Early Graduation for High School Junior?
March of junior year seems VERY late to be planning an early graduation. You can read a previous reply I wrote to a similar question here:/dean/000213
It is too late now to apply to most colleges except for non-selective or minimally selective ones. You have also missed many priority financial aid and scholarship deadlines. In addition, most high schools require four years of English to graduate, and many colleges strongly recommend (or even require) four years of English as well. So, if you haven't planned ahead and doubled up on English classes, you may have difficulty earning a diploma this spring and being admitted to college. (Note, however, that I've heard of some students who leave high school at the end of junior year to start college. If they then take an English course in college, they will get their high school diploma when that college course has been completed. Likewise, some colleges that require four years of high school English will accept these students on the condition that they enroll in a freshman English class.)
If you're bored in high school and eager to get out, at this late date you might be better served by looking into “Dual Enrollment" programs that will allow you to take local college classes instead of high school classes. This should give you a taste of college life next year and perhaps let you try classes related to your intended career, but this will also allow you ample time to approach the college search and application process carefully rather than rushing through it now and finding that your options are very limited.
Sally Rubenstone
Sally Rubenstone knows the competitive and often convoluted college admission process inside out: From the first time the topic of college comes up at the dinner table until the last duffel bag is unloaded on a dorm room floor. She is the co-author of Panicked Parents’ Guide to College Admissions; The Transfer Student’s Guide to Changing Colleges and The International Student’s Guide to Going to College in America. Sally has appeared on NBC’s Today program and has been quoted in countless publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Weekend, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, People and Seventeen. Sally has viewed the admissions world from many angles: As a Smith College admission counselor for 15 years, an independent college counselor serving students from a wide range of backgrounds and the author of College Confidential’s “Ask the Dean” column. She also taught language arts, social studies, study skills and test preparation in 10 schools, including American international schools in London, Paris, Geneva, Athens and Tel Aviv. As senior advisor to College Confidential since 2002, Sally has helped hundreds of students and parents navigate the college admissions maze. In 2008, she co-founded College Karma, a private college consulting firm, with her College Confidential colleague Dave Berry, and she continues to serve as a College Confidential advisor. Sally and her husband, Chris Petrides, became first-time parents in 1997 at the ripe-old age of 45. So Sally was nearly an official senior citizen when her son Jack began the college selection process, and when she was finally able to practice what she had preached for more than three decades.