<p>Hello Everyone:</p>
<p>Just writing to say "Hello" and officially become a member of the community. I look forward to learning and sharing with all of you. I'm a mother of five very bright young people. I'm very much committed to ensuring that they all have the opportunity to attend college and graduate school. Does anyone have thoughts or information about early college programs for gifted/accelerated students and the pros and cons of sending kids to college early both academic and social?</p>
<p>I don’t know much about them, but there was a poster on here whose son went to Simon’s Rock this past fall, I believe. I don’t know if owlice is still around on CC though, or if it is possible to search for her previous posts.</p>
<p>There is someone on the '13 thread who is able to get in touch with owlice. (I miss her and her virtual treats!)</p>
<p>I looked at a University of Iowa program for my daughter. She decided that she wanted to finish high school, so we did not pursue it.</p>
<p>There is a lot of research surrounding this subject.</p>
<p>I think it depends on what the family and student want.</p>
<p>A friend of my D’s skipped high school and entered university, but that combination of intelligence and maturity is not as common as families would like to think & there are a great many things to be learned by following a more traditional path.
[Center</a> for Talent Development ::](<a href=“http://www.ctd.northwestern.edu/resources/displayArticle/?id=153]Center”>http://www.ctd.northwestern.edu/resources/displayArticle/?id=153)
[Early</a> Entrance Foundation Talent Search](<a href=“http://www.earlyentrancefoundation.org/talentsearch.html]Early”>http://www.earlyentrancefoundation.org/talentsearch.html)</p>
<p>Hi, EagerEmah. I sent you a private message. Welcome!</p>
<p>Can you define what you mean by early college program? For example, community college programs where students get an associate’s degree and a high school diploma at the same time are different from programs such as Simon’s Rock.</p>
<p>I have pm’d you as well.</p>
<p>EagerEmah, I can give you a con for it. If you have five kids to put through college and grad school, you probably want to maximize their opportunities to get merit aid money from colleges. Otherwise you will be dead broke, although I hear the Powerball pot is quite large at the moment 
Unless they have nearly perfect test scores and grades, you probably reduce their chances of getting good merit aid (that doesn’t have to be paid back) by having them apply to college early.</p>
<p>Of course, if they truly exhaust the offerings of your local high schools, then you may want to do something supplemental (community college, some states offer options for high school students to take classes in the state university system, online courses, etc.).</p>
<p>If you haven’t found [Hoagies</a>’ Gifted Education Page](<a href=“http://www.hoagiesgifted.org%5DHoagies”>http://www.hoagiesgifted.org), that is another web site you should check out. And they have a specific section on early college admission: [Hoagies</a>’ Gifted: Early College Entrance Programs](<a href=“http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/early_college.htm]Hoagies”>Early Entrance College Programs | Hoagies' Gifted)</p>
<p>The son of an acquaintance did an early college program at a local U for two years, then transferred to a great school for the last two years, then got an awesome job right out of school. He hates his life. Barely 20, out in the working world, the youngest on the job, no one to “play” with…I guess I can see an early college program more if you have many years of graduate school ahead of you.</p>
<p>My D went early, after the ninth grade. She had some time to travel/learn abroad, intern, work, and get into grad school and still be young to be getting out. It depends on the kid and the program and the school.</p>
<p>As far as financial aid goes, the school knows they can get this kid now and give him/her money, or maybe not see the opportunity again. D got good merit money.</p>
<p>I second the recommendation for Hoagies. You have to check it out.</p>
<p>We homeschooled my son beginning at age 10, and at 12 he started at the community college part-time dual-enrolled with homeschooling. Last fall, at age 16, he applied to college as a freshman and was accepted to very selective colleges (the kind that give little or no merit money), and to less-selective colleges with large scholarships. He will be going to his first-choice school in Fall 2011 after a gap year.</p>
<p>Academically, it was wonderful. Socially, it was neutral. Nobody stuffed him into a locker or otherwise tormented him for being different, but he didn’t have friends at the college. Our community has an active gifted population, so he got his friendships from there instead of from school. So far, at age 17, he is thrilled with the way things have gone, especially in comparison to his friends who have taken more traditional routes, and is looking forward to being surrounded with people as geeky and intelligent as he is.</p>
<p>Please PM me if you want more info, or ask specific questions. I am so happy with how things worked out and I’d love to share more.</p>