A student who wants to finish in three years needs to think a year ahead in terms of summer jobs, undergraduate research, etc. as well as course work. For example, a summer job between the student’s second and third year should be the kind that students in his/her major normally do between junior and senior years (not sophomore and junior years).
Note that there are alternatives for a student who is substantially ahead in course work but does not want to stay in school four academic years. An example would be 7 semesters with a co-op, or 6 semesters with two co-ops. The student graduates with substantially more work experience than others in his/her cohort who graduate with him/her.
Some colleges will not allow a sophomore to participate in the programs and events they run for juniors UCB- so while I I agree with you that the kid needs to think ahead, not every U is going to provide the kind of job hunting support that’s required. Getting professors in your department to support your applications for fellowships/special programs abroad, etc- they’ve just had less time to work with you, fewer interactions. Harder for a professor to pick up the phone and call a colleague at another U to say “this kid is amazing” if you’ve only had one class with him/her, they aren’t supervising you at work or in their lab, etc.
Can it be done? Yes. But most U’s are set up with a four year track and garnering faculty support for the kind of 'next steps" that require faculty intervention might be tough. A kid needs to hit the ground running freshman year. No sophomore slump. And a lot of initiative to get on the radar at career services!
Some of it depends on your child’s track and much of that won’t be known until they are closer to entering college. My oldest D is a ChemE and entered college with 42 credit hours. Her chosen path was to co-op (she did 5 terms) and do research so the hours allowed her to do this in the normal time (5 years) without over loading her academically (typically around 12-14 academic hours). It paid dividends in better grades and less stress and in the end a good job.
My youngest D went into school with 39 hours. She originally chose a dual degree, Dance and Exercise Physiology. Her goal is to enter a Doctor of Physical Therapy Program. After some consideration she decided she could get her dance degree and complete her DPT prerequisites in 3 years so she dropped the Exercise Physiology major. It did require her taking a summer Physics class at a CC but that was much cheaper than summer classes at the university. It will be close as again not all classes are offered each semester. She enjoys dance so that’s not too stressful though it can be time consuming and she loves biology and anatomy and physiology so that works our well for her. She does have to take more hours, around 16-18 but so far it’s working for her. If she needs to she can add a semester.
Both of my kids chose their own path both in HS and in college. They were very successful at it. In my opinion let your child go their way up to grades 12. If they are capable they will naturally gravitate toward AP courses and possible DE courses. If they choose not to go that direction that is OK too. When they enter college they can choose whether or not to accelerate their degree path. I don’t think that is something to push in middle school. Just encourage them to do their best.
I have a kid who is scheduled to graduate next spring at age 20, after 3 yrs at a state flagship. Started college with 52 credits, & has been able to take a light course load every semester. Some things I learned along the way:
It really really pays to look at the colleges’ policies regarding AP credit. Huge variances in what scores you need to get credit & how many credits you get for a particular score. There are also idiosyncratic rules like some colleges won’t allow AP credits to fulfill “core” requirements. Another issue is that you have to decide on your college choice before you know the senior-year AP test results.
Do a lot of research on what college classes taken while in high school will be accepted. Some (usually elite) colleges won’t accept community college classes or online classes. A lot won’t accept college classes that were conducted off campus or with only high school students.
Some colleges have limits to the amount of AP and/or dual enrollment credits they will accept.
The main issue socially that my kid has encountered is that friends tend to be a year older, & the friends enjoy hanging around bars that my kid can’t get into (town is brutally rough on fake IDs).
While I definitely think it is too early to be strategizing about this in any concrete way, I would suggest that you consider high schools that offer the IB diploma. There are many universities that will give one full year of credit for the IB. In many cases, this is done after successful completion of the freshman year. Of course, a student still needs to complete all the requirements for the major, etc., but I know that for some students embarking on a path that will involve many years of graduate school, this was helpful.
However, the objective should not be getting through college in the least amount of time. Do you want to be at a school that accepts IB as equivalent to its level of courses? Not all colleges are created equally.
I agree about the age difference. My son was still 16 when he started college, having spent the past seven years with the same peer group (did his acceleration in elementary school). I was so thankful the drinking age is 21, not 18 as it was in my era. I also remember declining a summer date with someone an acquaintance wanted to set me up with because I was older (and he was smarter, hard feature to come by for me). At least my son had socialization opportunities instead of just zooming academically- he got ahead because it took him so much less time to learn/do things. Knowing his and his parents’ personalities his social life is more due to his intrinsic self than age.
Would trying to finish college in three years take away time for nonacademic growth? Would it mean too much time spent on academics in HS instead of maturing/growing in other ways than academic?
Life is a series of experiences. Zoom through stages and miss out on a lot. Mid-high end gifted kids need to progress faster to not be held back to the boring usual pace for most. But- then choose the college that they can be engaged with and learn at their pace for a complete four years, having time for the other facets of their personality to develop as well. Four years can include grad level courses and prepare one for grad school. It includes time spent enjoying the unique lifestyle of the undergrad student, even with a limited budget such as I had. Unidimensional with a narrow focus or a broad, well rounded person.
Childhood, including the teen years, is to be lived in the present as well as preparation for adulthood. What will the thirty year old self think of missed experiences and current life? Will it have been worth it?
@wis75 , some pretty top notch schools will give advanced standing for an IBD with high scores so it’s not a choice between tippy top schools and others.
With that said, I don’t know many students who are eager to give up a year at such a school with its wealth of academic possibilies.
Colleges may give generic credit for an IB diploma, but that is not necessarily the same as getting useful subject credit. The content of IB courses may not necessarily match up to that of frosh-level college courses at US universities, so a student with credit for an IB diploma may find that such credit is not especially useful.
AP scores and college courses taken while in high school may have similar issues, but at least they are more likely to resemble other college courses in US universities (unlike IB, AP is mainly a US thing, while many common frosh level courses are similar at various US universities).
^^it’s true that your stars will have to align to actually take advantage of the year’s placement, but it is in fact a year’s standing rather than course by course substitutions/credit. And it only works if you do the diploma, not a smattering of classes.
With that said, most students who do the IBD are intellectually curious and would need an extraordinary reason to miss a year of college classes.
OP is asking how one finishes in 3 years. This is one way. Not necessarily at every school, but it works at some.
A year’s standing sounds impressive, but enough credit from AP scores, college credit taken while in high school, and/or individual IB HL scores could add up to enough credit to give a year’s standing. But if the credit does not give subject credit useful for meeting major and other graduation course requirements, then it may not help the student graduate early in a major with many course requirements and/or long prerequisite sequences.
Our D will graduate with an associates degree from a 4 year school and 57 hours of transferable Duel Enrollment credit. She attends one of the math and science residential schools which I would highly recommend.
That said, we have encouraged her NOT to use this credit to graduate early. We’ve suggested that she look into opportunities for internships, study abroad, and accelerated masters programs. I suppose this defers a year’s earnings, but I agree with the consensus that these actives constitute a year well spent.
My daughter is a high school senior. She is in her second year of full time dual enrollment and will graduate high school with 61-63 credits (depending on what she takes next semester). She will not have an associates since has no interest in some of the required courses but rather focused on of course her high school graduation requirements, if she needed more of anything in terms of applying to 4 year schools, and then her personal interests.
From a financial perspective the idea of saving a year sounds great. However that isn’t the goal.
I think if OP reads through all these posts there’s enough information to see many possibilities and ways to prepare a kid to graduate from college early.
We focused on keeping doors open for our kids as they went through high school. That goal is best served by being informed about the options (and how to pay for them) and knowing your own kid.
Our oldest will graduate with a bachelors and masters in 4.5 years ( would have been four but she changed her masters late in the game). Kid two will graduate in three and study abroad twice if things continue as planned. One study abroad was a summer and earned two classes of credit, so technically 3.5 years. Both had a bunch of AP and DE credit— kid one had more. Kid three hates high school a lot more and only wants to do music, so we are holding academics together and learning how to further his music talents in college. I think it will take all four years for him.
I did not read this entire thread but I will share with you what happened with my children who graduated college early.
All of my children were homeschooled and so took county college classes during high school as this was a good option for them (we happen to live near a highly rated comm college). All earned about a year’s worth of college credit by the time they graduated high school. For my oldest, the plan was that he’d graduate in 3 1/2 years but he ended up graduating in 3 years. He wanted to apply for a grad assistantship position (this one was only open every other year) and so he needed to graduate in 3 years in order to apply for it. He did apply and got this position, so he was able to earn a masters degree for free. He was later hired by this university and then he went on to earn a second masters degree. Graduating undergrad a year early did not hurt him in the least. Oh, and he did spend a semester studying abroad as an undergrad.
Another daughter graduated in 2 1 /2 years - her choice to accelerate in this way. She also spent a semester abroad and was able to experience a number of internships in her field as an undergrad. She then went on to earn her MBA (and obtained a grad assistantship which helped pay for this degree) so she was done with her under grad and grad degrees in 4 years. She left school with a plum position at an accounting firm. She earned her CPA the following year.
I relate these stories to say that it can be successfully done to the advantage of the student. Neither of my children regret accelerating their time in college. For them, it worked very well. We did not set out to do this from the start, but we did consider it as one of several possible outcomes of taking college classes in high school. We then sought to see what would be best for them. Starting at university with all the extra credits gave them a number of options that they would not have had otherwise.
Moral - graduating early from college can be a good option for some students. That is saved us thousands of dollars was a lovely side benefit.
So- your home schooled kids ended up where everyone else does. Was getting to enter the full time workforce a couple of years sooner better than having HS and college experiences one can not replace? It looks like your kids did not go any further educationally but entered the rat race sooner. Not a fan of homeschooling unless the student is highly gifted and needs can’t be met otherwise.
The final cautions of post #53 are important. The kid who will be doing the acceleration needs to want it, not to please parents but because s/he is excited to do it. It needs to be a natural result of the pace the child needs to avoid boredom while still getting a rounded (including socialization) education.
My daughter is a freshman at a large state university. She transferred in 33 AP hours. She is on track to graduate in 3 years with her major & 2 minors. She will need to study 15 hours a semester. She may take a summer class too while home for the summer. But that’s because I work for a university & she can take a class over the summer for free.
she may do study abroad one semester. And she also is thinking of changing one of her minors into a second major. So that will extend her time.
So, to answer your question, your child would need to take as many AP classes as possible, find a school that takes those credits toward gen eds, and know exactly the area of study.
“We did not set out to do this from the start, but we did consider it as one of several possible outcomes of taking college classes in high school. We then sought to see what would be best for them. Starting at university with all the extra credits gave them a number of options that they would not have had otherwise.”
Per post #54. I think one of the most important things you pointed out was that it was a consideration that your children CHOSE to pursue. It was not an expectation either they had or you imparted on them. The difference may be subtle but I think it’s important. It sounds like for your kids the outcomes were great. Congrats.
@wis75 Not sure why you decided it was necessary to interject your negative opinion of homeschooling in your post. @bookreader didn’t recommend that the OP homeschool. All she did was identify that her kids were homeschooled and that they pursued DE during high school. It was not a post about homeschooling but explaining how the students earned their college credit. (It wasn’t through AP credit; it was through community college credit.)
@wis75 Every student is different. I was a good student, but I never enjoyed sitting in a classroom. When I was in high school, I chose to do a co-op senior year so I could work part of the day and only go to school half a day. I enjoyed the college experience, but again, I was tired of sitting in classrooms. I graduated a semester early, and I was glad to enter the workforce and hoped to never sit in another classroom again.
Research the ap/de/clep policy of several colleges but don’t forget to look at the program requirements of the major too! It’s doesn’t do much to rack up a bunch of college credits if those credits can be applied to the major course requirements.
Understanding college policy can also save you some money, for instance by 12th grade my daughter knew she was going to OU, for English requirements they will give credit for BOTH required English classes if you get a 5 on either AP English or AP Lit, since she got a 5 on her 11th grade English AP she didn’t bother taking the her 12 grade AP English exam and that was one less test fee I had to pay the College Board! My youngest is very likely going to UTD and since I know they don’t give credit for AP World History he won’t be taking that exam either.