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Advice for Last-Minute Early Grad

Written by Sally Rubenstone | Jan. 26, 2004

Question: I am currently a high school junior and was just informed (in late January) that I have enough credits to go to college next year. I am already scheduled to take my SAT's on March 27th. What else do I need to do?

If you've just recently learned that you're eligible to graduate this spring, it seems awfully late to be starting the college process. A fruitful college search requires more time than you have now. The application deadlines for most competitive colleges have past. You won't even have your SAT results until mid-April at the earliest.

However, you can begin college in the fall, if you are willing to attend a community college or less selective school. But--if you're a strong enough student to have fulfilled graduation requirements a year early--then it sounds like you also might want to think about making a good college match and perhaps attending an institution that will challenge you, rather than just going anywhere that you can get in at the last minute.

On the other hand, if you really feel as if you've outgrown your high school curriculum and you don't want to spend another year where you are now, then you can enroll in a less-selective college or university in September, with the aim of "trading up" to another college the following fall.

Before you make any decisions, read this previous Ask the Dean column about EarlyGraduation: http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/000080.

Are you sure you're ready to give up all the benefits of spending your senior year with your classmates? Does your high school offer a "Dual Enrollment" option that would let you be a full-fledged senior but take all (or most) of your classes at an area college? (If that option doesn't formally exist, you may even be able to create a special program that meets your needs.) Typically, "Dual Enrollment" students take their courses on a nearby college campus but can participate in extracurricular activities at their high school, if they so choose. The college schedule often also allows them extra time to get a part-time or to pursue other interests in an in-depth way that the more rigid high school day usually doesn't.

In any case, it's impossible to give you responsible guidance without knowing a lot more about you, your academic record, your interests, and goals. However, we urge you not to rush off to college just because you have fulfilled your high school graduation requirements. Choosing a college is a decision that should take planning and a lot of thought, and there's not time left this year for either.

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.