Allison A. Barnes is only 18, but she’s already a senior at Ohio State University. Barnes officially enrolled at Ohio State this past summer. But she had been a full-time student at OSU since the end of her sophomore year in high school and has taken classes every summer, too. So by the time she was supposed to start at OSU as a freshman, the Northwest Side native already had accumulated an unprecedented 126 credit hours — three years’ worth of college credits. “I didn’t expect to finish all of my high-school classes in my first two years,” Barnes said. “I was only 15 when I started going to college. I wasn’t even old enough to drive yet, and I didn’t tell anyone in my classes my age.” State officials are hopeful that in the coming year, more teens like Barnes will get a jump-start on college while still in high school, saving them money and time.
