Three weeks after she earned the diploma at right from Manchester Community College, Brookline teen Rachel Lindof is receiving the one at left this weekend at Hollis Brookline High School’s commencement.

BROOKLINE – Graduation season can be one of the more hectic times of the year for high school and college seniors on the verge of becoming their respective schools’ most recent newly-minted grads, not to mention their parents and those dedicated guidance counselors or class advisers who help the seniors tie up those inevitable loose ends that seem to pop up at the last minute.

So imagine what graduation season must be like for someone like Rachel Lindof, a 17-year-old Brookline native who is graduating this weekend from Hollis Brookline High School – just three weeks after joining her other set of classmates at the Manchester Community College commencement exercises.

So how did this case of academic double-dipping come about?

“When I was at the end of my 7th grade year (at Hollis Brookline Middle School) I saw a story about a girl who had graduated from college and high school at the same time,” said Lindof, a National Honor Society student and assistant editor of the HBHS school paper who also finds time to take part in cheerleading.

“After I read the story I thought, ‘oh, cool … I want to do that,'” she added matter-of-factly. “So I did.”

Lindof was just 12 when she took, and passed, the Nashua Community College entrance exam just before starting 8th grade.

It was during that 8th grade year that Lindof began studying middle school and college courses concurrently.

She went to Nashua Community College for two years, but transferred to Manchester Community College when her NCC adviser told her that because of a policy change by the college, she couldn’t take or be credited for any more courses.

“So I reached out to Manchester, and was able to transfer there” for her remaining three semesters.

Taking high school and college courses concurrently isn’t unheard of, but it’s quite rare: In his several years at MCC, Lindof’s adviser told her he recalls just two other cases, she said. She believes both students were home-schooled, whereas Lindof attended middle and high school full-time, working on her college courses on days off or on weekends.

Lindof said she didn’t talk a whole lot about her endeavor in the classrooms and halls at HBHS, but some of her closer friends were aware.

“They were very supportive … they were pretty excited for me,” she said. And there were those who knew early on of Lindov’s intent but had forgotten – until May, when they heard she graduated from MCC.

Now, with an associates in business management in her possession along with diplomas from both her secondary and post-secondary schools, Lindof will be heading in a couple of months to Bentley College to study corporate finance and accounting.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.