Good thing I’m taking DE classes next year then!
Also, thank you for the advice, it’s good to take into the account as neither of my parents nor family members have faced the situation I am facing right now.
That’s what your school requires to graduate, not what the colleges you desire want to see.
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Life is a marathon not a sprint.
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Which is why I am graduating early with more than is required. I have three languge credits and will look into completing a fourth next year.
Who says I’m sprinting. I am graduating with more than is required.
Yale does have a very good English program and good opportunities for student journalism.
For another option regarding journalism, you might also look into Ohio University in Athens, Ohio; it has a very well-respected journalism program: E.W. Scripps School of Journalism | Ohio University . If it can fit into your budget, of course.
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Yes, right now I am looking at all the options! Thank you for the recommendations, I do like Ohio.
I also enjoy independence and am very self sufficient for my age. I have mostly been handling college and school responsibilities on my own since as far back as I can remember.
Hi! I am graduating early (Not really having any additional problems, I’m just ahead from middle school and have additional credits, which is why I am graduating.) I’ve researching schools with higher acceptance rates, that would also work for a low income student. ( I know that’s difficult) I should have a 3.8-3.9 GPA by the end of High school, have plenty extracurriculars, run a new site, volunteer plenty, but haven’t yet taken SAT’s so I’ve mostly been focusing on looking at schools, and programs that would suit my needs.
Also, I want to Major in probably English/Journalism depends and Minor in whichever I don’t Major in if that makes sense.
My dream schools would be Yale and Northwestern, but I understand that might be unrealistic with my stats and all the factors.
I am open to all states except maybe Texas and Florida. (I live in Texas)
Are you sufficiently low-income to qualify for Questbridge? You could apply in the spring for their College Prep Scholars - I believe the application opens in January or February, with decisions released in April.
Northwestern and Yale are high reaches; it’s not impossible, if your EC’s and essays really impress them, but it’s very much a long shot. Questbridge would improve your odds, and would give you the opportunity to apply to a “plethora” of elite schools via their process.
Are you open to the idea of women’s colleges? Scripps College, for example, meets full need, but isn’t quite as brutal admissions-wise as T10 type schools. There’s a Writing and Rhetoric major that is geared toward students interested in journalism, and the joint student newspaper of the Claremont Consortium has a high level of professionalism and has launched many journalism careers. Both Scripps and Pomona (which is closer to the Ivies in admissions rejectivity) are Questbridge Partners. My daughter who attended Scripps had a friend who had graduated early and started there at 16, so there’s one example of their being open to younger applicants. Scripps is also far from being a single-gender environment; it provides single-gender housing and community, but the college is fully integrated into the coed 5C’s consortium, so the vast majority of classes and activities are coed.
I think it’s very rare for Emerson to be affordable for a low-income student. Nearby Northeastern meets full need, though, and places journalism students in great co-ops.
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Just want to point out that it is entirely possible to graduate with more credits than you “need” from high school and still fall short of what is recommended for the most competitive colleges. (My kid, for example, falls into this category.)
I think it would be a lot clearer if you listed what you’ve actually taken, in other words: do you have 4 years of English, math, social science and science, and what is your highest level in each? Can you clarify the question asked earlier about languages? Did you take a VPA?
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Upon graduation, I am on track to completing 4 years of math. 5 if you count physics and economics (which I’m not sure if you do)
My highest level will be Pre-Cal/Cal
Maybe 4-5 years of science.
Highest level AP bio
5 years of social studies and 5-6 years of English, 4 years of languages.
AP U.S History. AP LIT and LANG
All my electives, (plus additional courses) and a PE credit.
For dual enrollment, I will most likely only take a history or a science.
I am also graduating distinguished with honors.
I did not take a VPA?
Yeah! These sound great. I’m pretty sure I qualify for Quest Bridge, and am also applying to Northeastern.
Lots of my comments are not meant to dissuade you from graduating early, but I want to make you aware of several items from your posts.
1). In your school system, you probably meet the credits needed to graduate. This is NOT the same as meeting admissions requirements for the universities, especially the ivies.
2). At the ivies, they expect high/perfect GPA’s, strong rigor, top 1% rank (based on my kids admission to ivies) and counselor information.
3.) Fluency in Spanish is great but is it your home language? If so, a number of universities won’t consider this as “rigorous” coursework. I’m fluent in Spanish, but in high school I was required to take a language that was “foreign to me”, so I took 4 years of French. The schools expect you to challenge yourself.
4). In my work, I had to help my students correct/ edit their essays on Shakespearean dramas, Steinbeck’s moral dilemmas, Austen’s humor, Poe’s conflicts, etc. and I wasn’t an English teacher, but the speech path on campus. The reason I bring this up is that your use of language here has misspelled terms, and grammatical errors:
I know it’s a website but trying to get into Yale, requires perfection because there will be “accepted” Yale applicants with perfect grammar, perfect SAT scores and top ranks from their schools. (Our eldest daughter got into Yale with perfect math scores and 4 years of perfect Honors/AP English grades).
Also, your age will be a factor.
-Contracts for housing require an “adult” signature.
-A number of Internships require “adult status”.
Why? Liability.
-Adult students use credit cards to pay daily living needs. Each of our 3 kids opened credit card accounts at our local bank, prior to the move to their schools. They were 18. Everything is credit-based on campus (vending machines, washers/dryers, trains, Amazon grocery stores, Starbucks, etc.). If you are low income, and underage, you may not qualify for a credit card.
Some students don’t want “minor” roommates. There is a parent on this website who reported how miserable she was, as an underage college student, because her dorm mates didn’t want to “parent” a minor student. Some towns have curfews and you won’t be able to go out after hours.
If you take any community college courses, after high school graduation, a lot of schools will consider you a “transfer” student. Funding for transfers can be limited.
My HS friend became a journalist, both in “print” and “news” media. Initially, she worked for a daily publication, and had a job and 401k/health benefits. As the industry changed, she had piece/contract unsteady work with no medical nor financial incentives /benefits.
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Looking at your post, you listed 4 years math, 4-5 years science, 5 years social science, 5-6 years English, 4 years world language, plus electives and PE.
Normally this many years of instruction would take 4 years of high school to complete, so I’m guessing some of these credits are from middle school:
Which courses that you listed did you take in middle school?
The reason I ask is that I am not sure all colleges will accept HS courses taken in the middle school as counting towards your “years” of HS classes. Your high school may count middle school credits towards your HS graduation, but I am not sure how colleges will view them. (For example, our universities here in CA will only accept math and world language taken in middle school.)
What does it look like on your HS transcript?
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Physics counts as science, and econ counts as social studies.
I’m chiming in with the others – do not plan to graduate high school early, regardless of how many credits you earned. It’s typical for advanced students to graduate with many more credits than they need, and that’s fine. They often take HS-level classes in middle school, like you have (sometimes that translates to HS credits and sometimes it just determines placement). Staying in HS means more advanced course work with your peers, including more AP classes that would be more likely than DE credits to satisfy requirements at some of the colleges you’re considering. It would mean better preparation overall, and more time to bring your GPA up a bit before applying. Also - will you be able to take some of these classes when you think you’ll take them? At most schools, AP Lang is a junior class – not junior in credit count, but junior in graduation year. AP Lit is a senior class. Will you be able to take both of these classes if you’re off-track with your original class?
Elite colleges will not think it’s impressive to graduate HS early (aside from those very rare students who simply exhaust all HS coursework because they’re extraordinarily advanced at a young age). They’ll think it’s impressive if you stick around and graduate with advanced course work.
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Your year at community college could make you a transfer student at many colleges. Transfer students at some colleges do not get the same generous need based or merit aid as first year students.
I think you need to think through your plan a little better. You say you would have nothing to do if you stayed in high school an additional year. You could take DE courses and improve your GPA to make you a more competitive applicant. You would have more time to prep for and do well on the PSAT (which you would take your real junior year) and the SAT. Doing well on the PSAT could put you in position for NM status. Doing well on the SAT might open up some college doors for you.
It would give you a year more to get your college finances clarified and straightened out.
You are rushing this process…and I’m still not sure I know why.
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Run some net price calculators for an ESTIMATE of what your net costs would be. The NPCs are currently set up for students starting college fall 2026 and that’s not you. So view the results as an estimate only. For the 2027-2028 academic year, need based financial aid will be based on 2025 tax year information.
You have some schools mentioned that don’t guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students…and they don’t. How will you pay for expensive colleges where you are accepted that do not provide sufficient aid?
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And adding…so what? Lots of students have more than the “required” courses when they graduate from high school. The ones applying to the schools you asked about might…but they also have 4.0 GPAs…or close to it. And you don’t.
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