Is Applying in Junior Year to College a Bad Idea?

Applying to College
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I’ve been thinking about graduating early due to a variety of factors, particularly the hope to finish my med school education faster and to simply get out of HS. NYU has been my top choice along with WashU, Tufts, and Emory.

However, I’m worried that my age — 16 at the time of applying to college if i do so early— will raise several eyebrows. But I do believe I have more than adequate stats + ECs for the university if i apply early (not comfortable w sharing stats + ecs on here). Would applying early be a good choice, or should I wait it out in hopes of a better college -_-.

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So you would be applying with two years of HS classes and two years of ECs.

Meaning…likely fewer HS core courses than do students who will stay in HS for four years. You will also have one less year of ECs at the time of application.

These are significant shortcomings, especially for the level of schools you are targeting. My question for you is why do you think you would be competitive with students who have three years of rigorous core courses and three years of ECs?

I get you don’t want to share specifics about why you want to graduate HS early. Some other possibilities that could be preferable…

  • Would early college be an option for you?
  • Can you take DE courses in your senior year?
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For highly selective colleges like the ones you mentioned, my advice if you want to complete HS in three years is to then take a gap year, and apply at a “normal” age with a complete HS record.

If you really just want to go as fast as possible, then you could choose a less selective college, and possibly go without a gap year, and indeed possibly get through that less selective college in only three years as well.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend any of that, however, particularly if your goal is med school. The STEM sequence through HS and college that is ultimately required for med school applications is hard enough at a normal pace. Trying to accelerate it could well backfire.

Indeed, these days “good for med school” colleges are often strongly promoting to take at least one, possibly more, gap years after college as well. Among other things, that allows premeds to space out their med school prereqs, and they are apparently finding that helps more students persist on this path through the end.

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Graduating one year early from high school is fine if you have a strong academic record. Entering college at age 17 is fine. Whether or not it is a good idea depends upon the individual and that individual’s situation. (Some students need a change of environment for personal reasons. Others may have maxed out academic course offerings in a particular discipline & need to move on to a more advanced school.)

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On paper it doesn’t seem a good plan.

But then Doogie Howser came along (google it).

I’d talk to each school (an admissions counselor) about your plan and see what they think.

I have to think there may be some issues - such as, will they let you live in a dorm? If so, will anyone want to live or associate with you being so young?

You may meet HS requirements academically but do you have the academic heft for these schools - math through calc, 3 years language, 3 lab sciences, etc.

Will your youth or maybe lack of certain classes hold you back at the next level?

On paper, it’s a bad idea but everyone is different and maybe it isn’t. Since you named four schools, talk to them - and find out their thoughts.

You note holding out for a better college. There are not better colleges - but there may be better colleges for you. Kids go to med school from everywhere. When I looked at the residents for Vandy, where i was a patient - you had Lipscomb and OK State and Kansas State and Luther and tons of no names. For med school, the name of your college is likely of little, if any factor.

And college is expensive - so can you afford these $95K+ names you mention - and then 4 years of med school - another $100K. Typically, budget drives a college decision more than I’m great academically. Some, for a medical school life, will choose the LECOM guaranteed entrance for DO and go to a sponsoring school in hopes of getting in (they’re a lot less prestigious schools than you note - but there’s no MCAT, etc.).

So there’s likely a lot more to think about than you’re asking.

But I do think - I would make an appointment with an admissions counselor for your area at each school - and run through your scenario with them. They’d be best to guide you.

Good luck

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I advise against graduating at age 16 for several reasons.

First, when you get to college you’re playing for keeps. The frosh around you will be 18 and some may even be 19 if their parents red-shirted them in 1st grade. There is a lot of personal and intellectual growth that happens between ages 16 and 18+. Being 15 now it may be hard to envision but if you talk with older siblings of your friends and ask if they were equally capable at ages 16 and 18 the answers will be no.

As a prospective pre-med you aren’t just taking classes, you need to participate in activities like shadowing, volunteer work, perhaps lab work. Some hospitals and labs for liability reasons won’t allow those under age 18. Overall at age 16 there simply won’t be the same set of opportunities, nor will you be as able to handle them as you’d be at 18, no matter how precocious you are.

Beyond academics, college is about maturing alongside a peer group. Being 16 can create a noticeable social barrier with older students (half of which at college are over 20), and you may feel left out once your friends reach the legal drinking age and move their social gatherings to local pubs

I’d also say there are tangible signs your push to get thru HS is already causing problems. In the thread How much do B's impact ur chances at top universities? you wrote your math grades have been (100→98→92→90) meaning that as the difficulty ramps up you’re still doing well but not as well as you were earlier. Rather than taking difficult and important classes in summer school in a rush to get out of HS you’re better off taking them during the regular academic year IMO.

Lastly there’s your focus on either Ivy (as per your thread Can i get into an ivy league without being top 10%) or the fine schools you mention at the top of this post. If you really know you want to go into medicine you may wish to be more strategic about your college choice, consciously selecting a good place where you’d be among the top students rather than schools where everyone else is a superstar too.

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Several things come to mind:

The first is that graduating high school early is not going to help you get accepted to any of the four very good universities that you mentioned. The students at these schools, and other highly ranked schools, are academically very strong and very well prepared. Competition for admissions is tough. Competition for grades once you get there is just as tough.

The other thing that comes to mind is that medical school is a very long path. This takes many years. To get to medical school, and complete medical school, and complete a medical residency, takes a lot of effort, a lot of hard work, and a lot of time. A person has to be very driven to do this. You need to be very sure you want to do it. Eight years of university are also quite expensive. It is not likely to cost a million dollars, but prices keep going up and by the time a current high school student gets to be point of being handed their MD the total cost could very well get over $800,000. If you want to save on this cost, it is usually easier to do so for the first four years (the undergraduate / bachelor’s degree part).

Also, to get to a very good medical school you really do not need to attend such a highly ranked undergraduate university. You do however need to excel in very tough premed classes. The other students in these premed classes are going to be very strong and very well prepared. They will have taken the time, including in high school, to become very strong students and be very well prepared. They will have taken the time to learn very good study habits, and to have a very solid preparation such as in math and sciences.

No one in my immediate family is an MD. However, my wife and both daughters had majors that overlapped a lot with premed classes. I have heard multiple stories about how difficult some of the premed classes are, and how strong the competition is. I have heard stories such as a premed class full of very strong students who are very hardworking with a midterm exam with a class average in the mid 40’s, and I have heard how tough organic chemistry and a few other classes were. I have also met a few of these premed students and been quite impressed. As one example, there will be students who have never had a B in their life in premed classes even at a school that is not ranked in the top 100 in the USA. These students are not going to be easy to compete against for grades. While there will be some of them at a school ranked in the 100 to 140 range, there will be even more of them at the four highly ranked schools that you mentioned. You do not need to rush to also be the youngest person in the class competing with these very strong students in very tough premed classes.

Some students do manage to pull this off and graduate early. However your chances would seem to be far better if you instead take your time and try to be as strong a student at you can without graduating early.

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Graduating early makes admission to top colleges like the ones you listed more difficult. It’s possible, but understand that chances are already quite low. If those are the goal, then my advice would be to not graduate until the end of senior year. If you are fine with attending a public university in your state, your admission there may be less likely to be affected by graduating a year early.

The Common App requires you to enter an explanation for your change from the normal progression.

If you just want out of high school, consider full time dual enrollment senior year, graduating at the end of senior year.

With the potential of med school in your future, consider cost. You can see how much financial aid you would be eligible for by using each school’s Net Price Calculator. Many premeds attend public universities in their state to save money for med school. If that’s what ends up making the most financial sense for you, then perhaps it’s fine to graduate early and go to your state public university.

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For the colleges you list? No, it’s not a good choice. Primarily, because you won’t get in. You’d be applying with 1 less year of academics, activities, and achievements to colleges with an extremely low acceptance rate. Unless you’re world-class in some aspect, there’s nothing that makes a college accept you over someone with more experience. And that’s even assuming you already had stellar achievements in the classroom and beyond - which you don’t based on your multiple threads bemoaning your GPA and EC’s

If you are looking to attend a non-flagship public university, it may be fine.

Life is a marathon, not a sprint

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My son applied early for a variety of reasons (some high school was online/covid). We counseled him that it would be more difficult to attend the most selective schools with less years of ECs, classes above and beyond what is offered, etc. He wasn’t too concerned with specific schools though and found some targets he would be happy to attend. (At least happier than another year of high school).

Selective schools are a reach for everyone, so I’d be hesitant to stay in school in order to get into one. However, I think it helps in the application process. Graduating early doesn’t give you a bump.

My son had strong grades/test scores/ECs, but was rejected at 5 of 6 of his top choices. Less selective schools accepted him without concern. He got into USC (studied theatre/film) and finished in 3.5 years. So, he already has his degree at 19 (and can work in Hollywood as an adult with college training). Being 2000 miles from home at a young age was hard at times, but not impossible.

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That’s fine, but understand that it makes the responses you get here less valuable as people can’t judge your actual readiness.

One thing I will add from some previous similar threads I’ve seen: there is a (usually significant) gap between “what I need to graduate from high school” and “what selective colleges want to see in terms of high school preparation”. If your desire to graduate early is based on the former rather than having achieved most or all of the latter in your shortened time at high school - which on the face of it is difficult when the latter generally want to see 4 years in core subjects and some students have 5 in some of them (particularly math) - you may need to rethink either your plan of graduating early or of which schools you want to apply to.

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But it’s also a great reason to reach out to admissions at each school and set an appointment to talk to a counselor about the student’s desires and track record - to see if it’s reasonable or if there’s elements missing (someone already pointed out some struggles in math). I’m guessing they’ll have practical guidance for the student for both their school and overall.

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Yeah, I’d be still taking classes online JR year so I’d fulfill all my credits + math thru calc

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One issue though is that meeting the hs grad requirements is often not enough for admission to highly rejective schools.

Have all your classes been online? Are you comfortable sharing all the HS courses you will have taken 9th-11th? It’s hard for posters to best give advice without these details.

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currently in sophomore year I’m in person, and if I were to apply early I would go online.

ENGLISH: Honors eng 1, honors eng 2, 11th - AP Lang and AP seminar
MATH: honors alg1, honors geometry, honors alg2, AP Precalc. 11th - AP Calc

HISTORY: AP human geo, AP world, 11th - APUSH, Economics or government (the online school i’m looking at counts economics as a history class.)

Science: Honors bio, Honors Chem, AP Bio (11th) - AP Chem , HPhysics

Foreign language - spanish 1, 2, honors Spanish 3.

I was also really vague about my ecs + awards. I have a lot of volunteer awards (AVSA, Global Scholars, Innerview), ABRSM 8 piano, statewide film contest winner, HOSA Health literacy award. For ECS, I have started 2 competitive clubs in my school (+ raised money), have national leadership titles in around 3 orgs, 2x research programs w a mentor, tutor for low income students, competitive internship (standoutsearch 6% acceptance rate) in medtech lined up this summer along w shadowing and volunteering for a neurologist for a whole month this summer, part of a public health group that works on community initiatives to teach public health to low income/underprivileged areas + drafts legislative proposals to discuss with TX Reps, trained pianist, Senior editor for Polyphony lit mag, few other policy + writing + medical internships. Also am applying to some summer programs – we’ll find out!

I don’t consider myself some ‘insane insane applicant‘ as to believe I’ll get into Ivies with these stats. NYU has an ED rate of (from what I’ve researched) of 30%, and I’ve seen some accepted applications that align with mine. but again, it’s up in the air and i’m not sure. esp cuz i’d be 16 starting college.

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I’m hoping @WayOutWestMom will weigh in on the disadvantage applying at a very young age to medical school might be.

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I started to address, but thought talking about more than one incredibly horrific, ill-advised idea at once would be overkill.

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There are many applicants that apply to selective schools whose stats align with those who are accepted, and still get denied because of the competition for places. You’ll see them all over this forum. It’s not as simple as “i have the same profile so i should be ok”.

Btw, NYU seems to have stopped publishing ED admit rates, and I suspect your 30% figure is stale. I know the year my daughter applied, the ED admit rate then was around 35% which was roughly double the overall admit rate. The overall admit rate is now around 7-8%, so the ED rate may well have fallen commensurately too. Added to that, if you are aiming at premed you are presumably aiming at getting into CAS, which is one of the more competitive schools with around a 4% admit rate. Short version: it’s probably not going to be as easy as you think.

One thing that occurs to me. You wonder how schools would look on you being 16 as an applicant - I don’t think that’s a big deal from their end - my kid is young for their class and was 16 when some of their apps went in and won’t be 18 until 2 months after they start college. But it is going to impact student life in some ways, and maybe that’s something you want to think about. I’m not clear about your reasons for wanting to leave HS early or what your parents think about it, but as under 18 a parent will need to cosign on every contract you sign with the college (such as housing, etc).

I’m not sure however how colleges will look at someone who seemed to rush high school through online school. It may be fine, it may not. The thing is, if you don’t get admitted, you’ll never know what the reason was, or whether or not graduating high school early had anything to do with it.

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Unless you hate high school and are academically AND emotionally two years ahead of your peers, there is absolutely no reason. Others have explained why this is a bad idea, so I’ll explain why it provides no real benefits.

Undergraduate + medical School + residency take up to 16 years, and then you have to look for a job. Most successful applicants to medical school are those who, like applicants to college, have a large amount of activities outside of undergrad (though these should all be related to biomedical work and research).

Many elementary and even high schools skip kids who are academically advanced, and this creates the illusion that being younger than your peers is an indication of high academic potential.

It is not. The only reason that kids are skipped in elementary school is because elementary schools usually do not have the resources to provide an education beyond the requirements that are determined by the state. They cannot provide anything more advanced than their most rigorous track, so the only way that highly gifted kids can be challenged is to have them go through the rigorous track faster.

However, starting from college admissions and continuing for the rest of your life, people who are in charge of admissions, hiring, and giving out awards and scholarships focus on accomplishments as a whole, and having done the high school requirements in three years is a pretty meagre accomplishment, compared the possible awards and accomplishments that that are possible in another year of high school, especially if you are taking a normal course load.

For graduate schools, finishing high school in three years is meaningless, and even finishing your undergraduate in three years is meaningless. A 20 year old applying to medical school is not considered to be better than a 24 year old. They want to see a record of accomplishments, and packing classes reduces your chances to accomplish anything but passing classes.

He wasn’t a real person, and the chances that a hospital would hire somebody that young are between No and Hell No. There is no medical insurance company who would be willing to insure a hormonal teenager no matter how smart the kid is.

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If this is your chief reason, it’s a very bad idea. Younger-than-typical med school applicants are at a disadvantage. This is because adcomms will have doubts about your application for a variety of reasons: your emotional readiness to start med school, your maturity level, undue family influence on your decision to apply to med school, your lack of real world life experience, and less “relatability” with patients all of whom will be much older than you. Proving your readiness for medical school will fall squarely on your shoulders with the default being the assumption that you aren’t ready.

Younger-than-typical med school applicants have a lower acceptance rate into med school than older applicants, even if they have the same stats.

If you do decide to start college early, plan on taking several gap years after college before applying to med school to broaden your world-view, increase your real world life experience and grow into your adult maturity.

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