-the-wall idea: See if you can talk your way into Exeter, or some other very high-quality boarding school. They have extensive financial aid available, and one of them may be persuaded to use some of it on an interesting kid such as yourself. That would give you (a) a structured environment with a pretty well-developed safety net, (b) very high-quality, college-level academics, (c) as close as you are going to come to a community likely to have some peers roughly your age,and failing that at least a bunch of really smart kids who have been taught to respect others (d) excellent, sophisticated college counseling (and vetting colleges will respect), and (e) a path to getting a high school diploma without dying of boredom.
- You probably need to "fix" your mental health issues if you want to attend someplace ultra-selective. Right now, your resume reads like a time bomb waiting to go off. I don't think you can really bury or avoid that topic, because it's so central to where you are now, but it would be great if, at the time you apply to college, you had a couple of trouble-free years behind you, and an ongoing, sustainable therapy program you could point to.
- When all the dust clears, and you mature some, I don't think the hyperintellectual vibe of Chicago or St. John's is actually a must-have for you. You are not going to have a roomful of people like you anywhere you go, and all you really need is a few people you enjoy talking to and hanging out with. You are as likely to find them at a large public flagship as at Chicago (or any similar college). I'm not telling you not to apply to Chicago -- which I think you would probably like in real life, not just fantasy -- but I'm telling you don't make that the centerpiece of your hopes for the future. It doesn't have to be, and you are much more likely to wind up someplace else in any event.
@JHS Thanks for your thoughtful reply! The boarding school idea seems really crazy, but also it might work. How possible do you think it would be for me to get in somewhere though? I’m very high risk high return. And I don’t really have much to show for the past few years – all I have is “potential,” which is so fuzzy.