It seems like being 2 years younger than everybody when finishing school hurts University admissions. Even with 10 AP courses 3 SAT subject tests (top marks), excellence in everything my kid does I am seriously worried about his University chances. I really need advice on what are the choices in this situation? A gap year (doing what?) and then reapplying if this year applications to good (not even great) schools do not work out?
Community college (but there are no courses to take there that are challenging)? Any thoughts??? What are the best universities to target? Research university with strong science department is what is needed

I know several people who have had positive experiences with younger college students at Colorado School of Mines.

Our DD is in college now, so we've been where you are now.
Step 1) Take a deep breath
Step 2) Think about why you are anxious. Did DC not apply to enough schools? Was the mix inappropriate...too many reach schools for your DC's GPA and course load? Not enough reach schools? Are you anxious because it seems that THE WAITING WILL NEVER END?
Step 3) If step 2 reveals gaps in your DC's application strategy, apply to more schools. The deadline for regular application for many many many schools has not passed. Even Harvard, Yale, and Brown still have two weeks to go.

Step 4) If DC is already getting outright rejected, it is time to go over the application and where DC applied with a professional.
Step 5) Wait and see what happens.
Step 6) Wait some more for answers from all the schools and all the financial aid offers.
Step 7) Make an informed, rational decision, based on available information, with the knowledge that you can NOT count on the offers improving with another round of applications (it may improve, but it may not).

Most of the students we know applying in the age range of 16-19 (at matriculation) did not see an impact of age on admission (some problems with dorms for 16 and under).


Hope this helps and best wishes!

Thank you so much!
So far she (it is a daughter) got rejected from Caltech and differed from MIT. I know it is not a reason to panic but she had absolutely everything (in my opinion) to get admitted to one of these: all max scores, volunteering, work, 4 fluent major languages, music and art (strong) portfolios. She self studying for almost all of it with no support from a regular average public school. White girl, so racial discrimination should not be the key.
I know that there are 2 more weeks and she will apply to more schools but I am wondering if it was age? She skipped 2 grades.
Thank you very much for your good answer!!!

I'm not sure why you are worried at this point. No sense borrowing trouble. It doesn't seem that he's applied anywhere yet and his application would seem strong based on what you have posted.

Has he contacted admissions officers at any of the those schools to get their input? (Others can answer whether bringing up age in advance makes sense or not.)

If he is interested in sciences, is there an independent project he can do if he takes a gap year?

I'd echo what the others have said-- if you don't have reason to worry yet, don't.

What are your child's goals? Does your child have a goal of attending a HSLAC or Ivy?

Are those goals the same as yours? (Please know that I'm not saying that you aren't permitted to have goals, and understand that I was in your position with an extra-young college matriculant-- your child is not really developmentally an adult-- but at 13-15yo, your child certainly has his/her own ideas about this, and also that s/he will have to live with the results a lot longer and more intimately than YOU will.) Our DD simply refused to apply to any Ivies. Period.


Honestly-- DD at 13-14 had no problems in this process, other than a few glitches when her age was SO young that they weren't sure what they needed in terms of liability, etc.

We didn't mention it beforehand, generally. After all, we didn't NEED "special permission" since she was entering as a regular, high-school-graduate and fully qualified student, and she didn't WANT to be treated like a pet or lab specimen anyway. She WANTED to be Every Applicant, just with her age there as something a little unusual about her.

Does that make sense?

YOU can't be the one driving this process, though-- it has to be your child.

Thank you very much for a very good advice.
She got rejected from Caltech and deferred from MIT. I know these are difficult to get in but these are the first schools she applied and I am afraid that there maybe a trend...
We are not thinking about prestige but strong science department and good music department nearby.

I have not seen the OP reply to any posts so far, but understand the OP may still be under moderation, as the OP has not yet made 5 posts. I'll check back from time to time. Meanwhile...

Where is your DC in the process? Has s/he applied and is s/he receiving rejections?

A few thoughts...

1) Emphasize "fit".

2) Planning ahead, and being flexible, are both crucial. It appears that you joined the Gifted Issues Discussion Forum in 2013... about 3 years ago... there have been many posts on college admissions, including early college. There is even a College Forum. To see all threads in the College Forum: At the bottom of the College Forum page, under Display Options, choose Show Topics from all dates, and click Change.

3) When applying (or re-applying), students may wish to consider what they have to offer to a college/university student body. Admissions will be looking at potential students from that perspective: what does each student have to offer? To strengthen one's resume (and application), in addition to high school academics, a student may highlight initiative, leadership, teamwork, goal setting, awards/accomplishments/achievements, etc. Carefully chosen volunteerism in areas of interest may help in developing/showcasing these skills.

4) This post, while originally written to a homeschool parent, may be of interest as it discusses ensuring a student is thinking about next steps, including possible career choices, and preparing for competitive college admissions. It contains a link to this post on Getting into a competitive school.

5) How strong is your DC's college application essay? There are many sources of information on composing an authentic college essay. This is just one of many resources available: Write Your College Essay In Less Than a Day

6) Gap year info provided in this free, downloadable, 19-page Davidson guidebook. In general, gap year activities should be planned to strengthen one's resume (and application).

7) It is also important for students to avoid negative postings on social media, as these may limit future opportunities.

Community colleges vary greatly. Your child should target schools which are the best "fit" for his/her academic strengths, interests, and personal development.

Some sources with varying viewpoints, which may aid in college selection:
- Published College Rankings
- College Confidential online website and discussion forum
- Individual College/University websites
- Regional "College Fairs"
- Professional college application consultants, or independent college counselors
- Personal participation in science fairs, research, poster presentations, literature reviews, etc, which may tend to prepare a student to initiate discussion in an area of common interest with a professor/researcher at a university.

All prior years of education and personal growth come to bear on the college selection and admission process; There are few, if any, shortcuts.

I always thought it would be cool do do an apprenticeship or nursing/computers etc before university.

So far she (it is a girl) was rejected from Caltech and deferred at MIT. I know this is not a reason to panic but I am afraid this may be a trend. She is now in India for a science olympiad and when she returns she will apply to 5 other schools for physics (UPenn, UofMich,Yale, Columbia and Princeton)+ I don't know what to add to this list???
I think the main problem may be "childish essays" - thank you for your answer. I will try to get the book as soon as possible.
Unfortunately I can not help her much with essays - I never knew how to write them myself . Her regular public school is not too helpful either and daughter had to do almost all her studying online and after school.

Brilliantcp asks some good questions. Don't know if the OP is coming back, but I think every student should apply to at least one, preferably two schools where they are almost certain to be admitted. This means EA (non-binding and not SCEA) and/or true rolling admission schools where you receive a decision in 3-4 weeks. While these may not be top choice schools, they should be schools that the student would be willing to attend.

I did that with my two older ones, and will do with my youngest in a few years. Having an acceptance or two before the New Year means you know you'll attend college in the fall.

To the OP, you are right that students who graduate HS early may be at a disadvantage. I think that colleges fear that there may be social issues with younger students. Sometimes there are, sometimes there are not, but it is safer bet to go with the 17/18 year old with the same stats as your son than to take a chance on a 15 year old (unless he has some hook, such as groundbreaking research or is a top athlete).

If you are looking for good research universities, there are public schools that are very good research schools. If he has top grades and test scores, he should be eligible for Honors colleges within public schools, and those can be a great opportunity.

And even if he was 17/18, 10 APs and great test scores don't ensure anything. Middle kid had 10 APs (9 - 5s, 1 - 4), NMF, great SAT & ACT scores, some academic awards, 2 varsity sports, on the board of a non-profit, part-time job, etc. - did not get into any of her top choices (deferrals & waitlists, couple rejections). She is very happy at a public school, great research school. She'll be involved in some research next semester (in her freshman year). Also was admitted to a couple of schools with acceptance rates of about 25%.

Good luck with the process. If it does not work out, a gap year could be good. Don't attend any college classes though - not any community college classes either - if he wants to be considered a freshman for admission purposes after a gap year. Transfer admissions are typically much more difficult.

Absolutely!

The rule of thumb is to apply to schools which are a match, schools which are a reach (or dream school), and safety schools. A websearch on "college reach match safety" shows there are many articles about this, found online. Here are two:
- How to Choose Dream, Match, and Safety Schools, Princeton Review
- 3 types of schools you should consider when applying to college, USA Today, Feb 3, 2015, Jon Fortenbury

Good advice from one of those articles: "Students who get denied from every school they apply to most likely didn’t apply for safety schools. Don’t be that student."

All but one of the schools listed has an acceptance rate of <10% and are in the top 20 lowest acceptance rate schools. The 90+% that those schools are rejecting aren't 1350 SAT kids hoping for a miracle. While only 1% of students score 1500+ on the SAT, that's 30,000 students, probably all applying to the same set of schools, most of which enroll 1000-1500 freshmen. Those scoring that high are likely highly motivated and have excellent other tests, extracurriculars, etc., etc.

I'd suggest more research, but Michigan is probably in that safety tier (relative to the others), and Maryland/Illinois and a few others would fit.

My DD17 was accepted 3 weeks after applying, in early October, to the local (Top 50 national) university, and a few weeks later to a top 10 engineering program. These early acceptances certainly eased the wait for the rest of the stretch schools.

Some other schools which are equally strong in the profile you're looking at, and which may have slightly better odds in terms of acceptances--

Harvey Mudd

University of Washington
Maryland, as Cranberry mentions-- there is a university honors college at Maryland, I know.

Check out the possibilities of some of the honors colleges housed within larger public research unis-- they may have those low acceptance rates and VERY high average stats, but your odds are quite simply better there because they lack the inundation that a place like MIT or Princeton is going to get.

But be aware that most honors programs are housed in the social sciences or humanities-- so choose carefully and take a look at what the curriculum has to offer.

We did that and DD has been quite happy with her choice-- most math classes up to 400 level (and even some of those) are offered as a small honors-only section, she gets priority registration, and there are a lot of other small perks to being in the program.



I'd look hard at some of the 'sleeper' tech schools, too, if STEM and particularly engineering is a possibility. RPI, Lehigh, etc.

Brandeis?

Virginia, depending upon interests?

Cornell?

We looked at a great book for finding more student-interest-specific matches in colleges when DD was looking, 3y ago. Can't remember the name of the darned thing, though-- sorry.

Also be aware that age probably isn't AS big a factor as you're thinking, here. Those are schools where the majority of highly qualified applicants get rejected, too.

It is quite literally the case that nobody can really count on getting into MIT or a school like Caltech, Harvard, or Stanford. Nobody. The rejection rate for those schools is in the high ninety percent range. Probably only about one in four or five of those rejected really couldn't manage being a student at the institution.... so.

Rmember, too---

where you go is not who you'll be.


I realize that it's very easy to mourn something that you might have really, really wanted for your child, but the healthy thing here is to keep the adult perspective, which understands that life is a LOT longer than college. You can get an excellent-- even transformative-- education at almost any school.

Personally, without an extremely compelling reason, I'd be pretty reluctant to take a gap year just for the purpose of trying to reapply to a school like MIT.

Sorry-- but I just don't think that your odds are going to be appreciably better in a year. The college admissions arms race gets worse annually, from what I can tell.

Plenty of the students applying at those schools that reject 95%+ of applicants have paid assistance in preparing killer applications from top to bottom. That's reality now. If you're truly determined-- hire a writing coach that specializes in this kind of essay and have him/her spend a few hours with your child and her essay.

The edge that a young graduate has in terms of lifetime earnings is significant, let me add-- and a gap year definitely takes away one year of the gift of time that grade acceleration has given them-- so be sure that they WANT to spent it in that way and at that time.

Also, particularly for females, the extra year or two (or more) can be huge when it comes to making decisions balancing post-graduate/professional education, career advancement, and parenting. The difference between having your first child in your early 30s vs your late 30s can be quite substantial.

Some may advise against such thinking, as there have been court cases regarding students not granted admission to colleges/universities, presumably due to affirmative action. Affirmative action gives priority to increasing the number of non-white persons associated with an organization, often to meet a quota (for example: employment, college admissions, etc). If I understand correctly, the court cases alleged racial discrimination (or what some may call reverse discrimination). To raise your awareness of these cases, you may wish to do a few web searches.

.... though to be fair, it's unclear exactly what that information would mean in practical terms for any individual.


{sigh}

Even if that were to turn out to be The Reason for college admission decisions at a particular school, for a particular applicant at a particular moment in time, it's not likely to be something that a candidate may either use predictively (since it depends upon the racial composition of the other applicants in the highly qualified pool) and also upon the immutable personal attribute of one's own race, and how it might be prioritized in any particular way at that time.


Young woman in STEM is probably a plus at these schools, and race might be a negative, as noted.... but it's hard to say that either thing is a major point one way or the other, and in any event, they are likely to have somewhat balancing impact for a net zero influence.

All that to note that I wouldn't spend too much time on it. But that's me personally.

The tech schools like RPI that I mentioned are often those which prioritize female applicants, however. Just noting that.

It is great to begin to have identified an issue which one can focus on, work on, and turn their energy toward improving. The book, or other similar guides, may be available at your local public library or through inter-library loan.

Many parents learn these finer points of college admissions alongside their children.

This is quite common. Fortunately, these online forums can be of great help in suggesting resources for kids to use to optimize their studying, and prepare for the admissions process.

DS6 is completing 2nd grade this year, skipped 1st grade. We are eyeing another grade skip for him. Looking down the road he would be graduating at 15, turning 16 right after graduation. I too am concerned about this affecting his college prospects. Are there any success stories for multiple grade skips and transition to college? Can the other posters on this thread comment on how things turned out?

My eldest skipped two grades. My youngest skipped one and was given a quasi-skip this year. All her work is a year up but she's still in the lower grade. Her school is wonderful that way. They also know that she's uncomfortable with the age gap.

My eldest is spending an extra year in a dual-enrollment program because of not being ready for college at 16. Both see advantages (academics) and disadvantages to the skips. There were some hard social times for my eldest. Bottom line: being so young makes you a bit of oddity among your classmates. My youngest dreaded the first day of school one year because everyone had to tell their birthdays. She remembered how people reacted the year before. The school is nice, though, and they stopped doing that when they became aware of the problem.

This advice may not be popular here, but I recommend against multiple grade skips apart from exceptions below. When kids are little, skips tend to be fine because little kids don't really notice. But when the class gets to 8th grade or so, a double-skipped student is a little kid with peers who are adolescents. This really is a big deal, regardless of how it's downplayed among the gifted advocacy groups. I've met too many people who were multiple grade skipped and talked about high school misery to believe that multiple skips are a good idea for many/most kids.

IMO, the dynamic on this forum and in other gifted groups focuses too much on the benefits of skips (academic) and too little on the very real social challenges that accompany them. I'm going to be honest and get myself into trouble and suggest that maybe this is due to parental emotional reaction to the skips. Sorry. Yes, you can undo a skip later, but this tends to happen after the child has gone through hard times induced by the skip.

Very intelligent kids stand out regardless. Multiple skips tend to magnify the difference, not hide it --- even in socially adept kids like mine. In a perfect education system, everyone would study subjects as they became ready, not in lockstep. But the vast majority of US schools don't run on that model. If you can find one that does, that's great. If not, it's a tough decision.

Our education system is lousy in many ways, and charting a least-worst way through it is important. This may involve acceleration. However, it's critical to consider the social implications and not pretend that they won't happen, regardless of other people saying, "But I/my child skipped 11 grades and it was grand." The reality is that every child is different, age-gap problems can happen, and they must be considered for the sake of your child. The kid is the one who has to live with it.


Exceptions:

* Dual enrollment programs, because high school classes are with kids close to age. For college, everyone chooses different classes and spreads out, so the age/ability gap is less obvious. I highly recommend these programs. Students get some exposure to the demands of college early and end up with college credits at no cost.

* A school willing to make accelerations that keep a student in-grade while doing above-grade work. Works best when other kids are in the same boat.

This old post has a roundup of discussion threads on acceleration (both PROs and CONs).

Because acceleration can lead to early college, there is also a roundup of discussions on early college.

Fortunately, there has been much research on this topic and the general consensus disagrees with your suggestion (I'm reminded that the plural of anecdote is not data).

Senior year in HS I was 16 when my girlfriend turned 19. Most others were 18. I had no issues and am quite glad I accelerated.

At the same time, I'm keeping my DYS DD in her grade for various reason. The IAS has some very good research-based diagnostics to help evaluate any specific situation. we were fortunate to be able to work with one of the authors.

Bottom line is that there's no "right answer", only one for each individual. But there is aggregated data from wide-ranging research.

@marigold82076
My DD16 (skipped 2nd and 6th grades) is mere days away from making her college decision for next year and will graduate HS later this month.

I can't speak to the transition to college, as that hasn't happened yet. But I can talk a little about our college search. FYI - of the 14 schools applied to (we cast a wide net, wider probably than needed, but we're worriers), all but one are private schools, and the majority of them would be considered small to medium sized.

The one public school (and our safety school as admission was guaranteed), the University of Iowa, has the Bucksbaum Early Entrance Academy - after inquiring (their descriptions all talk about leaving HS early and our DD will be completing 4 years of HS and fully graduating), they determined our daughter did meet their criteria for early entrance and offered her admission into their program. I bring this up as there are multiple early entrance options out there and other programs may also agree that early entrance can still allow for completing HS.

As to the private schools (13 total), no one came out and said age was an issue, and for the majority of them I doubt if age came into play. Certainly the 6 acceptances had no issue with her age. Perhaps the 5 rejections were due to age, but they were also schools that fell solidly into the reach bucket (DD's scores were fine, but for Ivy/near-Ivy even excellent kids are reaches). The final 3 were waitlists - one very much a reach and the other two are schools that routinely reject/WL kids with great stats as they hate being safeties for those kids, and those were two of the schools DD demonstrated the least interest in.

All-in-all, I don't feel age held her back in the application process, or at least it didn't seem to at the majority of schools she applied to. For one of her acceptances, I think age may have actually helped her. This is a small, highly selective school, who openly says they craft their classes to have a lot of diversity, and I think my DD's age helped make her a unique addition.

And, by the way, I wholeheartedly disagree with Val. My DD not only is doing fine twice skipped, but is thriving. Most of her HS teachers don't know she's been skipped and most of her classmates don't care.

Best of luck,
--S.F.

@SFrog - I didn't consider that he could possibly apply to Early Entrance programs as a HS graduate. That gives me something to think about.

All - Thank you for the feedback. Bottom line - No easy answers.

I've mentioned before that I come from a sibling group who all were radically accelerated and entered college early. I have no regrets about my own experience that might be attributed to radical acceleration. There were some awkward moments along the way, but I think for our family system, we had sufficient family and community supports. The challenges also were not made any harder by the grade skips; they may have been made less pronounced in some cases. This is not going to be the case for every student. Parents really do have to make these decisions on a case-by-case, year-to-year basis.

One of ours has skipped two grades so far, and is on track for early college entry in the near future. That one is highly social, mature, and self-aware, with grade-appropriate work and organizational skills, and was entirely accepted by grade-mates back before we started homeschooling that particular child. Another is putative 2e, struggles with production, and is introverted, which is why we have not chosen to make the same grade skip choices. Granted, we homeschool, so we have a lot of latitude for making and unmaking grade skips, and for fully individualizing instruction. In an institutional school, there would be additional layers in the decision-making process.

My DS has one full elementary grade skip and one year in middle school with most of his classes accelerated but retaining his grade level. It is possible to have him officially grade skip at the end of next year and possibly then even graduate only spending three actual years in high school. He once told me that the odd years of elementary school are useless and he should skip to an even grades only plan.

We don't plan on doing any more skips...if he runs out of classes and out grows it there are dual enrollment opportunities and possibly some other opportunities that I have run across.

With regard to options other than straight to part- or full-time college: one may explore a special non-academic interest (arts, athletics, languages, a technical skill, etc.), experience the world of work, spend some time mastering skills for independent living, engage in service projects or charitable work, travel (e.g., visit extended family members in various parts of the country/world)...

These are all excellent suggestions. Davidson offers a free guidebook: Considering your options: A Guidebook for Investigating Gap Year Opportunities

I have done a small amount of research on Gap Year programs, and most seem to be aimed at kids who are at least 17 yrs old. I fear employment opportunities would also be limited for a 15-16 yr old HS graduate.

DS is many years away from this point, but a second grade skip is imminent.

I would love to hear some stories of successful gap-years for younger graduates.

It is likely that some additional advocacy, and possibly scaffolding, would be needed to support some of the gap-year options.

One of my siblings did a paid summer internship (so about 2 months) in a research group at a major STEM company at about that age, possible mainly because a member of the extended family worked there and was willing to 1) vouch for suitability, 2) act as host family, and 3) facilitate appropriate professional interactions. So that wasn't a full year, but might serve as proof of concept. String a few of these experiences together, and one could easily fill a year.

For myself, grade skips allowed time for multiple rounds of graduate school (all in different fields), plus a partial gap year at a more typical age.

My DS has skipped twice and will graduate in 4 years at age 15. He loves languages and foreign travel, so my hope is that he will do an exchange program during a gap year, but I am worried that his young age will complicate that as well. I know kids do exchange programs as high-school students, but he will no longer fit in that category. Does anyone here have experience navigating study abroad at 15?

This is old information, and therefore may no longer be current: Groups like AFS once had programs in which students who had just graduated high school in one country could enjoy a cultural exchange by attending senior year of high school in another country. I do not know whether they still offer this type of "foreign exchange" experience.