Will be a couple of semesters away from Bachelors by high school graduation - What should I do?

Applying to College
1

I’m currently an 11th grader at my local high school, however, I have only taken two classes there. I started my college career through the dual enrollment program at the beginning of the 9th grade. Since then, I have taken a total of 29 college courses. Out of those 29 college courses, I made an A in all of them except one. The majority of my college credit is from the University of Florida. I received an AA degree in the 11th grade from my local community college. In the 9th grade I also started programming. Since I started programming I have released 2 apps, about to be 3, in the iOS app store. Also, I have applied to receive a scholarship from Apple to go to WWDC in San Francisco. I’m somewhat confident that I’ll be one of the winners. I scored 30 on the ACT in the 10th grade.

Over this coming summer I’m looking to start applying to schools. Originally, me and my parents had planned for me to apply to (in order of preference) Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, and the University of Florida. However, earlier today my father found out that Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and Yale don’t accept Dual Enrollment credits. Fortunately, Stanford does. My impression is that while Harvard and the other schools may think that my Dual Enrollment career is impressive, they will refuse to consider it as valid college credit.

My question is, should I even bother applying to schools that don’t accept my current college credit? Is there any chance that a school might look at my case specifically and maybe allow me to transfer credits for some courses? Maybe something like my Calculus sequence and Physics w/Calculus sequence (both entirely at UF)? My father also heard about the possibility of a Bachelor-Master program. Is there any chance that I’m somehow admitted into some kind of dual degree program where I can simply build upon my current college credit towards a graduate degree?

My guess is that my most realistic solution is simply completing my bachelors degree a couple of semesters after graduation at UF and then looking at Stanford/Ivy’s for graduate school. Does this sound like my best course of action?

I must admit I’m slightly discouraged that after all the courses I taken during my 4 years at high school, many schools will refuse to acknowledge it as valid University level course work. I’m hoping someone here might have experience/knowledge of a similar situation and how it turned out. I really want to go to Stanford but I’m getting the impression that even if these high-end schools accept me, they will be treating me like any other freshman who has never taken any college courses. Obviously I’m not interested in having to retake Calculus 1, 2, 3 and Physics and whatever writing courses they are going to have me retake. However, I do see where they’re coming from. They don’t want students to pass through for a year and get a degree from their institution.

Any advice would be great!

2

What you said in this paragraph “my guess is…” If you want all that work to count for something, do that. I am afraid colleges out of state probably won’t accept your credits. However, they might be accepted for placement. Your sitstuon is unusual. Frankly, I would call or email both the admissions office AND the rep for your area and ask these questions specifically at the colleges you are interested in.

3

Top colleges are used to seeing this in their applicants. Every one that I’ve looked at has a procedure to avoid retaking math and physics classes - some will accept credit from other colleges, others allow you to test out of the course. You’ll need to check each institution individually to find out.

Some will make you stay four years, some will let you use your credits to graduate early. Again you’ll need to check each institution to find out.

The important questions are how long do you want to spend as an undergraduate and how much do you want to pay? Things to consider are your family finances, and would you prefer the “college experience”, grad school, or working. If you want to go to a top grad school after just 1 year you will need to really hustle to get professors to see you in action doing research.

Most but not all kids I know in your situation have chosen a college where they have the option to graduate in 1 year in case they want to.

4

If you want to go to graduate school, you’ll probably want to stay in undergrad longer than strictly necessary so that you can take graduate classes and participate in research programs.

5

It’s the rare college (especially at the elite level) that will give a degree to a student who hasn’t done the equivalent of 2 years of upper level courses at their college- as you said, their degree is for what you do with them, and Stanford et al have no interest in being a diploma mill for UFl or anybody else. If you were to be accepted to Stanford they would review your UFl courses and tell you which ones would be eligible for transfer.

As @cheeryParent notes, colleges don’t usually make you re-take courses taken at an accredited 4 year college- I can’t see any of them asking you to redo Calc 1,2,3 (it’s not that rare for HS students to have done 1 & 2 before college, and at the level of school you are talking about a fair few will have done multivariable as well)

So what do you want from the next stage of your education, and what do you imagine wanting to do after that? You may well be best off finishing at UFl and applying to grad school.

6

I think the question about the college “experience” is valid. Do you want that? You would need to get your ACT score up or take the SAT if that is what you want at more prestigious schools.

Most top schools have a 2 year residency requirement even for transfers.

I would look at this as a transfer application possibly. However you are correct that many top schools do not give credit for dual enrollment classes.

A friend graduated a year early at JHU, no idea what he took and what they accepted.

I would talk to gaduate school admissions in your field to see how they would view your application

Avoid Columbia and other similar schools such as UChi which have a core and require certain specific classes to graduate. Explore colleges such as Brown that have an open curriculum (no idea if they will accept your credit). Also, while you may have a lot of credits, do you have any in a particular major?

Most state schools will consider your courses but you need to check individual schools. Consider some of the more prestigious state schools such as UVA, UMich and UNC if that is something you are looking

7

I agree that you need to do research and soul searching. Some questions would be…

-What kind of undergraduate college expreince do you want? Do you want to rush through it? Don’t you think that at a top college you can be engaged and learning for four years? Perhaps get involved in research with a professor etc? And do you want the social experience/growth that comes with having a full college experience? Only you can answer these questions. If you do attend at top school for 4 years, you need to view your HS/dual credit program as the way that got you into the school, rather than a waste of time. It may be worth trying to speak with/meet with some admission counselors at schools you are considering.

-Research what your chances at getting into top graduate school programs with dual degree credits and one year at UF would be. If the schools don’t accept the dual degree credits for their undergrad programs, it may impact how they view your application for grad school as well. I don’t know the answer.

8

Thanks for the replies! First time using this site. To make my situation clearer, I’m looking to major in Computer Science.

After reading all of your replies, I’m feeling slightly overwhelmed. I’m realizing this is a lot more involved than I thought it was going to be. However, when I think to myself what would be my ideal plan, I think attending Stanford, spending 1-2 (possibly 3 if special circumstances arise) years in undergraduate, and then attending Stanford for graduate school as well. But then part of me feels like it would be much more efficient to simply finish my Bachelors here at UF and then try to transfer into a graduate program. I think what I’ll do is try to contact Stanford directly and find out what exactly would be the procedure for transferring my existing credit. I feel torn between not wanting to spend time retaking basic classes, and wanting to go to a high-end school. However, some of you have said that many of these high-end schools are used to students having already taken relatively basic classes like Calculus and Physics, so maybe that won’t be such a problem.

Also, what else could I do during my senior year to possibly make my college application look better? Try to join clubs or some other extracurricular? The only real extracurricular I did in high school was play varsity soccer in 8th, and 9th grade. I’m really into videography, visual effects and motion graphics so in my freshman year I joined my schools AV club. Unfortunately, I ended up quitting within a week as the teacher was forcing us to use software like iMovie and refused to let me use the Adobe Creative Suite and 3D programs. I would love to join a programming club, but unfortunately my school is in a very rural area and the closest thing we have to a programming class/club is a class for learning the Office Suite. Also I have been producing music/playing piano for 5-6 years and would love to join some kind of music production club, I looked at UF and I think they had something but last I heard it was very small maybe only 5-10 people. Would joining a programming/video/music club at UF help my application? I’m not sure if this sounds crazy or not, but since I’ve already completed my high school graduation requirement and AA requirements, should I just not take any courses at all my senior year and try to focus on extracurriculars? Not to mention that if a school has a dual enrollment credit limit, it wouldn’t make sense to try and get more credits.

I’m feeling confused with regards to whether I should just get my bachelors here, or go to another school and try to finish there. Also some of you have been mentioning that on top of all this I need to be checking my chances in getting into graduate school if I get my bachelors here. I feel clueless. Hopefully through more conversation, you wonderful people can help me figure this out.

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Also my current dual enrollment credit total is 61. Currently, I’m planning on taking another 20 over my senior year at UF.

10

My understanding is that the classes one takes through dual enrollment are supposed to count toward getting your high school diploma. If you only took 2 classes in your high school, that basically proves the point that the classes you took at the college were replacements for high school classes that you needed in order to get that diploma. So wanting those same classes to also count toward your college degree does not make sense to me, that is not what they were meant for. I’m basing my comments on my daughter’s experience. She couldn’t wait to get out of high school so her senior year she took most of her courses through dual enrollment, which is what allowed her to finish off her high school career and get that diploma.

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What are finances like? What can parents pay?

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I’m sure UF (that’s University of Florida at Gainesville?) is a fine state school with some really smart students. But based on its admissions statistics, its student body as a whole isn’t of the caliber of Harvard, Yale or Stanford and I’m guessing that classes aren’t taught at the same level. So, first, just in general, Harvard (et al) isnt giving you a diploma with its name on it when you’ve done most of the work somewhere else (even if it’s Yale) and they’re certainly not giving you a Harvard diploma for three years worth of UF work. Sorry, it’s just not the same thing and “university level” work is somewhat meaningless term. The quality and rigor of the academics really do vary among schools.

So, no you may not be able to use your credits to get junior or senior standing at Stanford etc, but I would expect that those schools might look at the work you’ve done and allow you to place out of intro level courses where they believe that you have covered the material adequately, just like using an AP score to place out of an intro class.

If, for whatever reason, your goal is to get your college degree ASAP and hurry on to grad school, just finish at UF. It will be your fastest, cheapest option. If your goal is to get the education offered by a school like Stanford, to have the experience of spending four years learning with those students, from those professors, in that atmosphere and if its financially feasible, then check with Harvard etc about how they’ll use the work you’ve already done for placement rather than for advanced standing and apply to any of the ones with reasonable policies.

13

You say “attending Stanford” like that is an easy thing to do. By all means, apply to Stanford, but also apply to your state school and some others.

So you need to decide if you do get credit for at least 2 years of college, what do you want to do?
You may not want to graduate early, but you may want to:

  1. Do a Co-op//internship
  2. Study abroad
  3. Do a 3-2 Master’s program
  4. Do research
  5. Take lab courses
    and take the 4 years.

It depends on what you want to major in…if those make sense.

But by starting off on a normal schedule won’t be worse than anyone else and you can slow down later if you don’t do any of the other things.

My daughter graduated in 2.5 years (HS Credits + some summer courses) but then finished her masters in 1.5 years…since we would pay for 4 years of college, she got a second degree within that time. We also told her not to rush but were not going to prevent her.

If you graduate early, you will be younger than others at work/grad school…my daughter wasn’t even 21 when she started grad school. Now she is a teacher at just barely 22.

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If you want Stanford you should be studying for the SAT or ACT and taking some SAT 2s. A 30 is below their 25% I would think. Their acceptance rate last year was around 6% or so. Please realize that with all As and a unique story you still may not be able to be accepted.

Is money an issue? A complete non issue (as your parents will not notice the expenditure) or somewhere in between? Private college is $65,000 a year. Run the NPC if you need financial aid both as a freshman and as a transfer. If money is an issue and you are not eligible for a lot of need based aid at Stanford, then you may have your answer.

Any top private will most likely require a 2 year residency for an undergrad degree. Most state on their web site if they accept dual enrollment classes.

I think you should figure out your career goal and work backwards from there and see if you are on track to fulfill the prerequisites. If your high school has a good guidance counselor you may want him to contact a few schools on your behalf to get the information and their reaction to your situation.

15

I do think completing your undergraduate degree at UF and pursuing your graduate degree at one of the elite graduate programs is your best course of action. UF will be a lot cheaper than the alternatives and would more than likely accept all your dual enrollment (DE) credits, possibly waiving any minimum enrollment credit requirement. Did you get some form of waiver, allowing you to do dual enrollment starting sophomore year of high school? I was under the impression that Florida requires Junior or Senior standing for DE.

Here is a student who completed his undergraduate degree through dual enrollment at FAU/FAU High School at age 17. He is now a PhD candidate at Princeton University (Molecular Biology):

http://newsone.com/2665991/james-martin-florida-atlantic-university/

https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/in/james-martin-ba447a68

Other dual enrollment students from FAU who completed their degree at 16/17 are:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/florida-teen-graduates-college-high-school-article-1.1781513

http://science.fau.edu/news/sousa_graduates.php

FYI: I have seen other Florida dual enrollment students who have gotten into MIT and completed their degree in two years. Most schools have a minimum number of credits that students must complete at their institution before they are eligible for an undergraduate degree (typically it is 60 credits, while at others, it is 45 credits). University of Miami will take most of your DE credits, although they have the 60 credit minimum rule. At some schools, the 60 credit minimum can be negotiated, so you shouldn’t assume it is 100% fixed rule.

16

You essentially have 2-3 main choices: attend UF and graduate early, attend UF and see if you can take grad level courses as an undergrad (I don’t know if this is possible at UF, but it is what my advanced ds is doing at his university. He will graduate with his masters and bachelor’s at the same time), or apply to competitive schools and take 4 yrs. With either UF path, you could plan on grad school at an elite. With the 3rd path, you will most likely not have to repeat courses, but you will need to spend 4 yrs there.

Fwiw, when someone above stated that those types of accomplishments are not all that unusual amg top students, they are correct. If you aren’t around other kids accomplishing the same sort of achievements, it is easy to think that you are the only one. But, you will be competing with kids from across the country and internationally and that is a large competitive pool of highly accomplished kids.

(I do think that if you want to apply to competitive schools, even with your coursework, that you need to retest and bring up your ACT score bc it is low for competitive schools. Also, don’t go forward with the assumption that you will be automatically accepted. Be prepared for varied outcomes, just like any other applicant.)

Good luck with your decision.

17

Be aware, there’s placement and there’s credit. Your DE classes may place you at higher levels but you will still need to earn X number of credits at these schools. So, you likely won’t need to repeat Calc 1,2,3 but you will need to take math classes to fulfill credit requirements.

While the amount of your college work is somewhat unusual, many students at top tier schools enter at advanced levels of math. Google “Harvard Math 55”. It’s likely one of the toughest freshman math courses in the country. I think Stanford also has a class like this.

I agree with others, you will need to raise your ACT score substantially. Also, think over your strategy. Is it you go to one of the five schools you listed or UF and nothing else? There’s nothing wrong with this because you know you’re in at UF. Just be aware that you can readily be rejected by all five schools because they reject over 90% of their applicants.

Going to UF can be a great option. You already know the professors and can build on those relationships (for grad school guidance and letters of recommendations). Hopefully you are already seen as a promising student so you will get more attention and guidance, and research opportunities. You likely will be able to take grad level classes. In other words, you don’t need to graduate in one year despite all your DE credits, stay two or three years. Use the time at UF to become a very strong graduate school candidate, not the youngest or quickest.

18

The others have done a great job of explaining why all of your DE credits will not transfer to many OOS schools. In Florida, the state has setup the DE systems, so your credits can transfer to the Florida state system schools (like UF, FAU, FSU, etc).

It is a perfectly valid option to choose an elite school, out of state, and pass on your DE, AP, and IB credits.

In general, at UF, DE students can transfer up to 60 credit hours of community college credit as part of the hours needed for their UF degrees. Check with UF admissions, but they likely will require that you take many of our upper division classes at UF.

https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/advising/info/dual-enrollment-course-credit-info.aspx

UF does offer a “Combined BS/MS” degree in CISE.

https://www.cise.ufl.edu/academics/undergrad/bsms

Instead of graduating in 4 years, you take at least one extra year worth of MS level classes, plus you replace up to 12 credits of lower division credits with MS level classes. At the end of 5 (or more) years, you graduate with both degrees. The program also requires that you take the GRE and apply to grad school (and meet whatever requirements grad students have to meet).

In summary, check with UF on how many DE credits can be used toward your degree, check with the OOS state schools on their policies, and then move forward. :slight_smile:

Good Luck!

19

@Gator88NE The OP stated that majority of his DE credits were earned at UF, not a CC.

If that is the case, how would you project at path a UF?

20

There’s a difference between placement and credit.
You may not get credit but you’ll get placement, which means you’ll likely start taking graduate courses sophomore year in your key subjects and will be involved in research very early on. You’ll have graduate credentials - and your transcripts, research record, and recommendations will make that clear - and will thus be able to choose basically any PHD program you’re interested in, and will be able to pass comps quickly and spend all your fellowship time on research. :slight_smile:
It’s MUCH better to do that than to hurry through undergraduate years: even though intellectually you’ll be in graduate school, you’ll be surounded by peers - do not kid yourself, you won’t be the smartest kid in the room*- who’ll help you grow socially and psychologically, two dimensions that are very important.
You DON’T want “to finish at UF” - you want to continue challenging yourself and grow. Find peers, not among graduate students, but among undergraduates. UF was satisfactory for high school. Now, you need to find what for you will be a COLLEGE that’ll be equally satisfactory for you intellectually. (By this I mean that you used UF, a top flagship, as a high school. So you need to step up your game to find a college that’ll really be a college compared to what served as your high school. As someone pointed out, classes aren’t all created equal. I’m sure you understand there’s a gap between what’s taught in calc 1 at UF and calc1 at a community college. Well, expect the same gap between UF and MIT… or larger. I have a feeling you’d thrive when pushed a bit farther than currently).

Do you know your EFC? How much can your parents pay per year (if anything)?
Have you run the NPC on any college?
Stanford will be tuition-free for a family of up to 125K income. HYP will have cheaper COA than attending your state university for this income level. Up to 75K you get the equivalent of a free ride. Up to 180-225K income and you still get financial aid.
Clearing up the financial aid situation would be an important point.

BTW, look into CCS at UCSB: it’s basically a graduate school for undergraduates. HUGE downside: I don’t know whether you qualify for merit aid (there’s a loophole in the UC policy of no financial aid for OOS applicants, specifically for cases like yours).
Also look into Cambridge or Oxford, and Imperial, as both would allow to hyperfocus on your area of interest and graduate in 3 years. However they’re much less flexible than HYPSM with placement and course progression.
CalTech, CMU, and HarveyMudd may be other good places for you.

And, yes, you better work on your test scores.
Prep seriously because based on your current record you should be higher than that. You have credentials that make a 34 pretty reachable and you shouldn’t be satisfied with a 30 obtained in 10th grade (even if it’s really impressive for 1Oth grade :slight_smile: ).
Do you have subject tests?

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