Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Finding a University in DC area

Your point is well taken.

That being said, this appears to be a different situation than the scenarios of choosing community colleges despite acceptance letters from highly-selective colleges/universities, as mentioned up-thread, and represents a much smaller difference in costs.

Are the Virginia public universities you mentioned at $11K/year highly selective? Even so, some may respect that $7K/year tuition difference may not be a negligible sum for all families.

While the OP prefers a commuter experience, in general a comparison of tuition only may be a bit of an apples-and-oranges situation: If the community college is a commuter college and if attending the public university would require room and board, the $7K/year tuition difference would not appear to take into account the true cost differences of attending depending upon the proximity of one's residence in relation to the campus.

Even financial aid which meets "100% need" may include student loans. Typically student loan interest increases the cost of attendance in a manner which is not negligible.

I believe the OP stated needs such as smaller class size (personal attention due to being introverted), commuting via public transit, safety (due to young age).

That is why I explicitly stated that I would consider this in CA but not necessarily anywhere else. I know many bright students who go to Community College in CA. I personally know students that have gone on to UC Berkley, and graduate school who took their first two years at community college. This is because it is a planned path to the University of California (research level) system schools. Our community colleges have gifted classes and dedicated classes for those going that route. But not all community college systems (state systems vary) work along the same lines. I do NOT know what the community colleges in D.C., Virgina, or Maryland are like but it's worth finding out more information about them.

Someone else posted about truancy laws. In CA once a child graduates from H.S. you are exempt from truancy laws. I found a document stating in D.C. "Students must attend school daily until they meet high school graduation requirements or reach their 18th birthday." http://goo.gl/ysd3Pw

I'm going to respectfully disagree here. Choosing a college is often the first big adult-like decision that a person makes. While I believe that parental input is very important, I also believe that too much involvement on the parent's part isn't a good thing. Respectfully again, what's written here seems to say that one parent is doing almost all of the college-identifying work, which doesn't sound ideal to me. Ndw said that her daughter is 14, which is well old enough to be looking at colleges and learning about the different types of schools and what each offers. Obviously, she should discuss this stuff with adults (including parents, adults at schools, local alumni, and counselor-types).

I understand that parents get used to making big decisions for their kids, and I know that it can be hard to let go of the reins. But there comes a point where a person has to learn how to make independent decisions in an educated way, and IMO, the best way to teach that skill is to let it start developing when the child still has a safety net.

With my eldest (who I noted is also 14), we give him input on what a college education will mean to him, on the different environments at different colleges (e.g. large public vs. small liberal arts), and try to help him make an informed decision. But he has to do a lot of the legwork himself, because learning how to do the background research by yourself is an important part of learning how to make an informed decision by yourself.

I'd agree with you if this were a kid in high school headed for university in her own country. But she's not - she'll be moving to a country with a completely different system. She has little or no access to adults IRL who know anything about the US system, definitely none who has the least knowledge about transfer requirements from northern virginia community colleges to Virginia universities, nor has she access to print material, info sessions, older peers or siblings with information or experiences she could draw on. Radically accelerated gifted 15 year old starting college are rare enough, radically accelerated gifted 15 year olds with a high school degree from Australia making a move to the US must be pretty unique.
The OPs D is 13 now, turning 14, and the first decision to be taken next year at the age of 14, will be whether to finish high school in Australia or transfer into high school in the US (and that is a choice she has made for herself already). So many ramifications down the road, it's not a process for which I'd put a 13 yo in the driver's seat - for now. (How on earth would she be know to take into account that transferring from a community college makes a difference in whether she is eligible for financial aid, coming for a system that has, IIRC, a graduate tax?).

After a feasible path has been carved out, whether to do some more high school, do a residential early college program, do some community college, then transfer, commute to a four year university, live on campus at a four year university - then she can research options and make choices on the level "large public versus small liberal arts". The OPs D isn't there yet.

Well, it looks like at least for Virginia, the community college - four year college guaranteed transfer route is well established.
http://www.vccs.edu/students/transfers/
https://www.vawizard.org/vccs/Transfer.action

Honestly, then I'd say that if she's too young to be even taking the lead in looking at colleges, she's too young to be thinking about college. I say this not to be mean, but to try to help someone avoid what could be a very difficult situation.

This is a general point: colleges expect students to be able to handle their own problems and challenges. Very young students may have the intellectual capacity to handle college chemistry or college calculus, but they often lack executive function skills that they need to be able to succeed. Many colleges in the US won't accept late homework. So if you forgot or blew it off, it's TOO BAD, and you get a 0. If you missed taking the online quiz before the deadline, it's TOO BAD, and you get a 0.

This is a difficult problem with HG+ kids. I know because I have a 14-year-old who's in a dual enrollment program at a community college. In spite of help from the high school side, the executive function demands are very high. The online problem sets have to be done at 7. If they aren't, he's out of luck. Ditto for the quizzes and other stuff.

Add to this that the colleges do NOT want mom and pop to get involved, and you get a situation that can set up a young student for some hard times. These kids are at an age when they're MOST LIKELY to blow off work because they'd rather muck around on social media or play games or do anything that isn't a problem set. Yet putting them in college raises the stakes to a point where blowing stuff off can be more serious than blowing stuff off in high school. As in: goodbye scholarship, goodbye top-tier grad school, hello student loan debt.

IMO, radical acceleration is a very, very dangerous game. Some people can sail through college in their teens without problems, but I suspect that they're a minority. A single class is one thing, but a full schedule can be demanding in the extreme, and I don't mean just intellectually. Personally, if my kid couldn't even handle doing some Google searches or reading up on the basics on one of the numerous websites that have this kind of information, I wouldn't even consider throwing him into a full-time college program.

Glad to see you are getting lots of input here! Our DD16 is a senior in high school and we are in the midst of college acceptance/rejection right now. Glancing at the thread so far, I'd like to add the following informational nuggets based on our experience thus far:
1) Most unis have application deadlines prior to December/January for the following fall (Deadline December 2014 for August 2015 start) and acceptances come out anywhere from December to April.
2) Many unis look only/mostly at grades earned in years 9-11 (though they may rescind offers if there is a senior slump)
3) Highly selective unis generally do not actually take many transfer students. There are exceptions as noted in other posts, where state schools will allow transfers from their community colleges, but this appears to be school and state specific.
4) Harvard has spectacular financial aid (10% of parents total income is total expected contribution for families making less than $150,000)(yes, really) Other "ivies" have generous aid as well making them more affordable than many state schools for foreign or out of state students.
5) Many high schools have enrollment options in local universities and this enrollment can be manipulated such that your child does not apply as a transfer student to the next uni

6) Academic levels are not all there is to success at university.
7) Every child is, IMO, different. Therefore the amount of help they need, or will accept, is different.
8) Selecting and applying to many unis (more than 10) seems to help the DC learn how to research and select the uni.


If your DC wants to persue a STEM field, they may want to go to graduate school. Graduate school admissions has become extremely competitive in the last few years and going to a "name" undergraduate institution, having extensive research experience as an undergraduate, top notch grades, and stellar (in field) letters of recommendation, are all key parts of the application. Medical, dental, veterinary, and other professional degrees remain highly competitive with their own expectations of applicants for classes taken, grades, experiences, research, and letters of recommendation. Prior to freshman year, careful planning should take place to ensure that all the requirements for several target graduate programs will be met by junior year.

Unlike K-12, where we had a least bad approach, for university and beyond we are trying to instill in our DC a "best options" approach. Each choice should enhance the potential success of the long term goal that DD has for her life's work and personal happiness while giving her additional options if things change. As an example, she has, with our help, chosen not to apply to universities that severely restrict the students admitted to her most likely major. (At some schools, you can be admitted to the school, but not to X major. They may admit 600 potential X major students, but only allow 100 to actually declare the major.) She has still applied to highly selective schools, just ones with larger numbers allowed to continue on in her major.

As usual, Val, a pithy post with sobering points to ponder.

General maturity (i was that class clown) and EF are things that I struggled with as a child to be honest and as my DD is a mini-me, your points have struck a chord.

My DD is only skipped one grade but is probably 4 years ahead with Maths aleady and is fully capable of comprehending higher level humanities but one of the main reasons that we currently do not want to skip another grade is that her EF development is lagging her rate of cognitive growth.

Not to jack the original post and take it on a tangent but did want to say that I think that you have hit the nail on the head with your post above.

Thanks for the input Val, I hear your fears.

DD has fine EF skills which have only improved with each grade skip fortunately. I know you don't know her and obviously have your own concerns re acceleration and your children. DD is showing every sign of being able to function at the appropriate level. She runs her own show where school is concerned without reminder from me and they have some tight deadlines so all good experience for the next step.

She will do her own research and make the final decision. As I said to Tigerle, DD is perfectly capable of Google searching and also presenting a solid argument as to why she has made a decision. Howwver, We as a family are only a few weeks from a sudden major change to all our life plans which have coincided with a return to school which leaves her with little time. I personally want to understand the situation which is far more complex than just applying to Uni here or there. If it was a straightforward matter of researching schools and doing the applications she would be fine for sure. She has done that already for local Unis and has been actively looking for over a year.

I am appreciative of every one's information and concern. Don't forget DD is regarded as an International student for the purposes of this thread. It does alter some of the requirements and the costs and scholarship opportunities. Despite where we live we won't be able to access resident fees. It also changes the deadlines in many cases so they can be earlier. Some Unis also require documentation sent straight from school or the state education board, neither of which does such a thing routinely.

The school has no familiarity with what the requirements are for a transcript as such things are not given here. We just get annual reports and they are not collated into one document at the end of school. Our high school is 6 years not 4 and upon speaking to American University they want all 6. That is an advantage as languages for example were done in the first 4 years. Also science is lab based from year 7 and doing lab based science can be important.

As Tigerle said, my DD does not have access to anything but the Internet for this process. In Australia I have loads of intrinsic knowledge about the search process for a Uni and experience of attending or working at four of the major ones. I am sure Val and many others have a similar intrinsic knowledge of the process and the options in the US so if your child mentions where they are thinking of going you understand what that means and the implications of their decision or you know where to get that info. I don't or didn't. Thanks to lots of looking and the help from people here I have a better idea of what it will mean or where she is talking about when my DD comes to me with her decisions.

It's not that she can't do it Val. Not at all. But I can't do my bit as a supportive parent if I have no idea what she is talking about when she says she has chosen X pathway, and she will.

brilliantcp your info is invaluable. A big difference between here and the U.S. is that on entering Uni here you enter your major. The restriction on numbers for each course is right at the entrance to Uni. I didn't even think about restrictions on being able to select a major as that is not on our radar. Again intrinsic knowledge that is not immediately obvious to us.