The Pros & Cons Of Starting College From A Dually-Enrolled High School Program

“Oh my gosh, you’re so young! That’s so cool!”

This is the typical response I get when I tell people I just turned 19 years old and will be graduating with the class of 2020 in the spring. In all honesty though, it is pretty cool and I am proud of myself for managing to pull that off. At the same time, everything is moving so quickly that I do not really have time to process everything that has happened in this past year and all the things that are going to happen in this coming year.

Before I started high school, I came across a school that advertised itself to all new applicants by saying that students who went to this school, which had an early college high school program, could graduate and go to college for only two years. We would graduate not only with our high school diploma, but possibly a college one, as well as a one-way ticket to some of the best colleges in the nation. When 13-year-old me heard those words, I was sold. So I went and ended up graduating with a high school diploma, my Associate’s Degree and an Intersegmental General Education for Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) certificate. 

At the end of my four years, those three pieces of paper meant so much to me and were a major pro to my high school experience. A con, though, was the fact that I started going to college when I was 13 years old and was told that I needed to be an adult in class because the other college students were. At the school, there was no room for me to just be a kid. Plus, the school had no sports activities and no arts programs. Personally, I did not really mind the lack of sports because it was not something I had a lot of passion in. However, it really broke my heart to not be involved in any arts because I did not have the opportunity to be involved in any performing arts since my drama program was dropped my sophomore year of high school. We were encouraged to do something outside of the school and the clubs they offered, but with a schedule that usually went from 6 AM to 7 PM, it was a little difficult. 

Even though the school did have these cons, something I loved was the community it fostered. When I graduated, there were 99 of us and we all appreciated each other. Even to this day, I still talk to some of the people I was friends with in high school.

The very large con though – and something that some of my high school peers also lament – is the fact that I did not feel prepared to be entering my junior year of college as a 17-year-old still trying to figure out who she was. On top of this, the high school that I had gone to essentially wanted students to be perfect, and in their terms, I was. Coming to UCLA, I had the very toxic mindset that I still needed to be perfect and struggled with the B+ that I had gotten in my second quarter.

It was also in that time that I started looking into graduate school. At that point, I was freaking out and overwhelmed because no one had prepared me for what would happen when I started undergrad as a junior. Now I am actually applying to graduate school at the age of 19 with the knowledge that the things I was feeling when I started undergrad might come back and my imposter syndrome could still be very strong. However, a very large and important difference is that I feel more prepared than I did entering undergrad. 

Overall, my experience as a dually enrolled student was extremely hard. I am so grateful I did it, and I love all the people that helped me get through it. However, I would not recommend programs like that because everyone should get to revel in the experience that is being a kid. Be young, be happy and do not worry about if you are going to get into college: you will. And you are going to be so proud of yourself when you do. 

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