<p><a href=“Newsroom | UCLA”>http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/at-just-14-ucla-math-student-moshe-229359.aspx</a> and <a href=“15-Year-Old Boy Set to Graduate from UCLA – NBC Los Angeles”>15-Year-Old Boy Set to Graduate from UCLA – NBC Los Angeles; describe a student who was quite good at math at a very young age.</p>
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I have met several outstanding high school students who were taking graduate-level math courses in high school, and all of them now attend tippy top universities. Two come to mind who didn’t even finish high school. (One attended Carnegie Mellon after his sophomore year of high school, the other Penn after his junior year. Others who opted to finished high school first went on to Princeton, Harvard, MIT and Stanford.) </p>
<p>So no, I don’t think that accelerating him in math would be a problem for college admissions. </p>
<p>We let our “mathy” kid guide and lead. He chose to join mathcounts in middle school. He was reading chess and magic books at age 7 as well as Mensa books (which he bought with his own money because it was "fun:). He did like band, also LOVED computers, programming, puzzles or all sorts, and reading pretty much everything. He was offered a chance to do research when he was in HS, but he declined as he didn’t want any more structure–then and now, he’s always loved choosing his own path and time.</p>
<p>It is indeed a delicate dance to nurture and provide the resources without out pushing our kids who are finding their own talents. In HS, even tho S was officially a student, he was largely self-taught because he missed much of HS due to chronic health issues.</p>
<p>He is happy as a federal employee and project manager now, with his EE degree.</p>
<p>Isn’t it true, however, that if a high school student has over a certain number of university credits, he must apply as a transfer student to certain schools (state), not as a freshman? </p>
<p>Oh no, Searching for Bobby Fischer is definitely not just about chess. My kids played competitive chess, but I’m a dunce at it. It’s a fascinating book - I highly recommend it! Scholastic Chess tournaments are a good activity for elementary aged kids by the way. I actually think they were particularly good for my less mathy kid.</p>
<p>You feed the hungry child, whether that hunger is physical or intellectual. </p>
<p>Math is one of the areas where kids can eat as much as they like. The young math fiend may end up in math and may end up in a completely different field. But there are lots of examples out there to follow. The mathematically precocious child is more common than one might think.</p>
<p>I would move him towards AoPS, particularly the free resources like Alcumus. He’ll be ready for class sooner than you think, particularly since class participation (fast typing) is less important than doing the problem sets, which is done off-line. It’s really OK to just sit back and watch the information flow. Don’t be afraid to “repeat” classes. AoPS is at a completely different level from EPGY.</p>
<p>Similar story here. Son did EPGY math and programming sporadically in elementary school, self-studied math and physics in middle and high school, and took eight state university math and physics courses during high school before enrolling at MIT. We never even heard about MathCounts, but he started a math circle in high school when he got interested in contest math.</p>
<p>He’s finishing degrees in physics and electrical engineering now, and all the math background early on was definitely a help to him, and he’s glad he followed his math interests. </p>
<p>My advice? Just try to support your son in finding whatever level of learning he wants, and try to find like-minded people to do it with. Never let anyone tell you that learning something is inappropriate because of age, or because it doesn’t fit into an institution’s preconceived notions about how children “should” learn. Find friends and allies. And since he is so far ahead, let his interests wander. </p>
<p>I like something my son told me at the end of high school. He say all learning should be “play” the first time through, and then you should go back and learn it seriously. </p>
<p>And of course, OP, it sounds like your kid is into a lot of great stuff which is, well, great!</p>
<p>While my son loved math and still does, he also did lots of other stuff to keep him busy-he had to, really, cause he was/is adhd and really, really had a lot of energy. I remember him taking some weekend monthly math classes at a local CC when he was 7. They were just focused on things like fractions, algebra, and the like. He would sit for the two hour class (I was in there, too, as it was for all ages) but after that, he would need to get about 4 hours of energy out! It wasn’t until he began to play chess at age 8 that he slowly began to learn to concentrate and sit still.</p>
<p>I never even thought about college or the future, to be honest, until my son was 11 and my third child was born, and since he was a ton of work, I decided to outsource all my mathy kid’s math through the local CC so I could have more time with my new one.</p>
<p>My mathy kid began college applications twice early. Once after 8th grade (he had strong 8th grade SAT and SAT II scores) and once after 10th grade, he began applying to two local colleges but both times, we didn’t feel it was right. Ultimately, he did not want to attend any local colleges or any state uni or UC schools. He made a great decision in waiting until he was 17 to apply to colleges full time. We and he wanted more time with him at home.</p>
<p>So, in addition to competitive chess, my son also was a serious violinist, a competitive bowler and a serious baseball player. He also began working as a tutor in his freshman or sophomore year and did a lot of paid violin work, too.</p>
<p>Because he was so occupied with social and non-academic stuff in addition to the academics of school and academic competitions, he was quite satisfied to not attend college early. Was he challenged academically? No. Was that ok with him? He says yes.</p>
<p>For another type of student, though, who is focused, knows what he/she wants, and lives and breaths academics, or one who doesn’t live in a great city with lots of opportunities like we do, doing full time early college may be necessary to keep the fires burning.</p>
<p>Lots of really mathy/sciency kids do go full time early and it seems to be a great decision as evidenced by the links posted by ucb.</p>
<p>GFG, I suppose some colleges have a problem with too many credits (though I accrued but the top schools seem to be a lot more flexible and open, and certainly, not all of them take transfer credits. Some kids just begin with upper division or graduate level classes upon arrival.</p>
<p>OP, your child will probably branch out in interests, too. My son fell in love with physics when he was 12 and was able to audit some upper division physics classes at the local state uni in 11th and 12th and even did some research there. He ultimately decided to just major in math and not double major but he is currently a TA in a physics class and really enjoys that, so he gets the best of both worlds, I guess.</p>
<p>mathmom, I’m going to read the book this week and give it to my less mathy son, too. :-)</p>
<p>I agree with IJustDrive-AoPS and the free Alcumus are great resources and very different from even EPGY.</p>
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<p>Usually, such a restriction is qualified by specifying college credits enrolled in or earned after graduating high school, but each school’s frosh-versus-transfer policy needs to be checked individually, since they vary.</p>
<p>As was said by others, as long as you never register as a degree-seeking student when you are taking college courses, you do NOT have to apply a a transfer (mentioned upthread by another parent). Our S started college with over 60 credits (the U’s max), from APs and one college course he took as a 10th grader. He was a FRESHMAN. His sister started as a transfer because she enrolled in CC after taking a GED after JR year in HS. She was accepted as a transfer.</p>
<p>Don’t forget reading and writing, history, science, etc… . .;)<br>
One of my kids was really mathy at a young age–tested “post-high school” as a 1st grader-- he could do a lot of pre-algebra problems very quickly with perfect accuracy. (He is “on the spectrum,” but very high functioning.) He also did Math Counts (he was mediocre among the prodigies/true geniuses in that group), and, as homeschooler, just stayed a couple years ahead in the curriculum. In addition to calc, and stats he took accounting and finance in high school, but no college classes. He was NMF-- his math score was not perfect, but his writing score was. (He lacks verbal communication skills but is an excellent writer/editor. No grammar/punctuation/spelling error can get past him.) He is now doing very well as a CS major.
Enjoy your mathy kid!</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure my brother and my nephew started with graduate-level math courses in their freshman year at their respective schools (30+ years apart). They were definitely freshmen, not transfer students. They had to still complete all the other requirements for graduation, so it wasn’t like they enter college as graduate students; they only started their math classes at that level.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the information. You’ve answered my question. </p>