What Are The Drawbacks of Graduating Early?

[Gil]

What are the possible draw backs of graduating early?

 

[regentrude]

Possibly not being mature enough to handle moving away and navigating college with much older classmates.

For super early graduation, there may be legal issues around the young age of a college student living in dorms. I could imagine the college not wanting to take responsibility for a 14 y/o.

My DD graduated at 17, but already had taken 32 credits at a 4 year university; we were not interested in speeding through an average level education and graduating her way early. 

[EKS]

If your student is interested in tippy top schools, they will be competing (mostly) with students who are older than they are.  Graduating on time means that they are on equal footing age-wise with their competitors.  

[Shoeless]

What are the reasons for graduating early? 

We had an early-grad homeschool student in my veterinary nursing classes. She could not take xrays or run anesthesia until she turned 18, which caused problems in some of the classes. 

[8filltheheart]

Competitiveness for scholarships.....accelerated kids are not super unique. Staying a high schooler allows them to build their CV in a way that stands out.

Maturity to live independently.

[Roadrunner]

Unless you have an extraordinary prodigy, I can’t think of any advantages to graduating early. 

[Penelope]

1 hour ago, Roadrunner said:

Unless you have an extraordinary prodigy, I can’t think of any advantages to graduating early. 

Maybe once upon a time when options were your local public school offerings and that’s it, but there are so many more opportunities now to learn and do more while still living at home. 
 

Because of that, it might also be less common now to have any very young students at university. Thirty and more years ago, lots of students started at 17 due to different age cut-offs for starting kindergarten. And there were fewer opportunities for bright students to do college-level work in high school. 

[000000000]

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Edited September 9, 2023 by Petrova Fossil

[Farrar]

I second what several people are saying here. You are typically closing the door to more competitive schools and more merit aid because your student hasn't had as long to do as much as their peers in the applicant pool. Plus, there's just no rush. Students nearly everywhere can do dual enrollment without closing that door so they aren't typically held back if they really need the challenge of college level work. Plus the maturity factor is key in college success if you go away to school. And there can be big benefits for young adults in launching their lives to live on a residential campus, so if you have a student who's not ready for that, then you're really limiting your options geographically and limiting their options for paths to launching into the world.

[EKS]

17 minutes ago, Petrova Fossil said:

Given that gray matter doesn’t finish developing until the mid20s, I don’t know if the 14-year-old MA candidates back in the Middle Ages were all geniuses (unlikely), or if they had to grow up sooner (because things were dog eat dog and they needed to support families and defend countries), or if people were just smarter before the Internet Age…

There was less to learn, people who went to university were likely tutored one-on-one for most of their education, and, yes, the population as a whole is getting less intelligent.

[Ting Tang]

I graduated one year early. I was just ready to move on in life. Things were a bit different in 1998. I was offered academic scholarships. For me, there were 0 drawbacks, and I still see no reason for me to have spent that extra year in  high school. I was public schooled. I’m still 100% glad I made that decision. I feel like it would’ve been a waste for me. 

Edited June 26, 2023 by Ting Tang

[Haken]

By age 18 after graduating from high school and leaving for college, most children will have already spent 90% of their total time with their parents. By graduating early, you and your child will be accelerating that pace.

[Gil]

9 hours ago, Shoeless said:

What are the reasons for graduating early?

The main reason for me to consider Graduating Early is that he asked me about graduating early.

He's a strong, capable student but he's not a "school for school's sake" type of person and doesn't really care about College and definitely isn't trying to show colleges all the ways that he's more impressive than the next student. He's content with being way better than most people would expect even without them knowing it. He's far more interested in being a young adult than being a student and doesn't like school even though he does very well at it.

He's not sure that he want's to take the college route at all and is mostly doing his bachelors because it's so important to me and because it's paid for. He's on track to graduate with his Bachelors before 20 but he's far more interested in investing his time and energy in other avenues and has been for some years now.

I'm more worried about him not having a bachelors degree should he need one than he is. But he asked me again about just graduating early and I told him that I'd consider it.

He's pretty mature and more than capable of navigating life and different social situations. Both of The Boys know how to go and find the adults they need to talk to and how to talk to them--and go back and talk to them again, they're not socially awkward nor incompetent in that regard.

 

1 hour ago, Ting Tang said:

I graduated one year early. I was just ready to move on in life. Things were a bit different in 1998. I was offered academic scholarships. For me, there were 0 drawbacks, and I still see no reason for me to have spent that extra year in  high school. I was public schooled. I’m still 100% glad I made that decision. I feel like it would’ve been a waste for me. 

Yeah, that's kind of where he is. He feels he's ready to move on in life.

Edited June 26, 2023 by Gil

[Shoeless]

2 minutes ago, Gil said:

The main reason for me to consider Graduating Early is that he asked me about graduating early.

He's a strong, capable student but he's not a "school for school's sake" type of person and doesn't really care about College and definitely isn't trying to show colleges all the ways that he's more impressive than the next student. He's content with being way better than most people would expect even without them not knowing it. He's far more interested in being a young adult than being a student and doesn't like school even though he does very well at it.

He's not sure that he want's to take the college route at all and is mostly doing his bachelors because it's so important to me and because it's paid for. He's on track to graduate with his Bachelors before 20 but he's far more interested in investing his time and energy in other avenues and has been for some years now.

I'm more worried about him not having a bachelors degree should he need one than he is. But he asked me again about just graduating early and I told him that I'd consider it.

He's pretty mature and more than capable of navigating life and different social situations. Both of The Boys know how to go and find the adults they need to talk to and how to talk to them--and go back and talk to them again, they're not socially awkward nor incompetent in that regard.

 

Yeah, that's kind of where he is. He feels he's ready to move on in life.

I don't know if a trade is at all part of his plans, but some trade schools are particular about how old the student is. Like with veterinary nursing, it was a real dilemma about the under-18 student because the law says no x-rays, no controlled drug handling, no anesthesia, etc. I know that one of the welding schools near me will take kids at 16 if they make it through the interview, but they really, really recommend kids don't enroll until they a) graduate high school and b) are close to 18 because companies want legal adults to hire at graduation.   

[NittanyJen]

Having read your follow up responses, I’d sit down with him and ask this:

What is it that you want to do after graduation? Is this something you cannot do while finishing high school? After all, homeschooling is quite flexible in how students can use their time. There are so many creative ways to branch out right now, when you don’t have adult responsibilities sucking up your time! Does he have a fair amount of control over what he studies and how he goes about it? If he has enough credits to graduate, he could perhaps still stick around until graduation time, but take just 1-2 classes and spend the rest of the time on an internship or special project (be prepared to explain use of time to colleges, some of which can frown upon a slack looking senior year). My youngest had a largely self-designed senior year that he found both satisfying and a nice change of pace.

Teens may underestimate how much time is taken up by the tasks of “life” after graduation— if school is old, then the novelty of earning enough to live on, paying bills, arranging doc appointments, dealing with housing issues that crop up whether you are renting or buying, financial planning, and so forth, wears thin quickly.

I told my kids— don’t be in a rush to start adulting. You’ll have the next many decades to enjoy that part of life. Don’t waste the last years of being able to be a kid. Both of them have been very responsible young men to start with.

On the con side of graduating early, I’d echo what many have already said. Being much younger than your classmates in college can be a real bummer. Dating, driving experience, drinking, social experience, and that last bit of growing up can really set you apart from your classmates and make fitting in very difficult. On the job, particularly if the student is under 18, there will be frustrating restrictions, and the same social issues with bonding with coworkers. It’s amazing how much they continue to grow up in those last couple of years of high school.

That said, for a very small number of kids, it’s just the right thing to do to move on.

But I’d start with understanding how he plans to use his time after graduation and whether it’s just some “early senioritis” that can be helped with a. Shake-up in how school is approached, or a rosy view of adulthood. 

Good luck! These darn kids didn’t come with instruction manuals…

[Matryoshka]

I graduated 2 months after turning 17, which wasn't 'early' in one sense, because I'd just started early - I had completed 12th grade and only skipped Kindergarten.  But I did feel young to go to college, so I did a gap year in Germany (before 'gap years' were a thing).  I've never regretted being a year young, and living in Germany for a year was one of the best and most formative experiences of my life.  I'm so grateful I had kind of this 'bonus year'.  I also wasn't any younger than others when I actually started college.

My youngest was on track to graduate young from homeschool 'early' in the way I was, in that I had her in 1st grade on paper before she turned 6.  Around middle school age, I decided to readjust her grade number (without changing any academics), so she'd be 18 when she was done.  She showed me.  After trying high school at 14, she left after 2 months, decided to do almost entirely DE for high school, got her AS in Business at 18, went to University as a transfer student and graduated with a BBA in Accounting at 20.  She was another one that was ready to be 'done'.  She's 22 now and still has no regrets, except for the fact that Covid hit right in the 2 years she would've had her regular 'college experience', but that's neither here nor there.  She's considered going back for some kind of graduate degree, but is happy working and living her life right now.

Edited June 26, 2023 by Matryoshka

[elegantlion]

I graduated my son a year early but our situation was one of trying-to-survive in chaos. The school he wanted to attend offered no discounts for dual-enrollment and we qualified for the Pell Grant and his GPA qualified him for automatic scholarships. It was the best decision to be made at the time and he took an extra year to graduate with his BS. Was it the best decision we could have made. No, I wish he could have done DE and then transferred to a different college the next year. He did consider transferring after a couple of years because he was looking into a different major, but transfer scholarships are nowhere near as good as freshman scholarships, so he stayed. 

Back eons ago, I graduated from public high school a semester early because I was just done. By that time, I knew wasn't going to college,so I went to work. I really don't regret it. 

[Farrar]

Given your added answer, I'd ask if you think he'll be ready to live independently and support himself when he graduates from college. Not that he necessarily has to, but just do you see that as a reasonable trajectory that he'll be ready to move away and start a life with a career, even if that career evolves and changes. Because if not, I'd slow down the academics and let him get a job now so he can start building those types of skills concurrently. If you think he potentially will be because he's already working and has a career path in mind, then I don't think it's out of the question to go that route.

Edited June 26, 2023 by Farrar

[Clemsondana]

One concern would is about the age at which you can legally do things.  It's not necessarily prohibitive, but it can make things a bit more complicated.  It's probably not a big deal on college campuses, but depending on how old somebody is when they graduate they could have been promoted at a post-college job and still not be able to rent a car on a business trip.  

My kid who could have graduated early decided that life was not likely to ever have this much potential free time again.  It's not 'free time' in the sense that kid sits around doing nothing, but since I only ask that my kids are doing productive things that leaves a lot of flexibility.  Kid is reading a lot that may go towards some DIY senior year credits (in addition to doing some DE that will count towards a college degree).  Kid can continue extracurriculars for one more year.  Some kids in our orbit are putting a lot of time into jobs. 

 

[Gil]

On 6/26/2023 at 1:38 AM, NittanyJen said:

Having read your follow up responses, I’d sit down with him and ask this:

What is it that you want to do after graduation? Is this something you cannot do while finishing high school? After all, homeschooling is quite flexible in how students can use their time. There are so many creative ways to branch out right now, when you don’t have adult responsibilities sucking up your time! Does he have a fair amount of control over what he studies and how he goes about it? If he has enough credits to graduate, he could perhaps still stick around until graduation time, but take just 1-2 classes and spend the rest of the time on an internship or special project (be prepared to explain use of time to colleges, some of which can frown upon a slack looking senior year). My youngest had a largely self-designed senior year that he found both satisfying and a nice change of pace.

Teens may underestimate how much time is taken up by the tasks of “life” after graduation— if school is old, then the novelty of earning enough to live on, paying bills, arranging doc appointments, dealing with housing issues that crop up whether you are renting or buying, financial planning, and so forth, wears thin quickly.

I told my kids— don’t be in a rush to start adulting. You’ll have the next many decades to enjoy that part of life. Don’t waste the last years of being able to be a kid. Both of them have been very responsible young men to start with.

On the con side of graduating early, I’d echo what many have already said. Being much younger than your classmates in college can be a real bummer. Dating, driving experience, drinking, social experience, and that last bit of growing up can really set you apart from your classmates and make fitting in very difficult. On the job, particularly if the student is under 18, there will be frustrating restrictions, and the same social issues with bonding with coworkers. It’s amazing how much they continue to grow up in those last couple of years of high school.

That said, for a very small number of kids, it’s just the right thing to do to move on.

But I’d start with understanding how he plans to use his time after graduation and whether it’s just some “early senioritis” that can be helped with a. Shake-up in how school is approached, or a rosy view of adulthood. 

Good luck! These darn kids didn’t come with instruction manuals…

The thing is he has made his case. I know why he wants to graduate early and what he plans to do with the time and energy. He has a couple of realistic ideas about what he wants to do after graduation, in many ways it's simply an expansion of the work and creative hobbies that he does now. He ultimately wants to be able to use 100% of his time and energy into creative and professional endeavors now--which, while I understand the desire, I don't agree with it.

Yes, growing his business is important, but it doesn't have to grow so rapidly right now. The market isn't going to die within the next 25 years, let alone the next 2.5. I want him to grow his business and work at X-pace, but he wants to grow his business and work at Y-pace.

I loathe incompetent adults, so they've been prepared to be a competent adult on purpose for some time. He's not the least bit intimidated about "being an adult", We're all confident that when it's time for him to launch, he'll be good with the basic tasks of adult life. The Boys work and they love working. Each of The Boys have and are working a Multi-Year fiscal plan, he's on track with his plan and--barring something catastrophic--will be able to afford to live on his own once he's ready anyway.

He's got a good peer mix that isn't all age-related so he's not really concerned about college peers. I'm sober, addiction runs in the family and substance abuse still plagues the extended family so growing up with that he has no interest or intention to screw around with various drugs regardless of their legality.

Anyway, I was leaning towards a decision when I posted, but I wanted to check for things that I might be missing. I'm gonna continue to sleep on it a bit more.

[SKL]

How early?

With my accelerated girls, the only drawback I have observed is that they were more than halfway through high school before they realized why they should want to do their best.  (Not because their parent told them to work harder, but the internal motivation and longer-term goal.)

Depending on what your state pays for, graduating early may remove the option to take classes (whether advanced high school or college courses) at no cost to your family.

I myself graduated and went to college at age 16, commuting from my parents' house.  I don't have any reason to regret that, but my high school experience was sucky, and the options for bright / motivated students (especially introverts) were limited.  In today's world, it probably would have been better to stay in high school (on paper) while taking college courses.

[SeaConquest]

Why not graduate him from high school early and take a gap year or two to work on the business? The data shows that boys especially have higher GPAs (and likely get more out of the college experience overall) with the benefit of time that a gap year provides. Speaking from my own experience, the time I spent on active duty in the Army after high school helped me to transition to adulthood without the added stress of school layered on top of it. By the time I got to college (18 months later), I had enough practice at the adulting part that I was laser-focused during college (and had a great experience). 

Edited June 29, 2023 by SeaConquest

[Lecka]

I went to college with a girl who was 15 her freshman year.

She was obviously on the young side.

But, knowing her, she was not in a good high school situation, she was a minority in her hometown and she was not getting treated well at school.  
 

I do think it was a good choice for her compared to the alternative for her which was — get bullied at a small town school where you are a minority. 
 

She might even have dropped out of school.  
 

I have been around mid-teens girls who seem as mature as college age and do not come across as immature or not fitting in, though.  I have known girls where it was a good social solution.  
 

I have only known one advanced student and she did it primarily for social reasons.  It worked out well for her.  She was an “I’ll move for graduate school” person and thought the local state university would work for her.  She chose not to apply for more competitive schools, but she is someone who could have chosen that.  But, she didn’t want to do that.  She honestly thought the local state university had a strong program and she would be competitive for graduate school (and I think this was an informed opinion).  

She is someone where nobody would have been able to tell that she was younger.  

Edit:  ime I see it mostly for (always ime) girls who just want to get out of high school and go to college, they are mature, and they are not doing advanced work, they are taking summer school or extra online classes to graduate early.  They usually aren’t taking AP classes or advanced classes, they are just finishing high school and moving on.  

Edited June 29, 2023 by Lecka

[Lecka]

I also know someone as a friend of my niece, so I don’t know her well, who took extra online classes during Covid just to be done with school, and I am pretty sure she graduated two years early.  
 

She is just working in retail now.  She graduated early to work full-time in retail and try to get an apartment with friends more quickly.  
 

I have no idea what her parents thought about it.  Maybe they thought “thank goodness she graduated from high school” or maybe they are shocked she didn’t go on to college.  I have no idea.  
 

 

[Shoeless]

Another thought: is the student over compulsory age for education in your state?  If not, that kind of ends the issue, IMO. 

Do they have enough credits to graduate? 

Is the student wanting to move on to college or simply stop being a student? 

I can't tell how old the student is or if their plan involves moving out in their own, but I think there's a difference between graduating at 17 with a solid plan vs 15 with the same plan. I would not be excited about my student graduating at 17, but would do it if they had a plan that made sense At 15? No. 

[Dmmetler]

L graduated at 16, and frankly, that was the long way round. My homeschooling life with this kid was "do what makes sense at the time". This meant high school content by age 7-8, but being careful as to content, college content starting at 9 and for credit at age 11-12 (primarily for social reasons and a need for stuff that wasn't me) and lots and lots of special topics classes, research and other studies. At about age 13, L had to make a call as to whether to matriculate and progress to a degree plan or not.  L wanted the normal college experience, and with the exception of early college programs, most schools don't take students in dorms before age 16, vs living at home, so decided to graduate at 16. After applying to a bunch of schools, L picked a SLAC women's college where almost everyone lives on campus. L chose to apply as a first year, not a transfer student, and the school was fine with giving placement out of lower division classes, and allowing the scholarships for the full four years to allow multiple degrees and exploration. 

 

Overall, I think it was the right call. It's been the best social fit L has ever had, and for the first time, L isn't "that little kid" in class. Academically, the classes are engaging, and, by skipping the lower division ones, tend to be focused and intense. At the same time, it means that L will be finishing undergrad solidly an adult. 

 

I cannot imagine L starting college the fall, although by age, that would be typical. There has been so much growth, and it just plain was the right next step. Waiting would have hurt more than helped. .

[stripe]

1. I would not reduce high school to under four years. But some kids started younger and will graduate young after four years of high school. This was common when I was a kid, and I was a young graduate. It worked okay for me at the time, and I wasn’t unique, but I think it’s better to just go deeper and do more and graduate at around 18. There are a lot more options especially with homeschooling such as DE, online APs, pursuing more niche classes, etc, for the advanced student. If your child is having behavioral or mental health issues, or clashing with the homeschooling parent, that is likely to be another issue altogether. 

Edited July 1, 2023 by stripe

[Kristini2]

We are debating (and likely going to) graduate my youngest and least academic kid early. She has been doing high school level work since she was 10 or 11, but just isn't into school. She wants to dance, and that is a career with an expiration date, hence our considering letting her graduate at 16. If you live in a state that covers DE or it's not cost prohibitive, could you compromise and instead of graduating him early, assuming he already has all the credits you want him to have to graduate, let him take DE classes that focus on entrepreneurship/business or other things that will help him grow his business? Good luck with your decision! 

Edited July 1, 2023 by Kristini2

[Janeway]

You could let them apply to colleges early and see what happens. If things do not come out how you all wish for, then wait the extra year. Sometimes, there are scholarships and such that make college less expensive than dual enrollment. 

[Gil]

While he does technically have the credits to graduate (or could if I actually recorded credits). I'm far more invested in whether or not he gets a bachelors degree or professional trade than what he does as far as high school is concerned. To be honest, I don't care much about Highschool one way or the other. I have a practical view of formal higher education--it's for work and social advantages. We've made ample use of our local Dual Enrollment opportunities and he's carrying a 4.0.

He's adamant that he doesn't want to take business classes. I've recommended and advised him to take business classes or even get a AS in Business because I know my kid but he's never found the idea appealing. He loves to read on business, Small Business in our state, etc, but resists taking business classes like I'm asking him to get a tooth-pulled sans anesthesia.

He's long been clear that he isn't willing to be a student in his 20s. The original path that we were working on, knowing that he doesn't want to be a student when he turns 20, is to fast track to a Bachelors, but currently, he's talking like he doesn't want to be a student at all anymore, which is what gives me pause.

Simply stopping school at 16 because he's essentially bored of studying and finds other things more gratifying isn't really an option. Part of this super eagerness to talk about graduating early probably comes from his summer (which is going amazingly well) and just involves him doing his own thing without any sort of school or class in the way of anything. He's making a lot more money this summer which also a mixed-blessing. But when you have $$$ in your sights, you tend to overlook everything else.

[Malam]

@GilWhat about making early graduation conditional on spending X hours per week on education (not necessarily college, could be reading from a booklist)?

[Clarita]

On 6/28/2023 at 5:04 PM, Gil said:

Yes, growing his business is important, but it doesn't have to grow so rapidly right now. The market isn't going to die within the next 25 years, let alone the next 2.5. I want him to grow his business and work at X-pace, but he wants to grow his business and work at Y-pace.

 

53 minutes ago, Gil said:

He's adamant that he doesn't want to take business classes. I've recommended and advised him to take business classes or even get a AS in Business because I know my kid but he's never found the idea appealing. He loves to read on business, Small Business in our state, etc, but resists taking business classes like I'm asking him to get a tooth-pulled sans anesthesia.

My kids are super little so this isn't a BTDT sort of answer. Rather this is a if my friend came to me with what your son is saying what I would say to them. 

If he's ready to launch a multi-million dollar company, today. He has got his investors lined up or has the startup capital ready to go. I would sit with him and really look at what it takes to launch a company. Meaning how much do you really have to make to actually make ends meet, not the number a teenager (or even adults) often thinks is enough. You know this as an adult, even if he is the only employee of this company he still needs to cover living expenses, including benefits (health care, retirement that sort of thing). Then depends on how big you want to grow this company taxation comes into play. Which either he needs to know how to do on a corporate level or he would need to hire someone, again he needs to pay a living wage to plus benefits or an hourly to (meaning that much more his business needs to make).

Minus corporate taxation and the money managing side of business stuff maybe the actual education he doesn't feel he needs. From a business stand point college can be great place to meet those connections to get the funding, partnerships, and the people. Certain colleges are the places to make the big connections and is how a lot of the big entrepreneurs get their starts. With what you've said about his plans I think this might be the big downside to him to graduating early from all of school. I'm just saying if my son came to me saying he wants to start a business I actually would try to convince him to go to an ivy league or those types of schools.     

[Lawyer&Mom]

I have zero regrets leaving high school a year early.  I had simply outgrown that particular fishbowl.  I do regret starting college a year early.  I wish I had been about 19 instead of 17 as a freshman, because the ever so slightly older kids just had so much more confidence and self-direction.  I’m not sure what I should have done for a year or two after high school and before college.  Instead I graduated at 20, got a master’s degree and then started law school (finally) the same age as everyone else.

[Bootsie]

7 hours ago, Gil said:

While he does technically have the credits to graduate (or could if I actually recorded credits). I'm far more invested in whether or not he gets a bachelors degree or professional trade than what he does as far as high school is concerned. To be honest, I don't care much about Highschool one way or the other. I have a practical view of formal higher education--it's for work and social advantages. We've made ample use of our local Dual Enrollment opportunities and he's carrying a 4.0.

He's adamant that he doesn't want to take business classes. I've recommended and advised him to take business classes or even get a AS in Business because I know my kid but he's never found the idea appealing. He loves to read on business, Small Business in our state, etc, but resists taking business classes like I'm asking him to get a tooth-pulled sans anesthesia.

He's long been clear that he isn't willing to be a student in his 20s. The original path that we were working on, knowing that he doesn't want to be a student when he turns 20, is to fast track to a Bachelors, but currently, he's talking like he doesn't want to be a student at all anymore, which is what gives me pause.

Simply stopping school at 16 because he's essentially bored of studying and finds other things more gratifying isn't really an option. Part of this super eagerness to talk about graduating early probably comes from his summer (which is going amazingly well) and just involves him doing his own thing without any sort of school or class in the way of anything. He's making a lot more money this summer which also a mixed-blessing. But when you have $$$ in your sights, you tend to overlook everything else.

Is what he is doing this summer something that can be extended into the fall?  Can it be developed into an experential learning experience?  Could he do an internship with the local Small Business Administration?  Is there an entrepreneur he can shadow?  

If he has met HS academic graduation requirements, I would focus on continuing to learn and grow through some active learning opportunities.

[Gil]

3 hours ago, Bootsie said:

Is what he is doing this summer something that can be extended into the fall?  Can it be developed into an experential learning experience?  Could he do an internship with the local Small Business Administration?  Is there an entrepreneur he can shadow?  

If he has met HS academic graduation requirements, I would focus on continuing to learn and grow through some active learning opportunities.

He's been doing this profitably since last Spring. He's just making more money because he's 1) gotten better at it and 2) is able to spend more time doing it. We already attend a Local Business Group so that he can network with and learn from others and yes he has a mentor.

There's no doubt in his mind that he'll be able to continue doing it in the Fall as well.

10 hours ago, Malam said:

@GilWhat about making early graduation conditional on spending X hours per week on education (not necessarily college, could be reading from a booklist)?

1) Once he's graduated, how would I actually compel him to do X-educational-task?

2) The Boys have been reading through this booklist for a couple of years.

[Momto6inIN]

My 2nd DS is a precocious businessman as well. He has had some difficulties a few times with people he worked with not taking him seriously, esp as an 18 year old CEO. Employees who reported to him - significantly older, more experienced, more well educated - resented him and caused a lot of problems for him in his role.

Now that he's 21 and only has 1 more year of college left it's getting better, but he really has had to deal with a lot the past few years. He's learn d a lot too!

But as you probably already know with this kind of kid, there's really no stopping them or holding them back. The only thing I've found to do as a parent that helps is talking them through it and being a sounding board.

[Lecka]

This sounds like a valid but non-traditional early graduation scenario to me.

 

[Gil]

5 hours ago, Momto6inIN said:

My 2nd DS is a precocious businessman as well. He has had some difficulties a few times with people he worked with not taking him seriously, esp as an 18 year old CEO. Employees who reported to him - significantly older, more experienced, more well educated - resented him and caused a lot of problems for him in his role.

Now that he's 21 and only has 1 more year of college left it's getting better, but he really has had to deal with a lot the past few years. He's learn d a lot too!

But as you probably already know with this kind of kid, there's really no stopping them or holding them back. The only thing I've found to do as a parent that helps is talking them through it and being a sounding board.

See, my Other Boy used to always say he wanted a PhD, so when we'd talk about that, he was aware of the fact that he'd be a student until 23 or later, but my BizKid (thank's for the name) has made no secret of the fact that he's unwilling to be a student once he's 20. He's been telling me since he was 10 that he wasn't going to "waste his whole adulthood" as a student. 🙄

 

[FreyaO]

What's the plan B here? 

I'd consider it an essential exercise to examine the scenario where the business for one reason or another doesn't fly.

[Momto6inIN]

8 hours ago, Gil said:

See, my Other Boy used to always say he wanted a PhD, so when we'd talk about that, he was aware of the fact that he'd be a student until 23 or later, but my BizKid (thank's for the name) has made no secret of the fact that he's unwilling to be a student once he's 20. He's been telling me since he was 10 that he wasn't going to "waste his whole adulthood" as a student. 🙄

 

There have been times when DS wanted to drop out of college and start real life, esp the gen ed stuff which was torture for him. I prayed he wouldn't drop out, but in the end I knew he'd still be ok if he did because he has all these other business connections and he would have a job. He is very high energy and ended up running a couple of different businesses simultaneously while going to school. There are a couple semesters where I don't think he slept much 😉 Once he got into the meaty courses of his major, the talk about dropping out lessened and the talk became more about logistics.

[Malam]

On 7/2/2023 at 10:15 AM, Gil said:

1) Once he's graduated, how would I actually compel him to do X-educational-task?

The same way you'd compell him to do X educational task if he hasn't graduated?

You could also try to convince him the value of "sharpening the saw" (to quote Stephen Covey) or find a mentor to do so.

[8filltheheart]

Gil, my oldest ds was like that.  I always describe him as, "If he had been born in the early 1800s, at 16 he would have jumped on the back of a horse and said, 'Love you, but I'm heading West.' and he would have ridden away without looking back."  He just always knew what he wanted and made sure he achieved those goals.  (And he has.  He got married young.  He paid off their house young.  He plans on retiring young (and is in full motion to do so.   At this rate, he may retire before my dh does!)  He presented us with his plans (which were realistic and viable.)

Based on your follow up posts, what are the cons to graduating early?  If I understand correctly, he already has a business that he wants to work on.  Is that correct?  If the business doesn't grow the way he anticipates, is there something prohibiting him from going to college later?  If he graduates early and spends 2 yrs working on the business, would he not just be 18 then?  If over those 2 yrs the business does not do what he has projected, could you make the deal that he then pursues a degree for his future?   Conversely, if there are freshman eligibility issues that need to be considered, you could have him apply and then defer for a 1 yr gap yr and let him pursue his business for a yr.

(BTW, I can't believe they are that old.  I remember when you first started posting and they were little kids!)

 

[Gil]

3 hours ago, 8filltheheart said:

Gil, my oldest ds was like that.  I always describe him as, "If he had been born in the early 1800s, at 16 he would have jumped on the back of a horse and said, 'Love you, but I'm heading West.' and he would have ridden away without looking back."  He just always knew what he wanted and made sure he achieved those goals.  (And he has.  He got married young.  He paid off their house young.  He plans on retiring young (and is in full motion to do so.   At this rate, he may retire before my dh does!)  He presented us with his plans (which were realistic and viable.)

Based on your follow up posts, what are the cons to graduating early?  If I understand correctly, he already has a business that he wants to work on.  Is that correct?  If the business doesn't grow the way he anticipates, is there something prohibiting him from going to college later?  If he graduates early and spends 2 yrs working on the business, would he not just be 18 then?  If over those 2 yrs the business does not do what he has projected, could you make the deal that he then pursues a degree for his future?   Conversely, if there are freshman eligibility issues that need to be considered, you could have him apply and then defer for a 1 yr gap yr and let him pursue his business for a yr.

(BTW, I can't believe they are that old.  I remember when you first started posting and they were little kids!)

 

Hell, if this were the 1800s I'd have put them out at 12 and said "I love you, but it's time for you to find your way in this world!" then I would've ridden away without looking back!

There'd be so much more food in my house 🥹 and no one leaving my back door w i d e open every.gosh.darned.hour!

I know, time flies like that. I can't wait for the day that the last one leaves the nest and I have blessed silence (and food) in my own home at all hours of the day and night!

Anyway, back to the situation at hand...

My personal hesitation is that as a man who just knows his own sons, it really feels like they won't successfully complete College later in life. My Father-Senses say college has gotta be while they're young, before other things in Life interfere and become the bigger priority.

I don't care about high school or Grad School, but for their own economic safety and professional well-being I want them to have a useful 4-year degree  as soon as possible.

Pal (bless his heart) is aiming for graduate school since he was a kid. More power to him.
Buddy was comfortable with the compromise of obtaining a 4-yr degree and using it to leverage his-way into a professional job working abroad, but then this Summer happened and now his thinking switched from "Just so long as I am not a student at 20 years old" to "Why am I still a student at 16?" 🙄

If I could just blend them into one kid who was willing to just get a 4-year degree I'd be able to sleep a lot easier.

I'm 65-67% sure that I have a viable solution, but we've gotta have a couple more meetings and sleep on it a few more nights.

Edited July 3, 2023 by Gil
Homophones! And a missing negative.

[Gil]

3 hours ago, Malam said:

The same way you'd compell him to do X educational task if he hasn't graduated?

You could also try to convince him the value of "sharpening the saw" (to quote Stephen Covey) or find a mentor to do so.

Well, to be clear, he's not a particularly difficult young man. He understands that certain things just have to be done and there is a good reason for those certain things. Even though sometimes it's just a "so saith-Gil" type of thing.

There's not much that I have to compel him to do, but way I compel him to do academic crap that he doesn't want to do is it's mandatory for his GADGET  diploma which he want's more than a GED--but due to his age he's not able to take the GED anyway without a special waiver.

[Gil]

11 hours ago, FreyaO said:

What's the plan B here? 

I'd consider it an essential exercise to examine the scenario where the business for one reason or another doesn't fly.

His Plan B? He has a couple of side hustles that he'd pour more energy into and a couple of other business ideas and work those.

[SKL]

Well ... personally, since I got my MBA, I've felt that just about every human should get an MBA.  Especially anyone in business should get an MBA.

I would encourage him to take some college courses, even if it's a light load.  I feel like it's a bigger risk if he doesn't have some sort of anchor to education.

He may be able to test out of a lot of courses if he's advanced.  Shortening the time commitment might make him more willing to pursue a degree.

[KimberlyW]

Would something like Western Governors University's business degree work for him? The competency based model could keep everything from feeling useless, he could pace himself, and he would finish with a regionally accredited 4-year degree.

I know 2 business owners who completed their programs and they were shocked by how much they learned.

[Lilaclady]

On 6/25/2023 at 3:49 PM, Roadrunner said:

Unless you have an extraordinary prodigy, I can’t think of any advantages to graduating early. 

There are lots but like anything there are pros and cons. My kids have all been accelerated and my oldest still had almost 60 college credits by high school graduation and got into the top schools for CS- MIT, Stanford, GT among others. Was able to get internships at Microsoft and MasterCard and made more money in 3 months than I made in a year. 

some of the cons you should be aware of are- maturity, ability to handle tough courses earlier, some companies do have age limits for internships- I know Facebook required interns to be 18but not all. 
 

for a student interested in owning his own business, i will encourage you to look into DE and take business classes, my middle dd took entrepreneurship, accounting, marketing and management classes while in high school. At the end of the day, he will have to want to go to college- there are too many students who start out and don’t finish and it is pretty expensive for Students to

abandon it half way. I will encourage him but you have to realize that he has to want it and college will still be there if he wants to come back in his late 20’s 30s or whenever.