Alyssa Policella is graduating this fall from Florida Atlantic University at only 19 years old and gives credit to FAU High School’s (FAUHS) academic program for her acceleration.  

Founded in 2004, FAUHS offers a pathway for selected students to get an early head-start on their college career. These students complete a rigorous ninth-grade experience offered at the high school right next to Alexander D. Henderson University School, which is an elementary-middle school located on FAU’s Boca Raton campus. 

After this year-long course, students are able to register and enroll in classes on the college campus, entering the university’s community. In Policella’s case, she graduated from FAUHS in 2023 and was able to enroll in the university with 107 college credit hours. However, other seniors in the department of business administration were shocked when she shared her age.

“I would only tell them I was a high school student when I was prompted to, and there have been interactions where I would tell people that I was 17 [at the time], and they could not get over that fact,” she said. “And other times when I would let them know, they would go ‘I would have never guessed that.’”

Despite her young age, she was able to get involved in some of the common college experiences, like obtaining an internship at JM Family Holdings and Greek life, where she joined FAU’s Sigma Kappa sorority. 

However, Policella is only one out of the 4,000 alumni, while there are 697 current students enrolled at FAUHS. Although these high school students are prominent members of the FAU community, they often remain undetected and blend seamlessly into the university’s student body of more than 30,000 students. 

The program is highly selective, with admissions only accepting around 150 highly competitive students per academic year. To get in, students must complete a lengthy application requiring them to write an essay, find teacher recommendations and submit their standardized test scores. 

The program also allows incoming sophomores and juniors to apply through a virtually identical application process that is meant to mimic that of a college application. Which serves as a testament to the school’s search for a competitive batch of students. 

Joel Herbst, superintendent at FAUHS and A.D. Henderson, shared that selected students must exhibit highly motivated and leadership-driven traits. 

“The ideal FAU High School candidate demonstrates exceptional maturity, academic drive and clear future goals. The rigorous selection process evaluates not only academic excellence but also character, civic engagement and collaborative potential,” Herbst wrote in an email to the University Press on Nov 4. 

Huntley Medley, a junior at FAUHS, said the application wasn’t as difficult as he expected. 

“For a middle schooler who had never studied a day in his life or put in more than 45 minutes to prepare for a test, it was a major change that I had to get used to,” said Medley.

For many students, the most appealing part of the program is the flexibility — in the program, they can skip the typical school week and choose to coordinate their classes as preferred.

Mallory Thomas graduated from FAUHS in 2023 and currently studies environmental engineering at Columbia University. Thomas shared the various experiences that came with her flexible high school schedule and ability to integrate into the college atmosphere.

“I had the opportunity to [be a] teacher assistant [for] Calculus 1 at FAU’s Math Learning Center, which brought me closer to the FAU community,” she said. “Overall, I feel like I had more time than some of my friends with a seven-to-eight-hour school day, as the college schedule allows for a great amount of flexibility.”

Many FAUHS students commute to campus through discounted Tri-Rail prices. Students also have the option to take a bus to and from campuses and the Boca Raton train station. However, this is offered through FAU’s Transportation Access Fee, a required fee for all FAU students, including those at the high school.

In high school, Policella lived in Broward County, which forced her to commute to campus. She shared that being able to schedule just a few classes per week was extremely convenient. 

“I would always try and mush my classes together to maybe two or three days max [per week] when I was a commuter. That helped a lot because not having to come to campus as much was like the best thing ever,” she said.

Like all other FAU college students, FAUHS students can enroll in general education or major-specific classes. This program allows students to explore their academic interests at no additional cost, as FAU pays for textbooks, class fees and other class materials. 

Emily Ortiz, a junior at FAUHS who plans to major in criminal justice, said the ability to enroll in classes of various career paths has allowed them to explore a variety of majors and classes without feeling daunted by choosing the wrong path.

“I came to FAU High with a potential career in mind, but have since changed my mind, and I appreciate that I can consider more options at no cost to me,” Ortiz said.

Policella expressed similar feelings about FAUHS which allowed her to navigate various career fields. Revealing that when she first started the program, she intended to enter the engineering department. 

“I thought I was going to go into mechanical engineering, but after looking at the CAD software, I was like, ‘this isn’t for me,’ and at that point, I transferred over to business because I believed I have very strong skills in interpersonal communications,” she said. “Definitely in being able to have that flexibility…and being able to see firsthand what an engineering degree requires really opened my eyes as to what I wanted to do in the future.”

Integrating into college is difficult, even for students straight out of high school. At only 14 or 15 years old, this experience is entirely new. Ortiz expressed that they feel limited in the ways they can interact with peers, especially since most are usually older. 

“I often feel hyper-conscious of the fact that I’m a high school student and most of my classmates are not, which makes me hesitant to really connect with [college students] at all — it can feel isolating at times,” Ortiz said.

Another student, Brandon, is a senior at FAUHS who has earned his first two years of college credits while still in high school. He chose not to share his full name with the UP due to privacy concerns. However, as a high school student, he talked about his experience taking higher education classes with older college students.

“It’s strange to be ahead in college classes from my peers because we are going through vastly different experiences — while I am taking classes with students who are almost 22 years old, I feel like I have to grow up a lot quicker to blend in,” he said. 

A 2019 study by New York University Metro Center’s Center for Policy, Research and Evaluation found that these students graduate with an average of 94 credit hours by the time of their high school graduation, making them seniors in college.

Medley said the FAUHS experience allowed him to get a headstart in college compared to his peers.

“You never really recognize how much of a headstart you have. When you’re in ninth and 10th grade, you barely think about the fact that you’re ahead of other students, and by 11th grade, life at FAU feels so normalized that internally, you don’t really think about how different normal high school is,” he said.

A common misconception is that FAUHS students don’t get the opportunity to engage in the “traditional” high school experience, from Friday night football games to senior prom. However, Thomas said this isn’t the case. 

“I personally didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything. I think it’s a general misconception that FAUHS is a giga-nerd school with no social events,” she said. “We have school dances and school parties throughout the year like any other high school, and the best part is that you have access to all the FAU extracurricular activities and sporting events.” 

As sophomores, FAUHS students have the opportunity to engage in university-level research, guided by high school administration through various introductory research courses. 

Thomas shared that she was able to engage in various undergraduate research projects, including the Biosphere Project, a biological research initiative aimed at engaging citizens in investing in the biosphere further and the Microfluidics and Energy Laboratory (MELab), an oceanic and mechanical engineering research group.

“I was able to engage in research in two different labs, was able to publish in a journal and go to a few symposiums,” she said. 

For Medley, FAUHS has changed his perception of college life drastically. He said the program has helped prepare him for college through the most hands-on experience possible.

“The biggest opportunity of all that FAUHS has given me is the opportunity to not only gain a college education while in high school, but also to experience how a college campus feels,” he said. “Most high school students have never been to a college campus besides tours. So, being on the FAU campus every day, I think, has really helped me acclimate myself to the way a college operates.”

Gabriela Quintero is a Staff Writer for the University Press. For more information on this, or other stories, contact her at gquintero2022@fau.edu.