Child prodigies and skipping grades - practicalities and logistics

Factual Questions
1

I remember, as a child, hearing of child prodigies who managed to make unbelievable academic progress by skipping large portions of school, such as a 12 year old who was already in college or maybe even had a degree. Here’s a thread asking about the outcomes of these kids.

How, practically, do kids get permission to skip grades and begin more advanced studies without prior qualifications? E.g. if teachers are ranting and raving about how little Suzie, age 8, ought to be a freshman in high school, or even a freshman in college rather than languishing around in Elementary School, how does this work in terms of paperwork, applications, and whatnot? E.g. if teachers are seriously considering sending Suzie to Harvard and straight on till morning, she probably doesn’t have a full high school transcript or even any at all. Can you get a waiver to take the GED at an early age (I was under the impression that you weren’t allowed to take the GED before age 17 or so because they didn’t want kids trying to leave school early just by passing a test, as if the rest of the school experience wasn’t important)? Is that what happens? Do they just submit alternate evaluations and ask the school to waive normal requirements?

The phenomenon clearly exists in real life. I’m interested in the nuts and bolts. So, hypothetically, if I want my son to do this*, what kind of forms are going to end up getting filled out and who does my son need to see (e.g. clinical psychologist, panel of college professors, specialist in gifted education at the Department of Education, your mom, etc.)

In the US, starting at the high school level, the student’s experience at school is not simply year after year of progression but is built around more concrete defined objectives (e.g. complete X credits in these fields, complete a thesis), as opposed to elementary grades where how well you did in second grade and what bonus points you got is irrelevant to determining if you should pass fifth grade, and so it would seem that it would be practically difficult to, say, send a child directly from 7th grade to his junior year of high school or the second semester of grad school, so I would expect that the kid would start at the bottom of whatever program they ended up at, e.g. as a college freshman with 0 credits so far, a grad student with 0 graduate credits, etc.

  • This is clearly a hypothetical and I understand that these kids aren’t just “smarter”, they are geniuses. I’m not expecting this to really and truly happen. I’m just really curious.
2

Not a genius, just smart - skipped from 5th to 7th half-way through one year, then straight into 9th the year after that.

In my case, it was a process instigated by the teachers getting peeved that I was openly reading fantasy books in their classes, paying them no attention whatsoever, and still getting the best grades possible.

For the first skip, it was in the middle of the school year. I started the process around Christmas - I was given the class schedules for the remainder of the year (which would be the finish of 5th grade), allowed Christmas break to study for them all, and then given all of the quizzes and tests and finals that I would have taken for each class over the course of a week when we came back to school in January. My grades were checked, and I had to have passed each one by a certain margin (Perhaps over an 80% on each? I really don’t remember the specific number, but I know that it was a solid hard limit).

Once I had taken and passed all of those, they were put into my class files, and I went on to do the same for the 6th grade classes. This took up until February. I remember having a really hard time with the math portion of the 6th grade materials. I passed all the others easily, and did some projects and papers.

I do remember that my skipping was a little endangered by my failing to pass the math class by the sufficient margin, but I seem to remember that my ease of passing the others (and the teachers not wanting to deal with me) managed to overcome that detail. By Valentines Day I was in 7th grade classes, starting to catch up on all of the materials I had missed thus far. Because of the math - I wasn’t entirely in 7th. I slipped out during math every day back to 6th grade, and had my 7th grade math after school with a tutor.

Over the summer I kept the math tutor, bashed my brains against a brick math wall for the entire summer, did a shiteload of work in all the other courses, and got the school to verify that I did all of the 8th grade work, and with all of that in hand, I just started high school like usual.
So, from my experience - it is not that hard to skip classes within a particular “level” of school, and any given administration should have a policy and framework for creating a paper-trail and documenting the reasons for doing so.

Skipping straight from 5th to college would be a lot more rare, but I could easily see a genius-child quickly completing the requisite busywork to have a transcript filled out just like if they had taken the classes, just in a very compressed time-frame. That transcript in hand, they apply to a highschool with the commendation of the middle school, do the same thing, and then they ***are ***in possession of the necessary paperwork for college admittance.

This process only requires that there is a school at each level willing to work with the family, but between a whole school district and various types of non-public schools, surely someone would take them on.

From other experience (very close homeschooling friends) most colleges have alternate requirements and paperwork that they accept as alternate transcripts in the interest of having a more diverse student body. I can’t imagine that they would be willing to be flexible for homeschooling kids and not for child prodigies - especially ones that would be good PR for the school.

3

I only skipped one grade; likely because (a) I was smart and (b) I read my brother’s textbooks (we had to buy them) so I knew the material.

I suspect in most OP cases, the child is either tutored or self-motivated to master the material in a fraction of the time allotted to the IQ95 and unmotivated common school norm. Oh, and they are blindingly smart.

Once you’ve done equations or fractions or long division or chemistry or Newtonian physics (mass, velocity, acceleration) or even basic calculus, you realize it’s mainly memorization and practice, and what’s the big deal?

Of course, most such brainiacs probably don’t have much of a peer social life anyway, so the social issues with being 10 years old in grade 12 probably have less of an impact. They show up, do the work, go home, and play on the computer (or before the internet - read books).

4

If you follow the news about such ‘prodigies’, you will see the really prestigious schools like Harvard won’t let them in at an extremely early age. Why should they? They already have more than enough full-sized talented people to choose from. Every one that I ever heard of that graduated from college early in the last 20 or 30 years did it by going to a school that wanted them for publicity or had to take them based on a literal admissions process of test scores that they could meet early.

5

I have heard of this, it would be good to do a “where are they now?”.

6

What Shag said. Every case I can think of has the kid ending up at a regional college, or less selective state school. The top tier schools have plenty of brilliant kids of age to choose from.

I personally think it’s a terrible idea, developmentally. A great deal of college is about interpersonal interactions, and most 18-22 year olds aren’t that interested in hanging out with a 12 year old. I did know a woman at UT-Austin that started her freshman year at age 16. She was pretty mature and most people didn’t know until they asked, but it was clear that a less-together kid would have had infinitely more issues.

I also think that the parent would have to be the roommate, or the kid would have to commute, because no residence hall is going to want to be responsible for an underaged kid for liability reasons.

If I had a kid that brilliant, I would take time off and allow him/her to intensely study a hobby for a year. I think that’s a better use of the kid’s time than sending him/her to college to be a social outcast, really through no fault of his/her own.

7

Heck, I was only skipped one grade, and I suspect that had all sorts of bad social effects. (Whether those were smaller than the bad social effects that might have happened if I hadn’t been skipped is another question…)

8

I very nearly skipped from 2nd grade to 3rd grade. I’d been in the same (small Lutheran) school since kindergarten, and the teachers all knew me well. By the beginning of 2nd grade, it was evident that I was mastering all the work with ease, and it was the teachers who actually broached the subject with my parents. My parents decided against it – I don’t know exactly why; I should ask them about that someday.

In the end, if they had skipped me ahead a grade, I have to imagine that it would have led to social issues down the line, particularly in high school.

9

kenobi_65, I think we should compare notes. :slight_smile:

10

I have two friends (sisters) who each graduated from UCLA at age 18. Not Harvard…but UCLA is hardly a school that wants for applicants.

11

How specifically did it work? The real intent of my OP was to understand the nuts and bolts, not get a list of people who did it. What was involved? Did they somehow achieve a high school type credential before enrolling at UCLA? Did they apply to a special program at UCLA where you could show alternate credentials to get in? What did the schools that the sisters were enrolled in previously have to say? Did they have to agree? E.g. “We don’t care if Suzie and Lizzie have technically already been admitted to UCLA, they are showing up at East North Haverbrook Middle School this fall to start regular 8th grade or else be marked truant and you could go to jail for neglecting their education, as school policy does not allow substituting college attendance for mandatory public school attendance except pursuant to an arrangement approved by the School Board or State Legislature, which your plan has not been. Have a nice day.”

12

I had a kid who probably could have skipped several grades but we didn’t go for it. He started Kindergarten a couple of months before he turned 5, just as I did. He was in and out of the “tagged” classes all during grammar school. He basically found them boring.

We did a lot of out of class enhancement and introduced him to computers early back in the 80’s. In Jr high he was able to take a computer class in programming C on a one to one basis with a volunteer parent. At the start of his second year in HS when he was 15 I kind of snuck him into my U (I was subsequently chastised by the Dean but got the go ahead by her husband who was the chair of Math, heh). So at the age of 15 he started taking 3 college courses a semester while attending HS.

He didn’t want to graduate from HS early because of his participation in cross country running. So for three years he did college and HS at the same time. We thought he would graduate college early, hah.

With so many college credits before he actually started college he decided to major in two totally different areas: Math and Classical languages. He graduated as the number one student in both and is now a PhD Mathematician. Or as I call him a Mathmagician.

So long story, long, we didn’t go for the total early college thing. What we did learn was that you don’t need a high school diploma to get into college. Our kid was accepted as a full time student at the age of 15 based on SATs alone.

13

Wasn’t there a One Day At A Time episode where the younger daughter had a tutor assigned who turned out to be a 12yo prodigy - who then asked her out on a date? Cue laugh-track.

I don’t see a great issue with skipping one grade, I was only a few months younger than some of my classmates. Several grades… probably would be an issue. But as Isaid, what sort of a social life does a genius have with his peers anyway?

14

I’ll ask their mom the next time I see her. I mostly posted in response to the person who indicated that the highly competitive schools wouldn’t want prodigies.

I know that the younger one, who I’m closer with, lived in the dorms, so she definitely got at least some of the “college experience” - though she avoided dating until after she graduated, for obvious reasons. She’s now 19, applying to law schools, and has her first boyfriend.

15

I knew a girl in college who decided to go this route. She was taking college courses in her senior year of high school, and she was 14. For her, the fact that she had to go to a state school didn’t bother her at all–the important part was to get it over with (by 16 in her calculations) so she could move on to her masters and PhD(s).

Unfortunately, I lost touch with her after the one class we had together was over, so I don’t know how well she did.

16

One girl from my graduating class in HS started taking college classes in, IIRC, 10th grade. She attended school year round and, so, graduated with a BA in 3 years and then went directly into her university’s law school. Ended up being its youngest graduate at the time. She was bright, but not a genius. What she was, was driven and equipped with a mother who would badger school personnel to accommodate her daughter’s plans. She is a practicing lawyer, but isn’t famous or one of the luminaries in her field now.

17

Washington state had a program (recently defunded by budget cuts) “Running Start” that allowed high school juniors and seniors to attend local community colleges in addition to, or in place of, high school classes. The more driven students would graduate with their AA and high school diploma and could transfer to a state school as a junior.
My parents had me start school early because kindergarten was cheaper than daycare. I was just turned four and I remember taking a test. My mom said the tester almost didn’t let me in because I didn’t have the hand eye coordination to draw a triangle but he passed me because I knew what a triangle was, just couldn’t draw it. I don’t feel like I had social problems but I was also the tallest in my classes until puberty so no one knew I was younger and after puberty I started going grey so no one in college knew I was young as long as I didn’t go to the bars. Didnt stop me from drinking but this was a state school…:smiley:
With the conclusions Malcolm Gladwell drew in Outliers makes me wonder if this was a good choice but I think I turned out okay.

18

Now that homeschooling is so widespread, it’s easier than ever to get into college on a nontraditional schedule. You simply meet with an admissions advisor/counselor at the college and find out what they want. Generally it’s a combination of presenting a portfolio of your work and any “grades” your parents have kept for you, documentation of classwork you’ve done in conventional or alternative school (transcripts, certificates) and placement testing which all incoming freshmen take.

In elementary school, kids are advanced ahead of their peers on the approval of a committee of teachers, the kid’s parents and the principal of the school. Whomever first notices the kid might be better off a grade ahead requests the meeting, the teacher arranges it and a meeting is had.

Skipping into another school (into high school from grade 6, for example) requires a few more bodies at the meeting, but same general idea.

In some schools, the student will be present for these meetings, but often they’re not. I didn’t find out until years later that my mom was going to these meetings every year (where she convinced them that, smart or not, I did NOT have the social skills for accelerated advancement. Thank god. She was so right about that!)

Once in high school, it’s far more up to the student. Want to get your credits done sooner? Sign up for “zero hour” (classes offered before the general start of school) or “8th period” (classes offered after the general end of school). In my high school, you could take choir class during your lunch hour, freeing up another class period for an extra subject. You could take classes during the summer (summer school is not all remedial work.) You can enroll in enrichment or college credit classes at most community colleges as a high school or homeschool student.

There are also some high schools which offer college credit classes - either as AP classes or through a charter program - during high school in high school. My son graduated with a complete Associate’s Degree at age 18, along with his high school diploma, through a special charter high school at DeVry. So he became an 18 year old college junior the day he finished high school on the regular schedule. He’s on track to complete his Bachelor’s just after his 20th birthday. Not exactly prodigy level, but it’s one way to get a two year jump.

19

I was skipped from first to second grade over the Christmas recess because I already knew how to read for a couple of years by then, and that’s all they were doing. This was done at the insistence (I found out much later) of my parents. It was in some ways good, because I was then not as bored out of my freaking mind all day.

In some ways it was not. First, nobody told me this was going to happen. I showed up in my 1st grade classroom and was told, “You don’t belong here. Go to room 7 (or whatever).” Second, the 2nd graders were already into arithmetic and I was way behind. Nobody gave me any transitional opportunity. I just had to kind of sink or swim, and in some areas I sank.

Finally, for the rest of my schooling, I was always the most immature in the class. Youngest and skinniest. All kinds of issues, which I’m sure you can imagine, starting but not ending in phys ed classes. Of course, at my 15-year HS reunion when I was STILL the youngest and the skinniest, not so bad.

20

When we moved to California my daughter, who was in 8th grade, was basically a year ahead of her class because new Jersey schools were so much better in terms of classroom hours. She “skipped” into high school classes after taking some tests demonstrating that she knew the material. In her senior year, having run out of classes to take, she was in a program where she matriculated at UC Berkeley and took classes there for half a day. She didn’t like the place and chose to go to Chicago instead. There was no problem with her taking AA classes for things the high school did not teach, such as statistics.
I’d think that testing to see if the student was really ready for the advanced class makes sense, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t be done.

When I was in junior high there was a standard program which allowed people to go through 3 years of junior high in two years, which about half the students in the SP (Special Progress) classes took. It was a compressed curriculum, though, so not really what the OP is referring to.