I went to college at 16, I graduated college at 34. College isn't like high school. No one's gonna harass you for not showing up to class or not doing the work, and it's easy to get caught up in college shit like parties or whatever. Plus at that age, it's very hard to know exactly what you wanna do with your life. I thought I did, then I dropped out after my 2nd year. Just zero motivation and no idea what I wanted to do. Took me over a decade to get back in and finish what I started. Don't do that.
As a professor in the STEMs who has seen all kinds of students: take your time.
Pre-18 school, in my opinion, is crucially important for your overall development. I've seen many more cases of students who did university too young, only to crash and burn, than I have seen those who created advantages for themselves by doing it faster. I would never ever recommend for students to graduate high school faster than normal unless there was a very specific situation (involving safety for instance). The most important thing here is social and personal development---not academic development. Your life is not going to change if you take a Calculus course a year early. It will change if you develop good skills of time management, extra-curricular involvement, community involvement, social skills, a good work-life balance, etc.
In many cases, the payoff to graduating early is either minimal or non-existent over the long run. Even if there are benefits, the benefits may only last an extremely short amount of time. The risks, however, are much higher.
OCRN on July 19th, 2019 at 07:10 UTC »
I did this exact thing, at the exact same age.
Word of advice: DO NOT GET COMPLACENT
I went to college at 16, I graduated college at 34. College isn't like high school. No one's gonna harass you for not showing up to class or not doing the work, and it's easy to get caught up in college shit like parties or whatever. Plus at that age, it's very hard to know exactly what you wanna do with your life. I thought I did, then I dropped out after my 2nd year. Just zero motivation and no idea what I wanted to do. Took me over a decade to get back in and finish what I started. Don't do that.
_dankelle on July 19th, 2019 at 08:11 UTC »
I got into college at 16 too. Don’t recommend lol
po2gdHaeKaYk on July 19th, 2019 at 09:11 UTC »
As a professor in the STEMs who has seen all kinds of students: take your time.
Pre-18 school, in my opinion, is crucially important for your overall development. I've seen many more cases of students who did university too young, only to crash and burn, than I have seen those who created advantages for themselves by doing it faster. I would never ever recommend for students to graduate high school faster than normal unless there was a very specific situation (involving safety for instance). The most important thing here is social and personal development---not academic development. Your life is not going to change if you take a Calculus course a year early. It will change if you develop good skills of time management, extra-curricular involvement, community involvement, social skills, a good work-life balance, etc.
In many cases, the payoff to graduating early is either minimal or non-existent over the long run. Even if there are benefits, the benefits may only last an extremely short amount of time. The risks, however, are much higher.