Applying to college as a HS junior

soozievt
Mon, 28 Nov 2005 10:58:05 +0000

I have a daughter who did what Marite’s son did. She graduated high school as a junior and went to college early (is now a freshman at NYU/Tisch). This is different than going to college early after junior year without a diploma (as dmd’s son has done). Before we even embarked on this course, I called the colleges on my D’s list to ask if they take early graduates after junior year and they all said they do if they have a diploma. I would not have proceeded without that information as it was not worth it if her chances were not possible for being admitted. Some schools let students enter after junior year without a diploma but NOT ALL do and you’d have to call the colleges on your list to see if they accept students who have not graduated high school. In my opinion, that would be a first step before proceeding further. If it narrows the list of schools in such a way as to be detrimental to his goals or to limit the options to ones that are not as appealing, it may not be worth it.

I agree with Marite, that if your school…guidance counselor, etc…does NOT support your child’s path to go to college after junior year, it will be problematic as these folks must write on your child’s behalf for the applications and normally you’d want them to speak to why your child is an appropriate candidate for going to college early. If they can’t speak to that supportively, it will hurt.

As Marite indicated, colleges will examine early graduates who are applying almost more so than other candidates and will scrutinize if they feel these kids are ready for college. You’d need a strong case.

Further, I think this is VERY late to put such a course of action into place. My child completed all of her SATs and SAT2s in tenth grade…it is late now for the testing for this year’s applicants. Further, this plan was put into place around Jan. of tenth grade so that the college search was done in tenth grade, the testing, the permission from the school to graduate early, etc. were all in place. For some, it would also mean to make sure that all HS requirements were planned to be in place (not for your case if merely leaving school early) but it kinda wasn’t in my D’s case because she was on course to graduate early without even having tried (due to acceleration and many HS courses in middle school though at the time, there were no plans to graduate early but merely were accomodations for her learning needs). So, she had the HS graduation requirements without having to scramble. It was already the case before the decision to graduate early.

Also, my child articulated in a statement with all of her applications, her reasons for graduating early and these spanned academic, social, personal, and artistic developmental areas.

She was successful in her admissions outcome and none of her schools seem to have a problem with her being an early graduate and all offered merit scholarships as well.

My advice, given the little you shared so far, and the fact that it’s late November and she has not yet put this plan into motion, is to wait to graduate senior year but to find other ways to accomodate her needs, be it some college courses, a summer program, half day senior year courseload combined with an internship/job, exchange student, etc.

Susan