Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums High School Acceleration in high school

I love Val’s advice, and agree that ideally you want your kid to lead here. This would also be the way to approach other subjects, IMO. We were told that admissions people basically evaluated the applicant relative to the offerings at their school- the counselor letter was supposed to address this, basically by addressing whether the student was taking the most advanced/rigorous course load available. So if your school’s highest offering in science is something like honors chem, as long as your student took this course they wouldn’t be penalized, or looked upon as less qualified. That’s my understanding, and based on the peers my kids have in college, it seems to ring true, though YMMV. (Of course, if your kid ends up “needing” more, it sounds like you know what to do, and I would put emphasis on meeting those needs if you can. I just wouldn’t make those decisions based on what you think admissions people want to see, if that makes sense).