This is the first in a series of posts on the benefits of skipping high school and going straight to college. The introductory post and index to all the other posts in the series is here. You can see their undergraduate results and post-graduate (PhD) chase here. I try to keep the results updated as they occur.
People send in questions and I try to answer them here: Answers to homeschool questions
I thought I would write a few posts on why we think skipping high school is a great idea. I will write about the positive reasons for skipping high school, how we did it, and the actually outcomes for our children. The bad of what passes for a traditional high school education these days seems to out weighs the good by a lot. Still, I do not plan to write much about the abject failure of the majority of traditional high schools in America–at least not in this series of posts.
We definitely made some mistakes on the way, but it has been fabulously gratifying. Sometimes we went too slow. Sometimes we tried to go too fast. We serendipitously lucked into activities and opportunities that moved us forward. We missed deadlines and made mistakes through laziness, incompetence, and ignorance that set us back. Most of all, though, we made a plan and then just plugged away at it for about a decade. The plugging got tedious at times, but we can honestly say it was worth it. Joy, gratification, and humility are the words all of us, kids and adults alike, would use to talk about the educational path we chose for our family.
I have written an outline for what I want to write and will keep a list of links on this page.
- Part 1: Introduction (this post)
- Part 2: Different paths for different kids
- Part 3: Kelly’s path from junior high to college
- Part 4: Christian’s path from junior high to college
- Part 5: Why we think it is silly not to go to community college
- Part 6: That supposedly thorny socialization question
- Part 7: Why not skip high school? Worldview preparation is essential
- Part 8: Kelly takes a mathematical proofs class at Big State U.
- Part 9: Christian takes Chemistry at Big State U.
- Part 10: A full load a big state University
- Part 11: The fact sheet or how it all ended up after skipping high school
- Addendum 1: Starting college by age 12 (not us)
- Results – See below
August 26, 2014 – This should have been written a lot earlier because both of the kids walked in there graduation ceremonies in early May. Here is how they did:
Results for Kelly (age 20)
- Graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Statistics
- Offered two funded PhD opportunities in Marketing with a Masters degree in Statistics at two national research universities.
- Started a PhD in Marketing Strategy with Masters degrees in Business and/or Statistics at Foster School of Business, University of Washington
- Received stipend for research and teaching assistantships.
- Received annual scholarship to augment the assistantships
- Received small first year research grant for research of her choice
- First refereed journal article (second author–04/2015–age 21)
- Passed qualifying exam to move to PhD candidacy (07/2016–age 22)
- Received MS in Marketing (08/2016)
- Left program to pursue a more technical career (maybe more school after getting experience) (08/2016)
- Data scientist at National Research Laboratory in Baltimore area (06/2018)
Results for Christian (age 18)
- Graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics
- Successfully completed the requirements for graduation from the honors program of the College of Science
- Offered two funded PhD opportunities in Electrical Engineering at two national research universities.
- The funding for both offers were for a Dean’s fellowships unencumbered with research/teaching assistantship work requirements
- Started a PhD in Electrical Engineering at Arizona State University
- Research sponsored by MIT Lincoln Laboratory (including summers at the lab in Lexington, MA)
- Received an annual Fulton (School of Engineering) Scholarship in addition to the Dean’s Fellowship
- Passed qualifying exam to move to PhD candidacy (11/2015–age 20)
- Successfully defended PhD dissertation (08/2019–age 23)
- Five interviews, seven offers–accepted position at National Research Laboratory in Boston Area (01/2020–age 24)
How exactly can I do this for myself? I live in Philadelphia
Hello Sandra,
Thanks for checking in here. It is great you are considering getting ahead in your education. How you can do this yourself depends quite a bit on your current age and circumstances–how have you done in school up until now. I would be more than happy to give my thoughts if you can give me a little more information. That being said, we believe CLEP preparation and testing is a great thing to do before you get to college because it gives you a sense for what you will be up against when you get to college. After that, your local community college is your best friend, especially if you get a good counselor and take it very seriously. Let me know if you would like my thoughts and good luck!