College Courses and Educational Facilitation of the Gifted

Abstract

Mathematically precocious junior high school students have been encouraged by SMPY to take college courses. To be eligible, the student should score at least 550 on the matematical part of the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT-M) as a seventh or eighth grader. A score of at least 400 on SAT-Verbal is also desirable. Courses should be taken for graded credit, preferably in the summer, and in the area of the individual's high ability. Many colleges and universities have proved willing or even eager to admit talented young students. The credits earned can be held in escrow for college later. In the last five years, 131 SMPY youths have taken 277 college courses and earned an over all GPA of 3.59, where 4:A and 3-B. Girls take fewer courses than boys and have a sightly lower GPA. Community colleges are a great deal easier for these students than either colleges of universities. These youths experience little social or emotional difficulty in the college classroom. A comparison group of considerably older high school students who took evening college courses did not do as well as the SMPY group (GPA 3.02 versus 3.59). This was probably due to the greater selectivity by SMPY on both ability and motivation to work in a college class.