Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion random question about early University courses

I always assumed that taking U courses early was REALLY REALLY extreme. But my mom just sent me some old binders from premed courses I took when I was 12. It never really dawned on me that I did U courses early, despite the rather glaring obviousness of busing out to the campus!

I was never accelerated in school, though.

How rare is it actually to do this? Are there a lot of non-accelerated teens who do it? (to be fair, it's not a totally random question, I'm thinking of paying a teenager with a summer course -- but I'm sure she can handle the U course as easily as the non-U course I'm considering, so the question is more out of curiousity...)

I think it totally depends on what the class is and also, to some extent, at what college. I took a community college algebra class at fifteen, and it was easier (for me, because there was more testing and less homework) than the high school algebra class I had previously failed (twice). LOL I'm sure there are any number of college courses that are easier or at least not harder than high school courses. Now, some college courses, especially at some colleges, would be very hard, if not impossible, for a typical high school student. The devil is in the details, as they say.

I took college classes at 16 and it was definately easier and less work than the high school classes.
But.. where/what u would let a 12 yo take classes? What would you have to do to get one enrolled???

Yeah, I remember it being easier than my regular school stuff, too. I did it instead of summer camp. It was at Ottawa U. I think I must have been auditing, and not actually enrolled, though. I did get marked...

A lot of the open Universities just need a signature from a parent if the student is too young to pay their own way. I'm doing a degree through Athabasca, and that's how it works there. (And it's correspondence, which probably suits a lot of the people on here who need stuff... light on maths and sciences, though.)

What premed classes did you take that were easier than high school classes, I wonder? That's surprising. IME, summer premed classes are very intense. Are you sure it wasn't a college for kids type of program? You say you got graded, but didn't get college credit?

My DS12 is enrolled and taking a class at a local community college. For kids below 11th grade they require a meeting with the dean of admissions, a transcript with a minimum GPA, and sign-off from his principal and the superintendent of the school district. So there are extra hoops but they were not a huge deal. The biggest hurdle was that the dean of admissions gave him a lecture about how he will have to deal with the college on his own and his parents can't handle things for him, and how he will have a *permanent college record* forever now, etc. My DS handled it fine but I know of another 12 year old who decided not to enroll after that lecture from the dean.

Also as an FYI - for high school kids and below they waived the already-very-cheap per unit fee at the college, so his class is basically free. He just had to pay a couple of the fees.

Intro to neuroscience and intro to emergency medicine, or something to that general effect.

I remember not being allowed to take the exams, which I why I think I must have been auditing. I also remember everyone being adults <shrug>. Who knows, it was a long time ago.

I remember already knowing most of the material, but that the prof explained a lot of it so that it suddenly made more sense. I also remember almost throwing up on the first day (after a long presentation designed to make people green) when they showed the final image... of a person _about_ to cut into a bagel in a bad way

Thanks for the marks comment... THAT might have serious bearing on what I do for the teenager. She may or may not bother trying to get good marks, and I DEFINITELY don't want her to be thinking about it.

Oh, okay, that explains why they weren't too hard. I was thinking of the hardcore biochem classes DH had to take pre-med.

As far as your teenaged employee is concerned, why don't you ask her what she'd prefer? I imagine she may have an opinion as to how she should be paid.

Yeah, no, not biochem

There are two courses almost the same, at the same school, I'm just trying to decide between an interest course and the U course... the second looks a little better, is a little longer, but is a whole lot more expensive. And the interest course is at a better time of day. And now, the mark question. This is supposed to be fun for her, not a chore. And we're kinda paying her twice, becasue we've also been tutoring... meh. ya know.

s'all good

I would also caution taking a course for credit at a young age and not enrolled in college full-time, especially if someone is planning to attend graduate or medical school someday. I started taking courses quite young before my district stopped allowing me to take them. However, the college at which I finished did accept the credits and put them on my transcript. To make a long story short, some of my "low" grades (A- and B+) came back to haunt me during medical school interviews, as interviewers first assumed that I had dropped out of college and then degraded me for taking physics and chemistry courses while I was a pre-teen.