How to Finish High School Early

Would you like to finish high school early? More and more students are increasing their course load in order to graduate from high school early. By taking and passing the appropriate courses, a student can usually finish high school anywhere from a semester to a year ahead of schedule. Finishing high school early requires dedication, hard-work and a lot of motivation. However, it is certainly possible to accomplish. There are a few things that you should do if you want to finish high school early.

Things You'll Need

• Permission from your high school counselor
• Academic plan
• Appropriate college courses
• Dedication
• Motivation

Instructions

1. Meet with your high school guidance counselor to determine if you qualify for the early graduation program. If you are interested in graduating from high school early, you must take more classes in a shorter time frame, which may include attending summer school or enrolling in a college credit course. In order to take more courses, your counselor must evaluate certain things like your current grade point average, the number of high school courses you have successfully completed and the type of courses you’ve taken, your exit level high school test scores, SAT and ACT scores and your overall behavior.

2. Develop an academic plan to follow. If you qualify for the early graduation program, your counselor will need to sit down with you to create an academic plan for your to follow the remaining part of the year. Your counselor will let you know exactly which classes you need to take in order to finish early. She will also tell you your expected graduation date.

3. Complete the necessary additional requirements in order to enroll in a college level course(s). Students who choose to finish high school early, usually enroll in college courses while they are still in high school. However, in order to enroll in college courses, you must meet the basic entrance requirements for that particular school. For instance, you may need to take a college entrance examination or have specific SAT or ACT scores to qualify. You must also submit an application for admission, as well as a high school transcript.

4. Finish all of the required courses that you need to graduate from high school early. Once you have taken all of the additional courses and successfully passed each one of them, you can request that the college send a copy of your transcript to your high school.

5. Visit your counselor for a final evaluation. Your counselor reviews your academic plan and transcript to ensure that you have met all of the requirements to finish high school early. If you have satisfied all of the requirements, then you can indeed finish high school early.

Resources

• Visit Next Step for tips on how to finish high school early.
• Visit recordonline.com to learn how to finish high school early.