Thoughtful responses from everyone, as usual.
For some I have known, the cognitive LOG was so extreme, without accompanying extreme social giftedness, that there would be no social fit obtained by remaining in high school through more conventional ages anyway, so the social tradeoffs were just one mismatch for another mismatch. In those cases, one might as well achieve better intellectual and academic fit. Others tried college, and then went back to middle school or high school, finding that the tradeoffs didn't add up for them. And of course, still others could have gone either way, made one or the other decision, and have gone on to satisfying lives.
I was blessed to have a high degree of institutional, community, and family support, including immediate and extended family members going through similar experiences during the same time period, in the same institution. I had, in essence, a cohort of my own. Obviously, not everyone is so fortunate.
Somewhat like aquinas, I also went through multiple rounds of graduate school, completing my last round at a more typical age, in addition to taking more than one undergraduate degree program. I think the "extra" years allowed me to explore areas for reasons other than a career, and also gave me the freedom to step back from a career path that turned out to be more suited to me in the hypothetical than in reality. There may or may not be significance in the progression of my graduate programs from those that were more objective, analytical, and data-driven, to those that required increasing levels of emotional and psychological maturity.
On the one hand, letting go of the pressure to rush through high school often allows children to develop more holistically, yet on the other hand, spending four fewer years on K-12 education allowed me to engage deeply in a much more well-rounded college and post-graduate education than I might otherwise have been able to do. The correct balance is highly individual.
And FWIW, I believe I've mentioned that I'm an ambivert whose EQ has historically been exercised predominantly from the posture of an interested observer and reflective listener. Two years of high school was plenty of field observation.
