If you have the chance, do take a look at this ABC Nightline story Super Smart Teens Prepare for Early College Admission: Unique Program in Washington Puts 13-Year-Old Prodigies on the Fast Track and the accompanying comments.
What do you think? Do we need a program like this in the DC area? This program has been around since the mid 1980s.
My son interviewed for Transition School at the UW earlier this Spring. Parents are required to spend the day at the school along with their student. It was a wonderful experience. In my opinion one, of the things they do best is they only fill up to 16 spots, meaning if they don’t have enough children that meet the criteria they go with a lesser number rather than lowering the bar. They send out their acceptance/rejection letters the Friday before Memorial Day. Oh, the agony of waiting!
I think that at the very least every regional should have such a program. As parents of highly capable children we all know that it is not possible for most schools to meet the needs of these children
Hey, I know one of those kids! I didn’t realize he’d gone off to early entrance. I know one older student there, and at least one kid who’s applying … it just seems much more normal to us who are in the area. Actually I was in high school with one of the early students there, now I come to think of it.
I have one kid who could probably handle it academically, but for whom it’s not the right choice for various reasons. However, give our circumstances a slight shake, and that would have been us. I’m very glad the Transition School/Early Entrance Program is there.
There is an early college program for gifted teen girls not too far from D.C. at Mary Baldwin College. One of my sorority sisters went there for her undergrad (she pledged our sorority as an 18 yr old PhD. student). It’s one of the options I’m keeping in mind for when my oldest reaches high school age.
There are about 15 early college programs around the country. See http://www.earlyentrance.org/Comparison_Chart. Some are only open to residents of a particular state, but some, like Mary Baldwin and Bard, take students from across the country. My son attends the Texas Academy of Math & Sciences, which is sort of the granddaddy of these programs.
Thanks for commenting, everyone! Crimson Wife, we were contacted by Mary Baldwin shortly after we got C.’s SAT results and looked it briefly ( blogged about it too). But a) it’s far away (at least when you’re talking about a 12 year old leaving home and b) private, so the cost is an issue.
She-Bear, thanks for posting that link, which I too found when starting to look into this. What I find interesting is the publicly supported, and thus more affordable, programs–and how they are able to get the public/political support to even exist. Also, the UWA is in Seattle…an urban center…where a greater number of kids could have access. I suppose that one could argue that the University of Maryland, Baltimore County serves as an informal early entrance program in Maryland. But it would be nice to a) have some formal recognition, b) formal support. As it stands, most students would never even dream that such a thing is even possible until one is a junior or senior.
And what about the U of MD? Pardon my conspiracy thinking, but it almost feels to me that the local schools systems (ahem, MCPS) actively conspire to prevent young students from exploring college level coursework before junior year, and then only with enormous bureacratic hurdles. Meanwhile, check the tale of this local homeschooling mom: http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2009/04/carver-we-have-problem.html