How important is it to go beyond graduation requirments?Answered
Hi, I'm a junior in HS, I go to the best school in my state, and have a 4.0 GPA with a couple clubs and I play one sport.
I'm interested in graduating early and only need an English credit and an elective credit (possibly a math credit as well but that's a long story). I'd plan on finishing these credits online so I can go travel and possibly do an internship of sorts.
The colleges I'm interested aren't very competitive and my admission rate is 95+ for all of them (according to CollegeVine).
However their are some slightly more competitive schools I'm planing to apply to have a diverse list and my rates for those schools don't look as good (which i honestly don't care about).
What i'm asking is should i take more classes than i need to graduate just to look better or should i just take the plunge and go enjoy my senior year outside of high school? Thanks for your help!
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2 answers
In my opinion I think taking that opportunity to graduate early would be helpful, and possibly the better option. However, that decision is completely up to you... plus I'm a Freshman so what do I know? I'd suggest that graduating early would be the better option because you'll be able to have that time (assuming you don't go to college immediately) to travel, get job experience, work on skills/ hobbies, etc. If you continue through with senior year, it's likely that you won't have the ability or at least you'd be less likely to have it. So, really it's up to you, but if that opportunity will have more of a positive impact than negative, I'd take advantage of it. Good luck! :)
In your case, I would recommend graduating early for several reasons:
1. College admissions is holistic, so taking more classes is not the only way to increase your odds of admission. In fact, it's likely that traveling and doing an internship would look more impressive to admissions officers. These experiences would make you stand out, since many high schools do not allow early graduation. Traveling would show maturity and intellectual curiosity, while an internship would be a strong way to demonstrate your spike.
2. You are already doing well academically based on your GPA, so this area can be less of a priority for improvement than your ECs. In any case, you can bolster your academic profile without taking more classes - submitting a high SAT/ACT score and increasing your course rigor with AP/IB classes (if available at your school) would be just as beneficial.
3. Your gap year/semester would allow you to gain interesting life stories, and these could be excellent material for your personal statement. Take a look at these examples, and you will see that unique life experiences form the basis of stellar essays.
Hope this helps!
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