<p>All great advice posted above. I would echo what Donemom said, look into Stanford's EPGY program along with all the other programs mentioned. My son has taken a few of the courses and has his own math program laid out for senior year at his high school.</p>
<p>Additionally, the Harvard Extension school has a few online classes.</p>
<p>Something I have noticed this year about high school and the college applications is that a number of schools have a question on their application asking whether you graduated from high school. I think that allows some students to go directly into college.</p>
<p>One last thing, because it has not been brought up by others, is the University of Southern California's Residential Honors Program. They accept students after their junior year in high school, have separate dorms on campus for the students. They also get to take college level classes if appropriate. Go to the USC website and do a search for "Residential Honors Program" for more information.</p>
<p>Thanks to you all for all these wonderful ideas, Exeter, Simon's rock, summer program, research, class in nearby college, early graduation , school newspaper editing, piano collaborative......etc, I guess I really need to spend time to explore all of them thoroughfully and carefully......</p>
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<p>ha, my first quote.
You are right, I am an Asian, looks like my english really needs to be worked on more...:-0....Anyway, what you mentioned is exactly what I have been worried about, and don't know what to do about it, because ironically, son does fit that stereotype well, good SAT/GPA, strong at math/science, piano, not good at sports....but I don't think I am a pushy parant though, afterall, happyness of my son is my ultimate goal.......espectially at this age, all I can do is provide information and suggestion.......I only hope I can help S to stand out of the stereotype when college adminssion comes....</p>
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<p>wow, Marite, your son must be super smart. I know he is in one of the top school now, wish him the best.</p>
<p>Thanks again for helping me making the letter that solved my son's problem so perfectly.</p>
<p>My S is not as focused as your son, he was into math a lot in 8th grade, but since entering in HS, he got interested in or distracted by too many other things, for example, for a reason, he has to stay at school library for one hour after school, (school library again)...instead of doing math like he did before, he reads a lot there, these days, he is reading 'Juliue Casar', 'The importance of being earnest', 'great speeches'..., if you see the excitement and greedyness in his face when he mentioned to me' there are so many good books there, I have to brows through them...' you just can't say anything any more. The books are mostly about history and literatures, I was thinking maybe it's good to explore into different fields at this age, hope that he will finish his exploring soon from his wonerland, and find where his passion is early enough......</p>
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<p>Mostly I have been following S's lead, just being supportive, but now I realize I may need to be on alert too as far as collecting information and exploring new oppotunity for him.....plus I know all of you are here,I can always get a lot of help from you.....</p>
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<p>Yeah, agree!!! Plus your son is so super, can't believe it, 8th grader take AP math, I will pass all these super smart boy's story to my son, so he knows there are a lot of kids are smart and hard-working out there, he better find a way to keep up with them.....</p>
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<p>my son has a lot in commen with your son, and your son has set a good example for him.....hopefully S come back to his math passion soon to make it to USAMO someday, yet still have time to catch up in other areas so he can grow horizontally.....and stay home with me for as long as possible before he flyes away (me being selfish) if I find local can provide as good education as those super expensive private school....</p>
<p>All in all, thanks to you all for all the input, and forgive me for not mentioning each one of your name in my post, I appreciate it all the same.</p>
<p>amother, congratulations to your son! Writing from experience here, it seems to me that the biggest problems your son will have is keeping engaged in his studies -- not being bored, but instead being continually challenged. Almost as big is to keep from being a "freak" in the eyes of his fellow-students and teachers -- just a learning machine with no personality or interests beyond this. </p>
<p>These two problems are related, however. My son was no athlete; he engaged in "recreational" sports but not competitive ones. He just did not have the motor skills. But he was (and is) highly "competitive," and he liked working on teams. And so he found a perfect solution for him, and that was the debate team. He got involved in debate, became a state champion but more important than that it was teamwork, very time consuming during the academic year and summers (debate camp) but this activity actually "saved" him from boredom with school. It gave him many other highly motivated and smart friends to "play with." And it kept him engaged in activities related to his school but not necessarily his courses. I think that without this activity, he would have become alienated from school.</p>
<p>There are related "competitive" activities at most schools. Also, areas such as journalism can be interesting and challenging.</p>
<p>We (his parents) had nothing to do with our son's decision to get so involved in debate. He was looking for an activity that was interesting and intellectually challenging, and he just fell into this after attending a meeting with the debate team during 9th grade. Neither he nor his parents saw this as a "way to get into college." Rather, it was for him a way to do and be good at something interesting, instead of, say, wasting time on computer games and being a "loner." In other words, it had a "socializing" effect, but of course it also gave him some skills and experiences that proved to be valuable later -- both in college and also after he graduated.</p>
<p>As I said, your son's AMC score is terrific. It is also wonderful that he enjoys literature so much. Mackinaw is absolutely right that he can be involved intellectually and socially through some academic ECs. I consider Debate Team or Mock Trial an academic EC. It serves the same function as a Science or Math Team: lots of preparation, mutual support, chance to hone one's skills, and quite a bit of socializing.</p>
<p>Amother, here is another suggestion for beating the "stereotype" - look into Scouting in your community. He is a little old to start, but a friend of my daughter's joined a regular, but very well-organized and active troop in ninth grade, and actually made Eagle before aging out, so it can be done by a determined kid.
Scouting is not an academic EC, gives leadership training to kids who wouldn't otherwise ever get it, and in good troops, has lots of exercise and outdoor activities. If regular Scouting is not his thing, there are Venture troops now that do more specialized activities.</p>
<p>amother - please understand, your English does not need work. I am just sensitive to Asian speech patterns because I work in a company where I am one of the very few non-Asians and I am trying without much success to learn Mandarin:). Your English is much better than my Mandarin, believe me....</p>
<p>Back to your son. I just had my son's teacher conference last night and I was thinking about these kids who have a capacity for complex thinking but don't really want to follow the all math all the time track. My son is equally interested in math, science, history, language, etc. So was my daughter. The interesting thing is that it now looks like she will major in pyschology with a neuroscience certificate. If you think about it, once students are in college the barrier between quantitative and non-quantitative is not so forced as in high school. Psych for example is the study of human emotions, but you have to be able to work numbers and study in labs these days to really delve down. Another example of a convergence area would be philosophy. These days it is very closely linked with both logic/math and with the scientific study of the brain.</p>
<p>So for the dual brain kids it can be harder to find stuff that sparks their interest and enriches them at the high school level. For my daughter it was leadership and performing arts. But for my son, who thinks public displays are mortifying, we are having to find other ways to keep him engaged.</p>
<p>We're very lucky in that the kids go to a very wonderful private school. So last night I talked to two of my son's teachers and explained who he is. That behind the cool kid facade is a true nerd who has not yet been challenged. I told them they had my permission to call him on it. And they said what I was saying made total sense, that they now understood why he acts so diffident in class and yet gets all As. </p>
<p>So I am working with individual teachers, who he has told me he likes, and letting them know that he will be rewarding to challenge, rewarding to spend some extra cycles on. That way they won't be threatened, and I hope will be motivated to put in the extra effort to really engage his brain.</p>
<p>We will see how it works. I have also noted that CTY and EPGY have classes in philosophy, and in symbolic systems. So just be aware that math is not the only enrichment or acceleration that you can do for your boy. And the scouting idea might be a great one. My son would never have put on the uniform:(....</p>
<p>I think our job is to use our brains to put opportunities out there for these kids to light their own fires. Where they get into college, given that it's highly unlikely that they implode and have to go somewhere terrible, should be secondary. They can succeed no matter where they go - but they will be happiest if they get into a great school by doing what they are truly impelled to do. Not to say parents shouldn't set expectations for high performance if that's the family value. But what that high performance entails should be up the kids. IMHO.</p>