HS Junior entering college early

Christcorp
Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:40:58 +0000

That depends on your perspective. If you are in high school, you should finish it. If you are in college, you should finish it. That’s not to say that you can’t change majors, drop IB, etc… But in this case we are talking about dropping high school. YES, he may have enough credits to graduate. Unfortunately, we are debating too many “What Ifs”. The original poster has never come back yet to define “BURNED OUT”. Until that is defined, any speculation is not founded.

In my son’s case with me wanting him to “Finish what he started”, it had to do with his IB extended essay and HL/SL tests. If he wasn’t doing in well in the IB program, then I wouldn’t have a problem with him dropping the program and returning to normal classes. In his case, he is a straight “A” 4.0 student in the IB program. His reason for not wanting to finish the extended essay or the HL/SL tests is because only 2 of the 7 colleges he applied to give credit for it; and of the 4 schools he is very serious about, it doesn’t really matter. So in his case, the reason to “Finish” is more of integrity and work ethic than it is about education. It’s a proven fact that one reason most employers go after college graduates and separated military personnel isn’t so much for the education aspect as it is the discipline and determination of the person to finish what they started and not quit. In my opinion, quitting is a very easy bad habit to start and very difficult to get rid of.

But a student dropping the IB program in their junior year; a college student changing majors or taking a year off; is not quitting. However, when I interview people for a job and I see college credit but no degree, it makes me wonder. If I was an admissions counselor at a college and I saw a GED, I would wonder. If I saw an early graduation because they had enough credits, then I would want to see some stellar grades and course load. This is all natural. When someone goes outside of the norm, questions arise. Again however, none of this means anything until the original poster defines what they meant by “Burned Out”. Is his grades all straight “A’s” and he’s bored? Is he a “C” student and doesn’t like school? Or is he someone who has a difficult time completing anything he starts? Hopefully the OP will clarify for us.