HS Junior entering college early

pianomom
Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:26:45 +0000

4tocollege, I posted a similar question here 3 1/2 years ago and received very thoughtful and helpful responses. Our son also left high school after his junior year. He told us three days after the school year ended that he could not bear to go back in the fall. He had taken mostly AP classes with seniors and felt that while a couple teachers were good, he could no longer make forward intellectual progress. He is also a musician and needed to make a teacher change. He was already a year ahead so it meant entering college at age 16. This all transpired on the way to a sample lesson with a professor at an LAC 2 1/2 hours from our home. While he was in his lesson, I went and talked to a dean that I had met on a previous visit. The dean said that every year the school has a few students that feel they are in a similar situation. She contacted admissions for us and set up a meeting for our son with a counselor that handled double degree students. We submitted his application two days later. I think his high school was happy that he found a solution as the GC hand delivered the application for him. He performed an audition the following week. By the end of the summer, the school board agreed to accept his college classes in lieu of his high school senior year so he could graduate with his class. He ended up transferring to a larger LAC after two years, but felt his first two years were exactly what he needed.

He is on track to graduate in 2009 (five years) with double degrees and a minor in his new field of interest. People still ask him if he felt it was the right move. He tells them that he is grateful that we took him seriously enough to help him find a solution and that he is extremely happy and challenged.

Our family is grateful to the posters at CC for sharing their experiences on the board. We have two very happy sons who have benefited from information gleaned from this forum.