HS Junior entering college early

justbreathe
Thu, 03 Jan 2008 01:07:05 +0000

I “skipped my junior year of hs”. My transcript hs showed my 9th, 10th and “12th” grade courses. I know two other students who did the same—one is now at Caltech, another at MIT, and I’m at Brown. We’re all rather happy with our decisions.

It was something I thought about for a long time. I took my SAT II’s at the end of my sophomore year, my SATs the very beginning of my junior year, applied to 3 colleges my junior year, and only fully committed to the idea of going to college early when I sent in my “Yes! I’m attending!” card that spring. Every step of the way I kept in mind that it was okay to back out and decide to go back to high school if I wasn’t absolutely sure. By the time the decision came, I knew very well that going to college was right for me. But it wasn’t a hasty or rushed decision made out of temporary desperation. I sat on the idea for nearly a year.
I’m not saying everyone who makes this decision has to think about it for a long time, but it should be a thought out and very deliberate decision to go to college rather than to flee the stress of high school. Junior year is always the most stressful year, anyway. The seniors tend to be more relaxed.

Your son sounds like he might be a competitive applicant. He sounds like someone who, in his senior year, would probably have a wide selection of colleges to choose from.(In my mind, being a competitive application is about having choices–the ability to possibily attend a ‘top school’ if you so choose, but to not be bound to it. Just because I have the money to buy caviar, for example, doesn’t mean I’m going to prefer it over a delicious and cheap PB&J). He probably still has a shot at rolling admissions, but the deadline for most schools has passed, so he’ll have to decide whether he wants to face the “What Ifs” of the schools he could’ve chose from had he waited another year. I only applied to my top choices that year, because I didn’t want to settle knowing that I might’ve done better the next year. As it turned out, I got into my first choice anyway, but it would’ve been another important aspect of the decision.