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Comment by swagtricker | Hacker News Reader

Your idea about ending school sooner is spot on. My wife has almost 2 decades experience teaching High School English. Your Junior & Senior years are fluff - they're not tracked with standardized testing of any sort in those last two years (at least in Washington State) and you've met all of the content requirements needed to graduate (just not the credit count). That's why running start exists - you're already "done" with your public education content by the time you've hit year 10 - go ahead and get your "credits" at local college/community college and get both the HS diploma and AA degree.

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I'm pretty sure you can take the GED before you're 18. You can likely enroll at a community college if you've done that. It's what I considered doing when I was 16, and now, a good long while later, wish I had. All the last couple years did was make me more discouraged and lazy. First ~3 semesters at No-Name State University were just a repeat of material from 7th(!) to about December of 12th grade, could have been working on that for college credit much earlier. Pointless. Could have had a better "story" to sell myself to a a nicer school, more time working the tech job I already had in high school and making money, and a bunch of college credit (transferable or not, at least I'd have it) to my name by age 18.

Bonus: once I went to college I found that 15hrs of 100-200 level college courses took up one hell of a lot less of my time than high school plus the ~2.5-3hrs of homework they assigned a night (I understand that part's even worse these days—what a joke). Like, under half as much. Waste of a couple good years. I'd strongly recommend giving that plan consideration, to anyone who thinks they can pass the GED and is having anything other than an outstanding time in high school.

You're correct but GED is definitely not an advertised option for current hs students. There's a lot of 'tricks' which can be unlocked just by being in the know. Unfortunately, that predominantly favors middle class +

On the one hand, if I could turn back time, I would like to have done that myself from a money perspective. On the other hand, that would mean that I never would have met my wife, which is something I wouldn't give up for anything.

I'm not sure if this is true in your wife's school, but in my high school junior and senior year was when people loaded up on AP courses that would supposedly get them out of introductory math/science/writing in college.

I think that's what GP is saying. AP classes are supposed to be college level work. If high school ended after sophomore year, you could just actually just start your college education. It doesn't hurt AP kids at all, in fact it probably helps them immensely. It also helps the kids who don't want to be in school. These kids are likely taking fluff classes. The area that it hurts are the kids who aren't quite AP kids but want to learn. Some type of college prep would need to replace those last two years.

There's a cumulative effect too, in some cases. I took AP and "dual credit" classes in high school (and the local university) that got me out of some of freshman required classes. Near the end of my undergrad program, I had time in my schedule to take graduate-level classes.

11th and 12th grades should be for community college and starting to work. That is what kids will be doing!

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