This may not completely be the right forum for all these questions but since I've already shared by husband's work situation here, I figured it might be where to start.
Last week, my husband was selected as part of a work force reduction. While we do not know yet where we will end up, it looks increasingly likely that we will have to move out of the state of Florida for him to find similar/appropriate employment.
My son just completed his junior year in a IB program. He had planned to (most likely) attend a Florida university in Fall 2017. However, unless we have read the statutes incorrectly, it would appear that even if he stays with a friend to finish high school (his original plan,) as soon as we move, he will lose his Florida residency.
A teacher recently pointed out that due to the accelerated nature of his high school program, he likely had all the academic credits needed to graduate high school already. We confirmed with his guidance counselor today that he would only need to complete some electives he had been exempted from as an IB candidate (government, economics and a fine art) over Florida Virtual School before Sept 14 to be eligible for a normal high school diploma.
My son does not want to spend his senior year in a new school/new state so this is an attractive option for him.
However, I want to be certain there are not obvious downsides that I am overlooking.
We would still focus our college search on automatic merit aid schools - at this point University of Alabama Huntsville and Temple University. He would qualify for full tuition at either. Assuming employment, either of these would be options with UAH being the better option if his June SAT is high enough.
Will he still be treated as an entering freshman if he applies for admission for Spring 2016 at either of these schools? And are automatic scholarships available for students who start Spring semester or are those specific for those who enter fall semester? He would prefer not to take a full gap year but I have no idea how Spring admissions work.
And will he be looked at any differently for graduating high school in 3 years rather than 4 (he did take several high school courses in middle school if that makes any difference?)
This is all a very unusual path that I personally would not have thought of. Regardless of whether or not he takes the extra courses, he has until September to decide whether or to receive the diploma so he has some time to fully make up his mind (though he will need to start the FLVS classes very soon) if he should decide he does want to attend senior year out of state (or if by some miracle we can find something in state.)
Mostly, I wanted to see what those wiser and with more experience than I thought of this particular option and what advantages or disadvantages fresh eyes might bring.
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