Anyone graduated early and got into top schools?

kidwithshirt · 05-06-2008, 09:31 PM

Curse you search function. "Ignorance is bliss" strikes again.

My friends always told me that they are sure colleges are looking for uber smart kids and by graduating early you are proving how extremely precocious you are comparing to the other kids at high school.

Yet after reading people's advices, it's mostly the social problem that these early graduaters must face. "Best years of your life" or best semester of your life. Prom, ball, ya ya all that stuff.

However there is a general negative tone on the forum regarding early graduaters who applied for ivies for top 15s, since in their opinion or experiences that these kids mostly never made it instead they are in some community college.

I'd like to hear your opinion and especially if possible, your experience on this. Because due to some stupid carelessness on my counselors behalf, I am going to have enough credit as a graduating senior my next year.

My future is in your hand, CC. Well not really, but your opinion is extremely valuable.

PShap91 · 05-06-2008, 09:34 PM

My friend has been taking courses at local colleges for years, took the bare minimum to graduate highschool and is graduating this year as a junior.

He's going to MIT

kidwithshirt · 05-06-2008, 09:38 PM

Did he cure cancer or solve world hunger?

I assume he had brilliant E.C?

That's the only thing I lack, I joined most school clubs that we offer however didn't really accomplish much.

I m going to work hard on my SAT and that's probably all I will have to order to be "impressive"

This is bothering me so much because I would just go through high school like a normal high achieving and self-challenging child. Due to my counselors mischief I must deal with such perplexing situation.

Mishaal · 05-06-2008, 09:41 PM

Wait, I think I misread and/or misunderstood the opening most: You HAVE to graduate early?

PShap91 · 05-06-2008, 09:42 PM

Not really, he just finished college level calc 2 or 3 (I forget) his freshman or sophmore year and took a bunch of fairly high level physics courses.

Mishaal · 05-06-2008, 09:44 PM

Oh, hah. I thought the opening post was saying he "had" to graduate early. LOL

At our school, you need 3 years of History to graduate and since no history class is offered to Freshman its not possible to graduate early, hahaha.

Anyways, I'm totally useless on the matter, but good luck kidwithshirt.

kidwithshirt · 05-06-2008, 09:47 PM

@mishaal sorry to confuse you but that's my own sentiment

I don't feel that it is worthwhile for me to dawdle in my high school. I don't really want to graduate early, but I feel that it is extremely stupid to graduate high school with 30 credits.

I got my eyes on Ivies since my parents first brought me to America, even though I don't know if I have a chance but I am working very hard for it.

I m juggling between a lot of things, if I graduate early and get accepted into a good school, then it would solve some financial problem since I will dive into the work force much earlier.

@PShap91

Does being black help? I m taking Calc 3 this summer at a state school, don't know if that will be impressive?

White_Rabbit · 05-06-2008, 11:04 PM

My best friend graduated at 16 as a young junior and was accepted to every school he applied to, UCSD, UCLA, Berkeley, UChicago, and Johns Hopkins. He had a high GPA and SAT score but no amazing EC's. Mostly just tennis, mock trial, and AD. You can always just apply and see if you get in or not.

jsmall · 05-06-2008, 11:40 PM

I'm graduating early. No amazing grad. level calc. classes or anything (my highest level math classes are Alg.2 Honors and AP Stats). No cancer curing or novel publishing (most impressive EC IMO is placing nationally in rodeo, not a national champ or anything). High UW GPA. Only 3 AP classes in Junior year. All possible honors classes otherwise. 1860 SAT. Pretty good/unique essays. Great teacher recs. and I got into Brown.

ajadedidealist · 05-07-2008, 06:59 AM

I'm graduating early (skipped tenth grade at a boarding school in NH) and got into Oxford. I never ended up applying to the US schools to which I had planned to applied, as I found out about Oxford in December, but my college counselor didn't seem to think it would affect my chances one way or the other.

fizix2 · 05-07-2008, 07:43 PM

I dropped out of high school junior year and went to Caltech on a merit scholarship. I had some awards and published a paper.

The social problems come once you're already at the college. If you're not prepared you stand a decent chance of cracking. Right now I'm taking a year off because -- well, let's just say I wasn't prepared. I don't recommend graduating early, it's nice to have an extra year to relax and take fun courses and make new friends and generally be a kid.

Quote:

by graduating early you are proving how extremely precocious you are

If anything it hurts you because you have to prove you're as academically and emotionally mature as a graduating senior. Basically, if you apply early you'll be competing on the same level as all the other applicants, so they'll want you to do in three years what everyone else did in four.

kidwithshirt · 05-07-2008, 07:51 PM

thanks for your input guys

I think it's great to balance out the one-sided opinion on this kind of things. I ge the feeling that I really need to plan thing out before I move on.

I was thinking taking college courses while enrolled in high school (actual courses that goes into the major I want), however I don't think I could transfer these credits into a top school

So there are a lot to worry about.

fizix2 · 05-07-2008, 07:55 PM

You should still take college courses in high school anyway:

a) your intro courses will be a lot easier for you because you'll already know some of the material.
b) it's always great to take classes twice, really helps solidify your background. the reason these classes are taught at the introductory level is because they're really important and probably deserve a second read.
c) college courses will help you get into college
d) they're fun! if you take the right ones

and even if you could transfer your credits over, you probably shouldn't, because (a) you'll benefit that much more from a second reading (b) different professors at different schools will teach a course with different perspectives. of course this applies mostly if you're going to a top school. if you're going to a mediocre one retaking courses might just be a waste of money.

shravas · 05-07-2008, 07:59 PM

Yea, the reason fizix said is the main reason graduating early is kind of looked down upon. If I were trying to leave high school though, I would just just take classes like I normally would and stuff, but just apply as a junior (I'm not sure how exactly this works), and if it doesn't work out, just try again as a senior.

kidwithshirt · 05-07-2008, 08:03 PM

hey fizix (that's how my physics teacher spell his class 0.o) and shrava thanks

I'd love to know how this admission process works because I m working on my SAT this october and pretty much that's all I need. So I can definitely try to apply as a junior

However I am unsure whether you are allowed to apply again though. This brings up a point: if someone who applied as a senior got rejected from their choice, could they wait for a year, and reapply for the same school again? If could I assume the admission chance would still be the same?