I can’t really see any either except that the counselor at the CC suggested it and other people have had the same opinion. I think they see it as being a disadvantage in the transfer process and that it will cost her money in the long term if a school will only accept her as a freshman based on when she got her diploma (earning it at the same time as her AS). Her guaranteed transfer schools (ie. dual admissions) have not said that. I think it’s more the concern with casting a wider net and having to start all over again and pay for two additional years if her classes are not accepted for transfer everywhere she wants to go. I can understand the concern especially because she is not a candidate for merit aid.
The department head who recommended the REUs knew her age. Some of the REUs she was sent require 18 and specify that, some not. She’ll see as she goes. She’s excited about applying and her school is very supportive so I think she should just go with it. I am going to encourage her to apply for everything the college suggests to her. If anything she will get a sense of how it all works.
Most counselors, high school or college, do not know as much as you do about your family finances, about NCAA rules, even about what the other colleges will accept or not. They don’t know if freshmen are required to live in the dorms even if they have 60+ transfer credits, or if that freshman gets to register with the juniors for classes.
The only benefit I can see is that if she graduates now, any college credits MIGHT be accepted at a few schools that do not accept AP or DE credits. Some other schools might accept them whether they are DE or taken after hs graduation. That’s a risk. What are the cons of graduating now? Costs more for the CC classes, she probable won’t be a freshman but a transfer student so will lose ‘freshman’ scholarships or need based aid, will be admitted off CC grades and not hs.
The biggest down side to me is that she could not go back to hs. Right now, before she has a semester of college in, she could.
@CCtoAlaska
Many colleges will accept the credits earned from community college classes while still a high school student provided the high school transcript specifies that those classes were not used to satisfy high school requirements. As a homeschooler, you will be in charge of creating your child’s transcript and will be able to determine which, if any, classes taken at the community college satisfy your high school graduation requirements and which classes taken at the community college are not counted towards high school graduation requirements.
Since the costs of the classes are less for a high school student than a college student, I am not sure there would be any advantages to graduating your daughter early. Keep her dual-enrolled as a high school student and make sure her transcript indicates which community college classes were not used to fulfill high school graduation requirements.
The Cooke transfer scholarship is ridiculously competitive, so giving up the opportunity for freshman aid to compete for something like that makes no sense imo. She can do college research when she hits a four year after graduating high school with her AS. I’m not seeing any big downsides to staying on the regular grad schedule personally. We homeschool and do DE too- my daughter stopped DE 4 classes shy of graduating because she wanted to go to a semester school this semester (she’s a senior), but in our case none of the schools she wants to attend would accept CC credits anyway.
@CCtoAlaska You are putting way too much faith in your CC to know what is best for your Dd. The only upside you are stating is that she can apply for an REU that is far from a given. She will be competing for spots with students from all over the country, many of them with 4.0 GPAs and more coursework completed. I would ask them for information about students from her CC who have been successfully accepted to the REUs and ask questions about their CVs (GPA, courses completed, projects completed, etc)
Unless they can demonstrate that your Dd is truly a viable competitive candidate, I would reconsider. You will be making a decision she cannot turn back from.
I actually would have had her drop out but she wasn’t old enough because of the compulsory school laws in our state. That is what most of the students from her select HS have done when they want to start college early (the HS does not accept any college credits for HS credit - there are even situation I have heard where the students are forced to take college math in the summer and then they have to take the class again at the HS - for IB eligibility). She’s only registered as a homeschooler because she has to be per state law. I think it’s really only an advantage if she’s applying to selective colleges and she will likely just transfer into a low-cost school that has a partnership with her school. She will likely apply to one or two selective colleges but I think she’s planning on taking the more direct (and cheaper) route to a BA.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek I was not putting any faith in the CC. That’s why I am “fact-checking” here just to make sure there is nothing I am missing. Everyone has made great points.
I haven’t read all responses but I live in a state where dual enroll is free for qualified high schoolers. Graduating high school with 2 years worth of college credits is common here and those students still matriculate in the vast majority of cases as freshman. Whether or not all the credits will transfer and be applied toward earning a degree is another question. Depends on school. Depends on degree. So you really do need to check in with each school to piece that together.
My senior is doing his 2nd year of DE currently. I had no interest in launching my kid to a dorm early and he had no interest in adulting early either. He is very excited to be applying to colleges now.