Recently, while looking at my high school transcript, I discovered that I have enough credits to graduate distinguished a year early. (I took some high school credit classes in middle school and “Credit by Exam”'d a few as well), so i went through and planned everything out for the next few years or so until i found a problem. Although I may do a half-college/half-highschool schedule my senior year, or only take a half year my senior year
The college i would ultimately like to get into UT Austin for Mathematics and Physics. If i were to apply right now with my current scores I think I would have a fair shot at getting in (Rank: 12%, WGPA: 106, SAT: 1520 (800 Math, 720 R/W), 14 AP Classes taken by my junior year, all with a 4 or above except WHAP, All-Region Band Sax, and Eagle Scout).
What I recently decided on doing was taking summer college semester at UTSA (local) and taking some Math, Physics, and Comp science classes beyond the high school level. My main worry for all of this is where all my credits will go that I got from the AP exams if i transfer to UT sophomore year, and how much harder it will be to get into UT with transfer than direct application.
I really want to start going to college so that i can get into the upper division mathematics and sciences, and i have knocked out almost all of my core classes with AP exams, so i don’t have to take those. I just have no idea whether it would complicate my chances of going to UT’s College of Natural Science.
(I also looked at the CAP program between UTSA and UT, but it doesn’t work well for students who have already taken all their core classes.)
Are you not planning to try for National Merit Scholar? If you are a Junior won’t you be taking the PSAT this spring to qualify? “The scores from the PSAT/NMSQT are used to determine eligibility and qualification for the National Merit Scholarship Program.”
My son has early college here (OH) since sophomore year of hs and is considered an incoming freshman for Fall 2018 because he will graduate from hs June 2018, despite having accumulated several credits from various colleges he has been told not to apply as a transfer - he is an incoming freshman for Fall 2018.
That is how all the common app schools treat him and all his classmates who are early college students through their hs. My guess is TX is the same (double check with admissions counselors at the schools you plan to apply to since it sounds like you are an anomaly at your hs and gc may not know), as long as you don’t graduate hs early you can attend any college you want and still be considered an incoming freshman for the Fall after your hs graduation.
He was in the same position you are last year and decided to play sports at his hs another year. He also was not ready for the college applications which to get good merit aid are due Nov. 1 and decided that rather than having the same courses simply done in 3 years wasn’t much to set him apart from the pack. He also would have lost his class rank because our school does it by quality points so without the fourth year of classes he would have fallen from 1/120 (Class of 2018) to 60/77(Class of 2017), which doesn’t really reflect his academic record in the school nor his 4.0. By end of hs he will have completed many of the ‘weed out’ classes like organic chemistry etc. have earned an AA (but still be considered an incoming freshman) and has another summer to try to land a research position as he develops contacts at the college he attends.
But, if you are ready for college, want out of the house, into a dorm and your parents support that, you are really under a time crunch to get a lot of things done very quickly. Look at the net price calculators, figure out a financial plan to pay for college and get your parents involved as soon as possible.
Also, do not take classes summer after hs graduation but before fall of your chosen college unless it is the same college or you have cleared that with admissions of your chosen college (it can jeopardize some scholarships).