<p>My son was homeschooled while dual-enrolled at an excellent CC. He applied one year young, but we were calling it senior year since he skipped once in elementary. He was accepted to some very selective schools. He is not particularly socially mature, so he took a gap year. He will be entering a top school with age-mates this fall, as a freshman, and with an Associate of Science degree.</p>
<p>The top-tier schools are the ones most likely to meet full need, and the next-tier ones are the ones most likely to come up with merit aid for your daughter.</p>
<p>You wrote “the community college is unavailable to homeschoolers”. I bet if you hunt harder, especially with SAT scores in hand, you would find that they’re available. What’s probably unavailable is Post Secondary Enrollment Options, where the public high school actually pays part of the bill. I called three different CCs in the area before I got satisfaction; one even told me it was illegal for someone under 16 to take college classes. Totally bogus.</p>
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PLEASE DON’T! Not if you want her to go to the most selective schools, anyway. They will consider classes taken after high school graduation to mean that the student is a transfer student. Many scholarships are just for freshmen, and many top schools are FAR easier to get into as a freshman than as a transfer. I agree with LoremIpsum that she can probably go to the CC, but I totally disagree with graduating her from high school first. Use dual-enrollment with homeschool. </p>
<p>Your daughter’s awesome, but if she applies to school a year early she will be competing with awesome kids who have had an additional year to mature and to accomplish. But it would certainly be academically reasonable for her to go a year early. Try reading around the homeschool forum - you’ll find lots of paths that can work. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>