I was talking with the mother of a friend of DS's the other day. She asked about DS's math. I told her it was going well, but did not elaborate as she has a child same age and did not want there to be a comparison. She proceeded to tell me about her friend's child who was really good in math, like DS. He placed in state competitions at a young age (5th grade). Real superstar. He was very focused on math, then by high school, he had burnt out. Did not go to college. No longer does math anything.
College grades and graduation rates have a positive monotonic relationship with prior achievement, as measured by high school grades and test scores. There is of course a chance that someone with a good high school record will drop out of college, but the good record is not itself a reason for the parent to worry about this.
