I’m a student in grade 11 Canada (who’s graduation system is similar to U.S I believe), I spoke to my counsellor recently and she said that since I have done 3 high school business courses AND since I have enough graduation points, I can graduate one semester early, and take a University Business course at a near by university for FREE! I jumped at the opportunity but after reading a bit, I started wondering If graduating early will hurt my record or etc? Or should I take this great opportunity?
Thanks !
It will not hurt your record. However, if you intend to compete for some scholarships be careful about taking those “free” college courses. That may make you ineligible to apply as a freshman. Look at the various college web site carefully to see what they say about that.
Find out if you would formally graduate a semester early, or if the university semester would be the last part of high school.
My counsellor said I can choose between formally graduating or staying in school, obviously if I graduate fully I can’t participate in the ceremony but that’s not a big deal to me.
The issue is not the graduation ceremony, but rather your status when applying to colleges in the US. If you are enrolled in university classes in “dual status”, that is to say that you are still considered to be a HS student, then you always apply a freshman and you are eligible for cerain scholarships that are only open to freshmen. If you are classified as a high school graduate and regular university student, then many colleges and universities here will require you to apply as a transfer, and you won’t be eligible for the best financial aid offers. Depending on the number of university credits you would be taking, some would allow you to apply as a freshman.
I have no idea how this would affect applying to Canadian universities, so you need to discuss that with your guidance counselor.