Question:
Hi.
My situation is somewhat complicated, and it really wouldn’t be possible for someone to give me a good answer without me telling them half of my life.
So I will give my background and my story, and then state my dilemma. Only thing I ask for is for my audience to be kind enough not to answer unless they have read everything.
Here goes…
A little about me:
I tend to consider myself intelligent, and neither my test scores nor my writing ability ever denied this. I am also very gifted in computers, being first introduced to them at 3. When I was 12, I was already familiar with some of the most difficult aspects of computer science/engineering. I would feel free to say that my knowledge in computer science around the age of 15 was equivalent to that of a college graduate majoring in Computer Science.
I also immigrated to the United States when I was around 10 years old, and moved to Brooklyn, NY. I mastered the English language pretty quickly, but I seem to grasp languages fast, since I also had no trouble learning Spanish to a fluent level after 3 years of Spanish courses in high school and a trip to the Dominican Republic.
Anyway, back to the topic. In Brooklyn, we lived in a fairly poor neighborhood consisting mostly of immigrants not unlike ourselves. I learned a lot about life while living over there. A lot of the people I knew/hung out with, were forced to drop out of school around age 15/16 to either work or sell drugs to support their single mothers or already families of their own (yes, you can call that neighborhood a “ghetto”).
I always excelled in school, and until grade 8, maintained an average of at least 90. I also got the opportunity to take a high school math course while in the 8th grade, which gave me a jump-start on my high school career.
At 14, we moved from Brooklyn, NY, to Staten Island, NY, which is a farily rich, suburban part of New York City. I went to high school, and it wasn’t at all what I expected it to be. Instead of seeing mature, life-minded individuals preparing for their future, I saw a bunch of spoiled, drug addicted morons. Since the families of most of these kids never had any financial difficulties, the drug use in that school was scary. I mean, “rampant” wouldn’t be a word nearly sufficient to describe it.
The parents of these teens gave them money like it was nothing; just handing it to them. I mean, that never happened in my family. My mom stopped giving me money at 12. If I really needed a couple of dollars for a bus, or to go to a movie with my friends, my parents would lend me money in smallamounts and for an agreed period of time, but never “give it away”.
Well, this setting wasn’t very favourable to me, so my high school performance declined rapidly. It wasn’t only because of these new people; I found friends eventually in my new neighborhood. However, most of them were also high school dropouts around the ages of 20-25. I hung out with them because at least they were down to earth; they knew what they were talking about and had realistic plans, even if they weren’t exactly “successful”. It was just easier to find common language with those kind of people than it would be with my new high school crowd.
I always considered myself an adult, because I became very familiar with life much earlier then most other people do. I felt the pains of living paycheck-to-paycheck, paying for my expenses, bills, eventually even car insurance (but this comes later). I could never find common language with those of my age group.
When I was 18 years old, that year, in June, I found myself a job loading cars into containers at a warehouse of a large auto shipping/logistics company. The job was horrible. Imagine being stuck in the far end of a metal container, with the air around you being around 110 degrees, while you are crouched on your knees attempting to tie the car’s wheels while its exhaust is breathing right on your face. You are seating, panting, and breathing in the carbon monoxide and dust particles while being pressed up by that very car against the hot wall of the container. Now imagine being there for an hour at a time. Yes, horrible. Every evening I used to come home spitting and choking up black dust from the bottom of my lungs.
But I liked this new job. It paid pretty good, and I also had no problem finding common language with my new co-workers. Can’t really say they were the intellectual type; but drinking vodka during out breaks and talking about good-looking women, all while enjoying the euphoria that the fresh air brought, was still fairly entertaining.
I didn’t stay at that job for long, though. I worked at the warehouse for a month, and then I was struck with a golden opportunity. It just so happened that I repaired the computer of another employee of that company. He was very close with the bosses, including the president, and guess what… He got me an interview with the President of the comapny!!!
I won’t go into the details, but
(sorry, it didn’t all fit)
I won’t go into the details, but after two interviews, one with the president and another phone interview with the head of their IT department located in another country, I got the job!
Here I was, only 18 years old, with still another year of high school to go, working as the Lead Network Manager of their Port New Jersey branch, administering a network of 26 computers and 15 telephones. All this, not even having started college.
That is when I became a professional. I went from being a closet-intellectual who lost his way in some warehouse, to being where I needed to be. I was always around people in their late twenties or early thirties, people who made themselves and knew what they were talking about. Heck, my cubicle was in the very office of the company President (yup, it was only us two, and I took all orders directly from him).
Naturally, I took a break from school to concentrate on work. This opportunity comes to one in a million, and I wasn’t going
and I wasn’t going to let it slip because of another high school year which was already overdue.s
It was an unpleasant surprise when the company shut down in October due to the economy (yes, all this was last year – 2008).
I immediately found myself another job at a local web development firm (no more tolls!), but also lost my car in December, no longer being able to afford insurance (I had it for 6 months; bought it when I started to work in June, and left when the insurance expired).
Now for my academic achievements…
I’m going to say right away, I have no respect for the high school system. I don’t consider it educational at all, and never, throughout my (now) 5 years in high school, have I learned anything! All my knowledge comes from self research; either reading encyclopedias or talking to knowledgeable people on the same topics.
Regardless, all my examinations are very high. On the English ELA regents, I received a 90 (school average 77), on Mathematics a 97 (avg. 73),
Living environment – 90 (avg. 56), etc.
Also took the PSAT, with all scores being around the 90th percentile.
My views on education:
I highly value academic achievements and educational facilities. I currently take a college course simultaneous with high school at my local college, and I’m loving it and feeling at home. Performing great. Find myself stuck in the library a good amount of time.
I plan to pursue a Bachelor’s at my local college, and pursue a Master’s almost immediately afterwards, but I haven’t decided where yet. After that is done, I plan on applying to MIT or NYU for a Ph.D in Computer Science.
Sorry I wrote so much, but here we come down to my dilemma.
High school is really not for me. I’m a mature professional. I just can’t be around drug-addicted 16 and 17 year-olds who run around screaming like maniacs in the hallways and throw paper balls at each other in class. Idiots. No way I see myself being there.
I don’t want to continue high school anymore, as its really
, as its really pointless. Even if I do hold through and graduate, my high school GPA would hold me back much more than a GED would (although my Regents scores would give me a HUGE advantage, while they would be discarded if I received a GED). It doesn’t even matter, though, since my local college accepts everyone.
On top of all that, I have many friends in college. And I find that I really “belong” there, both academically and socially. I just don’t want to wait anymore…
If I stay in HS, I will graduate in August, and I don’t want to do that.
I will be 19 in March, and taking the GED test will not be a problem (since once you are 19, you can just drop out and go take it without any preparatory courses or other requirements).
I want to take the GED test now, get the GED, and enroll as a non-major student for the summer semester at that college. During the summer, finish two mandatory pre-requisite math courses, and enroll full-time in September. The advantage of getting those courses
The advantage of getting those courses done in the summer is that I will be able to register for a Computer Science course already in September.
I’m going to be taking 6 classes a semester plus two in the summers. Having calculated everything, I should graduate with a Bachelors either in August 2011 or January 2012.
I hope someone can understand me and my point of views/situation. When it comes to high school, I’m really pretty much “stuck in the system” at this point. It’s rediculuous to let something like a city school system hold me back. On top of all that, my GED wouldn’t even matter, since I would have a Bachelor’s soon enough anyways…
Thank you very much for reading..
Do you think I am doing the right thing?