How can I get out of high school?

Question

Anyone who responds with something like "these are the best years of your life," "just push through it," "it'll all be worth it!," etc. is either so old as to be senile, the kind of ape who does well in HS, or both. Don't give me that ********.

Simon's Rock, a college with a freshman class composed of sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds, accepted me, but the $50,000 a year tuition is impossible for me to pay. I seek to write novels for a living and have received about a dozen personal responses from literary agents; two agents are currently looking at a partial manuscript. I know I am more intelligent than most people at my high school, and if I have to sit through one more painfully shallow literary analysis, be herded through one more day of bell-after-Pavlovian-bell, be around the mental incompetents who compose this shithole, I will scream.

What can I do? Homeschooling is not an option, thanks to close-minded mother. I don't want to come back after the end of this school year.

I know I sound conceited, but I wanted to convey my situation as clearly and succinctly as possible. I'm not as boorish as that question makes me sound. Promise :-)

Addendum: Any ideas on how to raise the mulah to pay for Simon's Rock? I want to go there so bad it hurts. Imagining another year at Hellfield High hurts so badly. Most my family can pay is 17 grand a year. Student loans are not an option.

Answer 1

You want to convey your situation clearly and succinctly by calling people senile, apes, and mental incompetents? I'm sure that you will be an absolute pleasure to work alongside. I think you should stay an extra year for social/emotional learning.

Answer 2

First of all, I do think that you have an extremely inflated self-worth. I hope you lose that contemptuous manner soon, as you may find yourself despised.
Secondly, I would not recommend taking loans or incurring a debt to attend a school like Simon's Rock. Simply put, it is a school for intelligent kids, but it also plays on people's vanity. If you really are that brilliant, then you'd obviously know that the better option would be to try for a real univ. like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, which all have excellent literary programs and may very well be impressed with your credentials (assuming you are that smart).
I believe you will find yourself extremely challenged (I'm willing to bet you'll struggle) in those environments, and an education from one of those places will open more doors than S. Rock ever will.
Don't let proper judgement be clouded by the acceptance into a quasi-intellectual institution or let your vanity or hate for your high school influence your decision unduly.

Answer 3

Not to sound like a jackass or anything, but if there was a simple way to make an extra $33k a year (and still be a full time student), I think most of us wouldn't be wasting our time on Yahoo....

With your age and inexperience in having a professional career (or a high school degree at moment), the best job I can recommend for fast cash would be a waiter or busboy job.

I know it sounds like shi*, but the harder you work, the more cash you're making, and if you're good with people, then you can stand to make a really nice amount. I was a waiter at Friendly's when I was 16, and brought in around $400 to $500 a week on average (working a full 40-hours). The higher caliber the restaurant, the more you would be making in tips though...

Just a suggestion... good luck escaping HS

BTW, ignore anyone that tells you to get over yourself and finish school... if you're confident enough in what you do to make a huge *** commitment like that, and understand the risks and possible consequences, more power to you

Answer 4

Talk to a financial counselor at Simon's... There's all kinds of grants for all kinds of things. Make an appointment, and plan to spend a couple hours searching for grants.

Also-- a Pell grant is based on need, so depending on what your family's situation is, that might be an option.

BTW- Grants are wonderful- they're basically free money. Often, they are conditional- usually the conditional part is about your grades, but if you continue to meet the requirements, you don't have to pay the money back.


Another thought-- have you talked to a counselor at your HS? There may be another way for you to meet the graduation requirements and simply graduate early... advanced placement? There might be some other way around sitting in boring classes that are teaching you stuff you already know.

Answer 5

In many cases, student loans aren't a good choice. In your case, I would consider it. The long-term investment will more than make up for itself in the long-run. Unless you can work part-time during school, it will be hard to make up the rest of the money without grants and scholarships. Did Simon's Rock talk to you directly about tuition assistance? There are some excellent colleges out there that will take you with a GED, with significantly cheaper tuitions, if you are willing to consider this option. That includes many Ivy league schools. And realize that once you enter college, there will be a whole new group of cohorts. Many may make you feel a little less superior mentally than you understand. High schools, hate to tell you, don't always represent the college competitive environment realistically.

Answer 6

i dont know how old you are, but there is always the ged, if you dont want to live with your parents and goof off you could emancipate yourself and leave, then get a job to support yourself and write. I understand how you could be bored in school, i know some people who dropped out when they realized that school was doing them more harm than good and they wanted to read while they could still read and write. If you have talent, that will tell. One guy who did that started his own local newspaper and is doing well as the owner editor. Another traveled through europe working and writing too. I had a boss who became a merchant marine engineer and he dropped out his sophomore year to work on and race motorcyles. I suggest you take it day by day, and till you figure out what to do, you stay in highschool, and if it is offered you take the college classes as a junior and senior and graduate with an assosiates degree and diploma.

Answer 7

I felt a lot like you do when I was in HS. (I'm only 3 years removed.)
I ended up taking all AP courses when I was in my final year, except for French. If you stay in HS and get AP classes, then you can get a leg up on college. If I didn't have my APs I wouldn't be graduating next year, but still in school. It's hard to get out in four years.
Suffer the bells and the stupidity, knowing it will be over soon enough and you're playing the system to get what amounts to double credit for the work you do. That's what AP does for you, you get HS credit and college credit, and then you don't have to sit through the same stupidity in college. It does exist, mickey mouse courses can strike even in college.

Answer 8

Good writers not only put words together, they have lived the suffering they write about and know the pains of life. Use what you're living through to make yourself a better writer. You'll soon see that complaining falls flat on everyone's ears, especially publishers. You need resourses--and not just financial ones...do some real digging and prove yourself to be worth investing in.

Answer 9

You want to get out of high school, then graduate. Stop being such a quitter trying to look for an easy way out. You aren't going to develop any problem solving skills for the real world when it hits you. You may have intelligence, but you lack patience.

Answer 10

Your intelligent, figure out a solution!

Also, STUDENT LOANS, go get one. Let your high school be free of such a brilliant mind. You may spend the rest of your life writing novels to pay off the student loans, but that will just give you motivation. Right?