<p>If the OP is saying that skipping grades is not a sure track to a top school, she is absolutely right. I know more kids who were rejected from Harvard(I know these kids personally) who were advanced enough and bright enough that they had skipped a year or two or more of school than I do kids in that category who got into Harvard. I worked briefly with two programs that do target precocious kids and get them into college early, and a goodly number of those kids were rejected from the very top schools which was why they were at these programs specifically tailored for such students. Tha† is not to say that Harvard does not have a disproportionate number of early birds who flew the highschool coop before doing the 12 years of 1-12 education, or the standard 4 years of high school. It's just that it is not a prescribed path to improve one's chances of acceptance to such school. Accelerating a child should be done because it is the best path to take at that time for that child, not to up the chances of getting into a highly selective school. And so it should be for most things in life that a child does--it should be done for the benefit of the child, not for enhancing chances for a specific goal. Great if it does both, but to count on it to do so is setting yourself up for disappointment.</p>
<p>There are parents who truly believe that because their child has outgrown his highschool, or accelerating his education, that he is prime ivy material. True, that if he has the academic markers, he is "material", but his acceleration is not going to be given heavy weight during the admissions process. He will be measured among his peers who are also applying at that time, and no quarter will be given for the fact that he is younger. In fact, the age can be an issue if there are signs of social and emotional immaturity in the student. College is NOT all about the academics. </p>
<p>As for straight "BOOKWORMS", if they are very good, interesting worms that have something to offer a college, they do tend to get snatched up in the app process in greater numbers than others in the candidate pool. The stats show this clearly. THe % of kids who are vals and sals, or with very high SATs that get in exceed the other categories with lower stats. I believe I read in several places, that Harvard has about a third of the class selected for academic prowress. I'm sure that some of those kids would qualify as worms.</p>