It makes a ton of sense, provided the student can take enough college classes to stay challenged and engaged during the course of the year.
My eldest DS spent the majority of his last 3 semesters of HS in either AP classes or at the local community college taking credit hours his HS paid for. He ended up with 38 college credits, all of which transfered. That equates to considerable money saved in college as well as already having experienced challenging courses before entering college full time. Valuable experience all around.
One of the things to be careful of if at all possible is what classes transfer and which ones won't. Colleges including state colleges are getting picky about transfering credits. The colleges are scrambling for money too and looking to reap max. tuition from students and their parents. It used to be that if a student got a 3 on an AP test they'd give college credit for the course, often these days, it takes an AP test score of 4 and sometimes even 5 depending on the course and the college in order to get that credit at a college.
The other consideration when looking at early HS graduation as opposed to sticking out the 4 years and accumulating additional class credits is how many core classes a student has when applying to a college or applying for merit scholarships. The more core classes a student has, the more college credits a student has while in HS, the better the college admissions office likes it and the better the merit scholarship application looks.
Some colleges use what's called an RAI score to determine admissions and many base merit scholarships off a similar scale.
Calculating an RAI usually includes the items below, you can probably find RAI calculators with an internet search.
1. Cumulative Grade Point Average
2. ACT/SAT Score
3. Class Rank
4. Core Classes Taken in Years. Core classes include: English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Foreign Language. If you will have 8 credits of English, 6 credits of Math, 6 credits of Social Studies, 6 credits of science and 8 credits of Foreign Language you will have 17 years of core classes. (Each credit = 1/2 year with the exception of Algebra 1A and 1B these two classes equal 1 year of math.)
