I was not clear. In my mind I was thinking about 10-13 years old as going to college early.
Ah, in this case I would bet that virtually all of these kids still live at home with their parents, and so I would tend to view college as I would tend to view all other acceleration options. College, in this case I think, is merely a set of classrooms and teachers that allow a child to learn the stuff they are interested in learning and ready to learn. Since that is what we all hope for for our children (the right learning opportunities), I can't imagine that it would be a bad thing if it was child-driven.
For older kids (15-17), I think the social-maturity might come more into play. But, again, I think it depends of the amount of social independence that a child would be taking on and their individual ability to handle it (with a decision being made based on demonstrated maturity).
