I am a 15 year old graduating early

Answered

Being a 15-year-old who has completed their high school requirements and earning a diploma is a mixed blessing. You are 3 years younger than most high school seniors. If you consider the average age of top private boarding schools in America, 19 is the average age for graduates of Deerfield, Choate, Hotchkiss, and other top schools.

So this age difference presents real-world issues when you apply to and attend a 4-year college because you will be one of the rare cohorts in a class of students 3-4 years older than you. You may certainly have the ability to thrive academically but there are so many other day-to-day activities that will challenge your ability to thrive socially and fit in with your peers at college.

In 2023, attending college is not only a function of securing a top education to further your professional goal. In many cases, attending a top college is a social experiment that

challenges your ability to "adult", experiment with new experiences and interact with other similar students of a similar age group. This might translate into dating, joining a sorority/fraternity, social clubs, intermural sports, and being able to go to parties, dinners, and other social functions that are building your future professional network. It's far easier for an 18-19-year-old to pass the scrutiny of a bouncer at a frat, nightclub, or bar with a fake ID than a 15-year-old for example. I'm not talking about the University of Alabama but a place like MIT, Cornell, Brown, and Dartmouth have huge Greek communities and you will feel out of place socially because 1/3-1/2 of the students participate.

The other challenging thing is that many 18-19-year-olds have the benefit of time to have grown into their changing bodies and have moved past growing pains both physically emotionally and mentally. Everyone is still a work in progress but it's not an over-generalization to state the obvious that a 15-year-old doesn't have the same survival and coping skills as someone 3-4 years older.

I think your future success will depend largely on what kind of college you choose to apply to.

One thing to consider if you are seriously thinking about applying to a T20 school is to do a post-graduate year at a Top Private School or Boarding School. Schools like this are proxies for Private Liberal Arts College experience. Why? You are in a self-contained rural setting with 500-1000 very smart kids who are all trying to get into top colleges. You live in a dorm, you eat in a dining hall, you have classes in different academic buildings, there are tons of ECs and clubs to join, you do sports, you volunteer your time in community activities, you have study groups, you are on a tight schedule where you don't have a lot of free time to waste. Socially, you know how the cliques at these private institutions work. The recruited athletes hang together. The artists, musicians, dancers, and theater kids hang together. The creative writers, journalists, activists, and podcast jockeys hang together. It's a microcosm of private college experiences. If you can manage 1 full year at a Private Boarding School, you will be extremely well prepared to make the leap to a top Private college and hit the ground running. This is just my 2 cents. (if you are smart, all these schools have amazing financial aid just like T20 schools so it's very doable).

You have plenty of time to earn your 4-year-degree and either continue learning or working. IMO matriculating anywhere at 15 will be difficult. Good luck.