What should you do if you’re a high school junior who feels that spending one more year in high school would be a waste of time?

A thread on College Confidential raises that question, and has generated a lot of interesting responses. Here’s an excerpt from the original post:

I am a junior in high school and because I seem like I am more mature and academically way ahead of my peers (especially in the math and sciences) at the moment, am considering an early leave from high school. But the thing is, I cannot get a graduation degree unless I complete four years of high school. Nevertheless, my desire for early admission into college has never ceased because (a) I know what I want to study and roughly what I want to do in life and (b) I feel like my senior year in high school will be somewhat a waste of my time since I would have practically exhausted all the resources available to me.