<p>I would trust your instincts, but find opportunities to challenge him. You should also be prepared to reevaluate on an annual basis, maturity is a moving target.</p>
<p>Can he take classes at UT-Austin next year or the year after? My S is gifted in math and has the opportunity to take advanced math classes through the university as a 9th and 10th grader. </p>
<p>His older sister took classes through the U for free through a statewide PSEO program and had a number of friends go to the U full-time their senior year for free as well. Most of them chose to attend other colleges and universities after high school and I’m sure it helped their applications to show that they had successfully completed college-level work.</p>
<p>I agree with all the comments. My best friend went through this with her oldest under encouragement from her scool system. In the end she just found “local” challenging classes at a well thought of LAC in her town, programs for gifted students, and summers at a boarding camp in her kiddo’s area of interest while her child continued through the public high school. Because of her child’s birthday and even without “skipping grades” the kiido was still a “youngish” college freshman. There is much to be said for social and emotional maturity that only time gives. There is zippo regrets with my friend and her child did extremely well in college and is finishing up this year. Think hard about accelerating your son through his young years. There is a huge difference between finding a college class or two locally for your 15 year old to keep him challenged over the next couple years and “sending him off” to college to live with 18 to 21 year olds. Without a level of maturity it could actually be quite a disaster. After watching my friend I know it’s a fearful decision and a life changing one for the child…and a 15 year old is still, at best, a child. Her’s was sophisticated and precocious on top of being just darn smart, but none the less a child, too, and in the end she and her husband were glad to be able to have a firm parental pressence during the difficult teen years.</p>
<p>Calreader - At first I thought you were my wife, posting about me, but I actually went to college at 16. I was 40 before I stopped walking around, wearing my juniority (well, if seniority is a word, then . . .) like a weight around my neck. It worked out OK, but it was a heavy price to pay for getting out of college two years before my age-mates. I have a 10th grader who’s far more talented than I ever was and 10 years ago we agreed to let him start first grade a year before his November birthday would dictate. But that’s it - no farther.</p>
<p>Definitely check out the gifted and talented websites- Hoagies is a good place to start. My son went early to kindergarten, compressed/skipped an elementary grade and so went off to college while still 16 (fall birthday) and now is doing fine as a senior. He had the full middle and high school experiences, however. The biggest issue is the possible benefits of spending 4 years in HS. I don’t worry about the college experience or maturity as this works out. I do worry about missing a good childhood and experiences one can’t replace, but gifted kids are often misfits (that’s why they’re gifted- asynchronous development) and need to move on. Depending on local options he may end up doing college courses through his HS by the time he is a senior (I know a Wis girl who spent her senior year doing that and it was funded through a state program). There is also the Midwest Talent Search through Northwestern for more GT info/courses. </p>
<p>The biggest issue to resolve is the reason to spend an extra year in HS just to be with agemates (notice I didn’t say peers). Would it work socially to have class status with the older kids- he would be with them for 2 years, just as if he had transferred from another school. My son ran cross country and in the fall of freshman year he was still 12 and was teased by higher grade football players who were also waiting for rides after their practice- he turned the jokes onto himself and did fine. He had been well accepted by his peers all along. Have a discussion with your son about HIS reasons to accelerate- they may be an eye opener. He may be disssatified with his current school life.</p>
<p>It may be that he could get into a very elite school by spending an extra year asa HS student, but then he may not. You have an excellent flagship school he could attend and there’s always grad school for a top school. PM me if you want.</p>
<p>PS- noted the “in Austin”. Your son will end up taking college classes to be intellectually stimulated and can do so from home- definitely check on things with the guidance counselor. My 16 year old was NOT the youngest in his honors physics- there were 2 local HS students younger than he was taking it through Youth Options.</p>
<p>College isn’t just an educational opportunity; it’s a lifestyle. Being three years younger than your classmates ruins the lifestyle aspect for most people. It would be like putting a 6th grader in with a bunch of 9th graders; whatever the abilities of the younger student, he or she just wouldn’t fit in. </p>
<p>And it’s important to remember that in most instances, at least for top students, college is where you are 24 hours a day for about 8 months of the year. It’s not like high school, where some students who feel they don’t fit in at school can find happiness elsewhere – with family, friends, extracurricular activities, and/or a job. At college, a student who doesn’t fit in can be very isolated.</p>
<p>Planning to graduate one year early might make sense, though, along with taking advantage of enrichment opportunities, such as summer programs, along the way.</p>
<p>I know several kids who did the TAMS program at UNT. It served them very well - please look at the website. The state of Texas pays all tuition and fees - parents only pay room and board (special dorm, not mixed with the college kids). They graduate from high school with 2 years of college credits.<br>
In the mean-while, can he jump a few levels for next year’s academic classes but still be with other sophomores in other classes?</p>
<p>Boys have the added burden of maturing later, so a 15 year old is still a “boy” while an 18 year old is quite manly physically. I’m not a boy but I raised boys and I imagine that the size and physicality differences would also be a hurdle. Boys are very aware of those things even if they don’t articulate stuff like the girls do. I’m sure “Doogie” and “Robin” type comments would not be a rarity, so you would need to figure out if your son can handle that attitude.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great advice! We will discuss the various options with him, excluding the “go to college next year” idea and the “skip the 10th and 11th grade” idea, and let him choose what he wants to do. There is a magnet school in our area, and there are some other excellent options for him. So we will let him make the decision, with the more ridiculous options already removed!</p>
<p>You’ve gotten great advice here. Just want to emphasize that being ready for college level material does not necessarily mean being ready for college. Our oldest who had scores in the 90th percentile for high school seniors on the SAT in 8th grade did pretty well by starting in on AP courses at the high school as a freshman. He did not seem to be in a hurry to graduate early so we didn’t push him. (He did make it clear when he wanted out of courses that were too easy!) </p>
<p>He might still want to graduate early, but probably not this early! BTW my husband’s college roommate was 15 as a freshman. He was a nice somewhat awkward nerdy kid, but really no more awkward and nerdy than the other math geeks. I had no idea at all that he was a full two years younger than my husband, and only found out about it a few years ago!</p>
<p>I second the idea of checking out the magnet school. It can offer your son the peers he needs along with a reasonable level of challenge. And don’t forget, you can always augment the magnet school with summer programs and/or university courses later on. As someone wisely pointed out in an earlier post, you can re-evaluate later. We faced this issue as well, but my D. said that she felt that starting college early would ruin both her high school and college experience. She is now a happy high school senior (in a magnet school) with several AP courses under her belt and the stats to apply to the most elite schools.</p>
<p>My D is normal smart, so I’m glad I have no first hand experience, but I think your instincts are correct.</p>
<p>In addition, I would suggest- find something that he is NOT good at, and challenge him in that. How about a musical instrument? A second musical instrument? Athletics? </p>
<p>I strongly believe that every child needs to be engaged in at least one thing that he/she is not good at (relative to peers) and therefore finds really challenging. For some kids it is academics, or a particular subject. For kids who excel in every academic discipline, it could be something else. It is important to be humbled and to understand what it is like to struggle.</p>
<p>Congratulations on his test scores. He sounds like a great kid, and it sounds like you have some good ideas to investigate.</p>
<p>I agree with vicarious parent; it is good for a kid to have (at least) one thing that does not come easy to him. Individual sports (how about fencing?) are good. Musical instruments are good. Or if he happens to be a math/music prodigy as well, how about Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, or Russian? - these languages usually provide a real challenge to most. (If he wants to try a new language that isn’t easily accessible to him, Concordia Language Villages summer camp offers a one-month summer high school classes with a lot of camp fun and social interaction.)</p>
<p>It strikes me that the teachers/couselors are making this recommendation for a reason-- I think you, spouse and son should meet with the counselor and ask why he/she believes college is the right choice.</p>
<p>My father went off to college at 15, my mother skipped her senior year in high school and went to college a year early. Both of them had PhDs, multiple honors and successful careers. OTOH, I went off to college at 16 (with no hs background at all, left 8th grade) and did NOT handle it responsibly.</p>
<p>Based on my own experience, I allowed my son to skip one year in early childhood but stongly encouraged him to go to high school. Today, he is a freshman in college with 65 credit hours (from IB/AP). Despite all those IB and AP courses, he was bored senseless in highschool and has never had the experience of WORKING hard to learn material. In retrospect, I am not sure he was well served by attending hs (my father felt we should have sent him to college at least two years ago).</p>
<p>Do not send an “immature” child to college too early. My sister went to UCLA at 16, and within the year this straight-A, near perfect SAT scoring high school student flunked out. College, with its freedoms and new social pressures - along with minimal handholding by instructors – proved too much. She, and our parents, regret she left high school so early.</p>
<p>AmyinAustin:
Staying in high school does not mean taking grade level courses. A 10th grader can take courses with juniors and seniors, or take college courses in those fields where the student is most advanced. The student may excel in the verbal part of the SAT–as yours obviously did–but would benefit from taking advanced English and history classes whether in AP or special topics courses. Writing long research papers is so very different than the short essay in the SAT.
The key is to find the right mix of courses that would keep your son challenged and avoid boredom while also providing him with the social context and opportunities for extra-curricular activities that will enrich his life. Whether it can be done from home or whether he should go to a boarding prep school depends very much on your family circumstances and your preferences. Also look into distance programs such as EPGY or CTY.
When my child was young, I discovered Hoagies. It is a treasure trove of information and advice. I heartily endorse it.</p>
<p>My experience with my son is that a 10th grade class is not significantly less “intense” than a 12th grade IB class. We didn’t find accelerating a year or even two ahead added any intellectual dimension to the hs experience for my son-- Yes, the material was different, but the teaching style (spoon fed high school) was the same.</p>
<p>My daughter was telling the story of a TA in one of her classes. He was 15. My daughter, being a young freshman, who looked even younger, in what apparently was normally a senior class, the young man gravitated toward bonding with her. He was living at home. His mom would drive him to class. He didn’t really have any social life at all. Yet my daughter was saying he was a surprisingly normal 15 year old socially. And he had already reached the wall on academics yet again. He was biding time in grad school, as his parents wouldn’t let him enter medical school until he was 16, which meant he would not be a brain surgeon by age 18, which was very disappointing to him. My daughter pointed out to him that no one would let an 18 year old do surgery on their brain, and hearing it from a “peer” somehow made it sink in. She still wonders how this brilliant young man would turn out. It sounds to me like his parents were doing an awesome job in a truly challenging situation.</p>
<p>There are ways of being in high school and taking college classes where one is not spoonfed at the same time.The fact that my S’s 7th-grade SAT scores were high (though not as high as the OP’s 9th grade PSAT scores) does not mean he had mastered the materials in APUSH, AP-English or AP-sciences. Just that he was capable of doing the work. S began taking college classes as a 9th grader but remained in high school.
By staying in high school (albeit graduating one year early), my S was able to continue mixing with peers (most of whom were one year or two older than he) and participating in some ECs (not as many as he or we would have liked as a result of his increased course load). Some of the students in S’s college classes were college juniors and seniors. In one class, there were even some graduate students. Not the best social situation for a 15 year old to find himself in.</p>