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"Can't you just switch out your senior year of high school for a year of college?"

This isn't as simple as that. A specific example: you are in 3rd year. Everyone is 21 and hitting up bars. You are 20. Some places you cannot even step foot in.

Being social outside your age group is really difficult compared to being social within it, and basically until you graduate from college, your age group is "your year".

To bring it to your current circumstances - imagine a 10 year-old child prodigy trying to hang out with a bunch of 15 year-olds. Or a grade 9 trying to hang out with a bunch of grade 10's. You can do it, but it is highly suboptimal.

I disagree with this. I've had no trouble hanging out with people much older, and a few that were slightly younger. My friend network goes from 18 to about 26 without there being much of an issue. True, I can't generally get into bars (I'm 20), but there are plenty of other opportunities to get smashed outside of bars.

I don't know how it is for the average, but from my perspective, the social experience in college is notably different from the social experience in hs. In hs, I moved from one social group to another while generally being a loner in between. I didn't have a tight network of friends that lasted for a considerable amount of time. The people I'm close to now that happened to go to hs with me, for the most part, were not the people that I was close to in hs. The people I was actually close to in hs have mostly drifted away.

That might not sound like a positive thing, but it taught me to be more accepting of different types of people. I found my way into networks of jocks, band kids, geeks, nerds, etc. so that now, I don't really discriminate against people. If I had've skipped that whole part of growing up, my network now, which is fairly static, would be nowhere near as diverse or exciting as it would've been otherwise.

As for the girls thing, I found it a whole lot easier to get a girlfriend in hs. For some people, this is different, but I think the whole concept of "dating" suffers a paradigm shift when you leave hs. I don't generally see people go from "in love" to "heartbroken" in the course of a week, but that wasn't an uncommon experience when I was in hs. Like social networks, dating seems to solidify once you get into college. A relationship that lasts a few months is short, whereas in hs, that probably would've been a big deal.

I also believe that last year in hs really sticks home the concept of leaving that whole experience behind you. I know some people that left hs early, that are generally mature for their age, but they still seem stuck in that hs mode. It's as if there was no closure, and they're still hanging on to that last little bit of irresponsibility that makes the (relatively) more adult relationships in college a little more difficult to attain.

I don't know that any of that makes high school or college better or worse, educationally speaking, for your social development, but, at the very least, if you have no reason to leave hs early besides the typical teenage disdain for it, then just stay. You'll make a few more memories, perhaps grow up a little more. Take a bunch of mickey mouse courses. I had two outs, guitar, a courtesy, and my last two required classes (English 4 and Gov't/Economics). I skated through it all, doing very, very little work. It made it possible for me to sort of break out of my shell and get to know a few more people.

Here's a different perspective: I'm in my second year of college and I'm having more fun than I've ever had in my life. I'm more social, more confident, more outgoing than I could ever have imagined myself to be when I was in HS (though, I confess, I'm still not as self-reliant as I would like to be; would someone like to give me a job? :p).

Both college and HS are what you make of them. My HS years were crappy because I was an idiot back then. I'm sure I'm still an idiot now, but at least I'm the right kind of idiot :)

Hear what HN has to say, but do what you think is right. What works for us might not work for you.

>> Can't you just switch out your senior year of high school for a year of college? Stay in college an extra year. If you were to do that, what would you be missing?

Literally, you would be missing your senior year of high school. You'll never be a senior in high school ever again.

The overwhelming majority of college students will tell you that college life is 100x better than hs life. It likely is. Mainly because there is no parental-supervision. Dorm life is potentially a meat-market leading to drunken "fun".

Regardless of what you consider fun, College is probably "socially" better than hs because of the increased diversity, freedom, and sheer population density.

So no, in those aspects you would not be missing out on anything.

My advice stems from the fact that you will only ever be a senior in high school once. Some here feel I am encouraging you to take the "standardized" path, which is highly ironic because I'm the only one from my peer group to have never taken the standard path. Never went to college, never had a full time job, paid my own way for most everything (not to imply I don't have very loving parents) and i am obsessed with building my own startup (single founder) having only learned programming seriously since last October.

There are costs and benefits to everything. So to answer your question, no socially you will not be missing out on anything terribly crucial. And college life is arguably 100x better than hs life, just remember that it is not really apples to apples. When I was your age I would have chosen to skip senior year. But as I sit here now, my advice is to stay. You must have a set of friends whom you wouldn't mind screwing around with for one more year?

I agree we are all different. If you feel you are obsessively focused and driven, then you SHOULD skip because to do anything else would go against your self: not good.

When all is said and done you have to BELIEVE in the choice you make. I chose not to go to college because at the time, I did not believe in it. If I forced myself to go, I honestly do not believe it would have yielded anything significant. Not because college is bad, but because I did not believe in it at that time. So if you believe that college will benefit you so much more, it probably will! Just remember you do not have the luxury of going backwards.

Let us know what you decide!

edit: read potatolicious sibling post. A great point!!