Going to College After Junior Year of HS

Parents Forum
21

<p>For me personally, it means that no matter how mature you seem and think you are at 16 (the age I went away to college), you really just lack life experience that others starting college with you have. From what I have observed with my own daughters having a senior year, it is a year of tremendous personal growth and developing life skills. They have grown into their independence and dealt with life choices while still in the home environment. My opinion is that they came through this period in far better shape than I did 1,000 miles from home. Not to say that everyone would make the same mistakes and bad choices I made on their own at 16, but I think most at that age lack the life experience to get the “big picture” and prioritize accordingly.</p>

<p>I think the extra year of high school also gives you an opportunity try more classes and activities that may help you to make a better decision about what and where you want to study. Also, seniors have additional opportunities for leadership not always available to underclassmen and there is something to be said for the confidence gained from being older and wiser.</p>

<p>All this being said, if someone had told me this when I was 16, I would have thought they didn’t understand me or how much more mature I was than my peers. I would have done exactly whatever I was set on doing.</p>

22

<p>I had an immediate, negative reaction to the title of this thread. I went to college after junior year, when I was 16. I was in a huge rush to get through high school, college and law school since I knew since birth that I was going to be a lawyer. Biggest mistake ever (although graduating college in three years is a close second). I didn’t give myself the time or opportunity to change my mind, try new things, meet new people, I was in such a hurry to “grow up.” DUMB. I know this is one person’s experience, but there is no going back if she rushes to graduate early. I can’t think of why someone would look back years later and say I wish I’d rushed through my youth? To me it’s not about GED v. diploma, it’s about having that senior year experience and not thrusting oneself into the real world any earlier than you have to.</p>

23

<p>Like 2forcollege says, how can you stop a kid from doing what they are sure they want to do? Maybe you think they should want to stay in high school, but are you really ready for force them to if you can’t convince them?</p>

<p>I can’t know what would have happened if I had stayed another year in high school. But I do know getting my college acceptance (my junior year) was one of the happiest days of my life. I do know that I didn’t really have a second thought about going once I was admitted. I had my reasons back then, in retrospect some were good and some were silly, but I knew what I wanted.</p>

24

<p>senior year is a milestone in a high schooler’s life. would she really want to work that hard in high school, hard enough to get into VANDY, and then not actually get a high school diploma? there are a lot of benefits to finishing up high school beyond her diploma, and it seems like she will be missing out on a lot of opportunities to grow up. it’s amazing what the title “senior” can do to a high school class: after all, now SHE is the captain, the director, the president, the tutor, the role model, the lead role, etc. she will be able to make her EC list shine by finishing up her high school career.</p>

<p>you mention that many of her friends are already in college. lucky her! i’m sure they are spectacular resources for her. what do they think? do they think she could handle their lifestyle? i know many high school juniors (i’m a freshman) and i do not think they have the maturity to deal with the independence of college. junior to senior to freshman are all huge steps.</p>

<p>what do you think of this? are you OK with your daughter wanting to grow up a year earlier than you had initially expected? what does your family think? yes, college is about the individual, but that individual’s support system is important also.</p>

<p>does your daughter have a lot of college credit? if so, she could perhaps enter college after her senior year with all her freshman year courses completed…that way, she could still graduate with the class of 2012 if that was her initial goal. she could take classes at your community college this summer to get some more under her belt, or perhaps her high school has a dual-enrollment program that would let her take classes at a local college while still in high school. then she could get some of the social side of college and get to know college kids while still finishing high school and staying at home. perhaps that would be an option? </p>

<p>if she has enough credits to essentially graduate already, could she take a really light load senior year and then have the opportunity to hold a “better” job or do something else meaningful, like community service or something? that might be an interesting hook for somewhere like Vandy if she doesn’t get in after junior year. is she interested in service trips, studying abroad, interning, etc? what would her major be? it might also be a good idea to contact that department at vandy to see what they think. if they think it’s a good idea for her to go early, then there’s another person to advocate for her!</p>

<p>all the best, kristin</p>

25

<p>I definitely understand all the comments about how important senior year is, as I have fond memories of my own. But also, if she is dead set on making this decision, as she seems to be, then I know I cannot make her decisions for her.</p>

<p>As for the senior experience, she has attended senior prom 3 times already, been to winter formal 4 times already, been invited to the senior banquet twice, and has already been asked by the choral director to sing the “senior solo” at the spring chorus concert if she does decide to graduate early.</p>

<p>As I said, she greatly enjoys visiting her friends in college and we give her plenty of freedom to live the “college lifestyle” when she’s with them. They have all commented to me on how they feel she would be able to handle the lifestyle just as well as any graduating senior would. This probably comes from having always spent her time with older people. She has been modeling for a while and most of the girls she models with are older, so she has really bonded with them as they have traveled together, worked together, etc. She is also the oldest of all her friends in her own grade, as we had the choice of enrolling her in kindergarten but decided to wait and let her be a couple of months older than the others. Therefore she will have just turned 18 if she enters Vanderbilt this fall.</p>

<p>Kristin5792, having our daughter finish senior year while earning AP credit, etc, and enter college as a college sophomore had been our original plan. However, our daughter opposed this as she said she would never want to have to graduate college in 3 years, and would want to be able to spend 4 years in college and a couple more in grad school. To her, college is where she wants to be.</p>

<p>In addition, our family splits our time between FL and a farm in TN. Therefore, I would be in TN about an hour out of Nashville for 2 weeks a month, if not more. This gives me peace of mind knowing that I could be nearby if she needs me or in case of an emergency. I also have my pilot’s license and therefore travel and visits would be very easy for us.</p>

<p>I am concerned, however, about all the posts I have read in which people who have graduated early state that they thought they would be socially mature enough, but once in college, realized that they were not. Is this regarding partying and not appropriately handling coursework? In this case, my daughter definitely parties with her friends and also feels very comfortable in college party settings, though she is able to time manage well. We don’t give her many restrictions, and she is able to go out during the school week. She doesn’t have much of a curfew on the weekends since she has maintained wonderful grades and open communication with me, continues to maintain a stellar GPA and gets all her work done. My only worry is that our daughter and our family may think we are convinced she is ready, but may find out later it was the wrong move.</p>

26

<p>I, too, still don’t understand the maturity question. I can see two possible problems:</p>

<ol>
<li>The kid is immature, so isn’t able to socialize well with college peers, has difficulty making friends, etc.</li>
<li>The kid is immature, so goes crazy going to parties etc., can’t balance wild fun college life with studying and so does poorly in school.</li>
</ol>

<p>I don’t know which people are alluding to.</p>

27

<p>I agree with the concern at the end of the OPs post #25.</p>

<p>Social maturity is key IMO. While your DD may indeed be very mature, she is not as mature as she will be in another year. A year of worldly experiences will change anyone.</p>

<p>I went to college a mature 16. I did great, but clearly not in the same way I would have 2 years later when I had developed more confidence and found my leadership skills. I was in a hurry too, and my then school had lost all challenge for me. Today we would have known about gap year and PG programs which would have been a great transition for me.</p>

<p>If money is available, maybe you could encourage a study abroad or PG program. She will truly shine in college with her maturity and this added experience.</p>

28

<p>S went to college after finishing junior year in high school. He could not leave fast enough. He was not looking forward to slacking off in senior year; he did go to the prom, although he had to be prodded by his (senior) friends into going; was totally uninterested in being captain or this or that or being looked up to by freshmen; and was already taking classes in college. Was he as mature as his college classmates? Probably not. But it does not seem to have made much difference.</p>

29

<p>There have been several threads on this topic. My son felt like Marite’s son, that senior year wasn’t worth it… he happily went off to MIT after his junior year and graduated from MIT seven semesters later. He did not get a high school diploma but no one seems to care (although he did, at one point, get recorded in a study as a “high school dropout”, which amused him much more than it should have).</p>

30

<p>My husband’s roommate was 15 when he started Harvard. No regrets. My roommate was 17 and was fine. I graduated high school at 16 (though I didn’t skip senior year), but took a gap year before going to college. That worked out well too. One of my high school friends skipped her senior year and went straight to Brown. She’s never looked back. We don’t have crystal balls, for me I liked being young because it gave me extra time to get off the academic treadmill. I also took a gap year before attending grad school. (Something your daughter might want to consider further down the line depending on what her career aspirations are.) Most people I know who regret rushing - rushed right into careers and feel like they lost their youth. You can enter college early, but still give yourself the gift of time if you plan it right.</p>

31

<p>Ceebrown:</p>

<p>LOL. S is not interested in dating. Does that make him socially inept? No. He has plenty of social life but none of the drama that some of his friends are experiencing (we had to invite one who broke up with his GF just in time for a major holiday they’d planned on spending together).</p>

32

<p>Ceebrown:</p>

<p>I understand your concern. I knew one family who was adamant that theire incredibly bright D, who had to graduate early because the family was moving, had to take a gap year so as not to be too young when starting college (she’d already been admitted). The idea was that during the gap year, she would be able to focus on her music.<br>
What happened? She found she could not focus on music all the time. She ended up auditing four courses per semester at the local (and prestigious) college. She might as well have gone to the college where she was accepted in the first place. After that, her parents became less rigid about expecting their other bright children to take a gap year in order to gain maturity.</p>

<p>I cannot imagine my own S wanting to take a gap year when what he really wanted to do was more math at a more advanced level.</p>

33

<p>Like marite says, the kids who want to go to college early often want to go to college to study the things they are interested in. Waiting another year to do that is just as bad as being stuck in high school another year. A lot of very bright kids also find it easier to find true peers/make friends in college than high school; making them wait another year can just serve to further isolate them.</p>

34

<p>ceebrown, what kind of kid who loves math science would want to do “college like” electives at some prep school when they can go to college and get the real deal? Let me in coach, I’m read to play…if you know what I mean.</p>

35

<p>A prep school??? He had NINE college classes under his belt by the time he graduated and 6 APs. The girl who had a gap year at parents’ insistence? She had a similar profile. She did TRY to do the gap year. But summer away from academic life seems to have made her realize that she loved learning too much to be away from it for a whole year.</p>

<p>I agree totally with Kenf1234. this is not to denigrate the value of a gap year for some advanced students, but it is not a universal panacea. Nor is being younger than one’s classmates a disaster. My S has been used to being among college students since 9th grade.</p>

36

<p>My S also entered college after jr year. He found MANY kids his age or even younger. Had he stayed in HS, the only course he would have been able to take is English, and all the rest at the local U. He had taken 12 classes there already, and was quite ready to move on. He far preferred the college atmosphere to that at HS.</p>

<p>For some of us, it is a no-brainer.</p>

37

<p>Same here. DD finished HS in three years, and then she got her BS also in three years (she was 19). No regrets about school, LOTS of regrets about having to rush through the university. She stayed at the same university for MS, and that allowed her to extend her college years, but she still strongly discouraged her brothers from repeating this experience. DS3 also was happy to leave school after junior year, but he definitely did not want to rush through university (moreover, he’d be happy to stay at the university an extra year… he’s greedy and wants to take all those classes with tantalizing names, but can never fit everything into his schedule…)</p>

<p>But school? Neither of them ever regretted going to college early; and I must tell that they are not very mature, either. They just were not interested in all that glitter of Senior year described in this thread, and their schools could not satisfy them academically.</p>

<p>Some kids are not dating at 19 or 21… should they wait to turn 25 or 30 to go to college? :)</p>

38

<p>I don’t know how to put this delicately, but the kids having a great social life in high school are not the ones who want to leave early. Assuming that they will develop that great social life by staying another year in high school is unrealistic, especially if they’re going to be spending half their day at community college or whatever their senior year. </p>

<p>I’m not saying that leaving high school early is right for everyone, and there are lots of good reasons to stay (chance to go to a better college, chance to get better scholarships, more time to figure out what you really want to study, etc.). But another year of high school isn’t going to turn a kid-who-hates-high-school into the prom king/queen.</p>

39

<p>I agree with your thinking, kenf. Since my daughter will be 18 when she attends college if she skips senior year and 19 if she waits and attends college with her class, does anyone think this means the transition will be a bit smoother? A lot of posts I read about “lack of maturity” seem to deal with 16 or 15 year olds entering college and being younger than the rest. My D would be the same age as all the regular incoming freshmen.</p>

40

<p>I didn’t have much in terms of a social life in my junior year, but senior year I started rockin’. So yeah, there can be a change.</p>