If you're a high school student that wants to take classes at community college, that means you're a little bit like me. Actually, maybe a lot like me (when I was in high school)...
I wasn't a great high school student, but I was lucky enough to enroll in the early-admissions program at my local community college.
What this meant for me was:
- As a high school student, I could take classes as a Freshman at community college
- I would still be a high school student and graduate with my class, take part in sports, go to prom, etc.
- If I wanted to, I could continue on attending community college the year after (which I did, basically skipping a year of school)
Of course, I still had to work with my counselor in high school and advisors at community college to make sure that I was fulfilling all the requirements for high school graduation as well as a freshman at community college.
It turned out to be a great decision for me as I ended up transferring from community college to the Stern School of Business at New York University. (and by the way, I never considered going to a school like that in high school)
See how you can transfer to a top university from community college too.
Does Your Community College Allow High School Students To Take Classes?
To see if your local community college offers an early-admissions program, simply look it up on their website. Most community colleges offer an early-admissions program so that you can take community college classes as a high school student.
But, before you enroll in community college, I would definitely recommend:
- Talking with your high school counselor about your idea
- Let your counselor speak with you and your parents so everyone is one the same page
- Do your research on the application deadlines
By doing all the above, you'll be prepared to take classes at community college while you're in high school.
Why Should You Take Community College Classes In High School?
There are many benefits of going to community college before university, but there are even more benefits when you're taking classes in high school!
For instance, you'll be using your senior year in high school to get college credits that count towards an associates degree and eventually your bachelors degree when you transfer to university.
When you complete a full course load of two semesters at community college, you'll just be finishing high school. That means you'll have skipped a year in school. When you graduate, you can use that extra year to go travelling in Europe or do an extra internship, or whatever else you desire.
And because you'll be progressing at community college, you'll be way less likely to get "senioritis" and way more likely to be motivated to do well at community college. (That's how it was for me).
The Drawbacks
The only considerable drawback I could see is that you see less of your friends in High School during the week. Otherwise, I had kept in touch with all of my close friends from high school and made plenty of new friends at community college too.
Plus, it's not so bad if you're at a party and all your high school friends have to go to sleep because they have school at 7 am and you don't have class until 10:15 am.
And it's definitely not so bad if you end up going from community college to Ivy League!
If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to leave a comment below and I'll get back to you ASAP.
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