Love and Work

Abstract

This is the second follow-up study of the Early Entrance Program at the University of Washington. Ninetyfive individuals (45%) participated. Respondents overwhelmingly chose early university entrance because they were excited to learn; many also praised the peer group, intellectual stimulation, and faculty and staff support. Some reported feeling too young to make important academic, career, and social decisions, with more males regretting the lack of dating partners because of age differences. As the program has matured, so have students' positive experiences in it. Significant differences were found among three groups of students who entered at different points, reflecting this maturation. A wealth of open-ended comments indicated that the program continues to exert a profound and positive influence on graduates' lives. Putting the Research to Use:There is no argument about the need for a variety of ways to help gifted adolescents work to their intellectual potential. Early entrance to college or university after seventh or eighth grade is an option that we strongly encourage more colleges and universities to implement. However, the results of this study clearly indicate that for young scholars to succeed in this type of program, they will need: a period of intellectual preparation in a supportive and rigorous environment, a peer group that is large enough for them to find same-age friends, and a faculty who enjoy teaching, advising, and mentoring them. Equally important, early entrants need a welcoming college or university environment. This study opens up a variety of new avenues for research. The authors found significant gender differences in respondents' satisfaction with platonic and romantic relationships, suggesting that age might affect males' experience of radical acceleration more negatively than that of females. The authors wonder whether this is true in early entrance programs that admit older, less accelerated students. Much of the extant literature about early entrance focuses on accelerants' self-concepts and academic achievement; this study demonstrates the value of also focusing on the long-term effects of early university entrance on their personal and professional lives.

Predictors of Academic Success in an Early College Entrance Program

“…While many bright students have been entering and graduating college early since at least the 1800s (Stanley & Benbow, 1983), early college entrance programs only began being formalized in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s when the Ohio State University, the University of Illinois, and the University of Chicago began accepting students prior to high school graduation (Karnes & Chauvin, 1982). Many notable programs have come into existence since then, such as the Early Entrance Program at the University of Washington, which opened its doors to students in 1977 (Noble et al, 2007). The Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS), which welcomed its first class of students in the fall of 1988, became the first state-supported, residential, early college entrance program (Stanley, 1991a).…”

“…Over the course of their relatively short existence, early college entrance programs, and early college entrants, have been studied from a variety of angles. Researchers have interviewed students (Jett & Rinn, 2019;Muratori, 2007;Noble et al, 1999;Noble & Drummond, 1992;Olszewski-Kubilius, 1998), alumni (Boazman & Sayler, 2011;Hertzog & Chung, 2015;Mammadov et al, 2018;Noble et al, 2007;Wilson, 2021), parents of students (Hertzog et al, 2021;Muratori, 2007;Noble et al, 2008), and even staff members from these programs (Muratori, 2007). They have studied the socioemotional impact of early college entrance programs (Cornell et al, 1991a) as well as the effect of these programs upon students' selfesteem (Lupkowski et al, 1992) and self-concept (Shepard et al, 2009).…”