Homeschooled girl from Arkansas earns Bachelor’s Degree at age 18
College Insurrection has reported on the success of home schooled students before, this is just the latest story.
Sarah Greek of The College Fix Reports.
Bachelor’s Degree – at Age 18
As Caitlin Pierce lined up in the hall with her fellow graduates, waiting for the processional music to start at her high school graduation, students around her began to discuss college. That’s when Caitlin told them she was set to graduate from college the following week.
“There were exclamations of astonishment,” Pierce said. “They wanted to know how on earth I had accomplished that.”
Pierce, an 18-year-old homeschooled Arkansas teen, received her bachelor’s degree in liberal studies on May 25 – the week after her high school graduation. For Pierce, her undergraduate journey lasted just one year and 11 months, and ran parallel to her junior and senior years of high school.
She attributes her accomplishment to CollegePlus, a Texas-based distance learning company offering personalized higher education options. The model utilizes credit-bearing exams like the College Level Examination Program and DSST (DANTES Subject Standardized Tests), allowing students to receive college credit for independent study.
While CollegePlus often caters to working adult learners, many students are high schoolers who opt to combine their high school and college studies, its administrators told The College Fix.
CollegePlus was launched in 2005, and since then nearly 6,000 students have enrolled in the program. Nearly 2,000 are enrolled currently, both nationally and internationally, with an average start-to-finish time of two years, according to company officials, who estimate the total degree cost to students at $15,000.
Pierce said the program essentially enabled her to get started on life right after high school.
“Now I am able to focus on what I really love,” Pierce told The College Fix. “I am able to start building up my own photography business, which has been my dream for several years now. With school out of the way, my boyfriend and I can look at getting married sooner than my friends who are getting their degrees in traditional ways.”
Comments
Eh, her degree is in “liberal studies”. If she wants to start a business, why not take businesses classes instead. Her degree sounds like a waste of time and money to me.
Waste of time? She’s 18! She’s got plenty of time to hone her business skills, doing it in real life. Did you know that in 1765 New York had NO law schools and that lawyers were trained during their clerking years, sometime lasting 5 years?
As for the money, good grief. That’s not for you to decide. If anything is a waste of money it’s todays super-inflated tuition costs.