Many high school students do not decide which college to attend by the fall of their senior year. Nevertheless, many of these students are pressured by college advisors into applying to a school under an Early Decision (ED) program, in the belief that the chances of admission are better. I believe that pushing students to make commitments before…

The increasingly popular option of applying "early decision" (ED) requires a student to make a binding commitment that, if admitted to a particular college, she or he will enroll. Now offered by 184 U.S. colleges and universities, ED is a highly effective--and therefore highly seductive--tool for managing enrollment. This author argues,…

The director of undergraduate admissions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill discusses why the institution decided to end early admissions. The decision will benefit students and families of all background, he asserts. (EV)

Effective early education for gifted children must include special policy and program considerations. Preschool/day-care efforts should be based on the child's needs, special program goals, appropriate placement or grouping, and parent involvement. Administration convenience must yield to developmental efficacy to provide early admittance to…

Discusses why early-decision programs have added an "insane intensity to middle-class obsessions about college." Asserts that they distort the admissions process, rewarding the richest students from the most exclusive high schools and penalizing nearly everyone else, but that the incentives for many colleges and students are "as irresistible as…

A college admissions officer at Wesleyan University (Connecticut) offers two views of early decision programs, one based on personal experience as a student and one drawing on professional experience as an administrator and knowledge of the concerns of parents. The evolution of different kinds of early decision policies and the resulting confusion…

As teachers and students consider the heated conversations over selective college admission, including a loud cry to end or curtail early application programs, the author urges admission offices to consider that greater access to the most selective schools must involve a redistribution of precious resources. A smaller percentage of early admits…

The article focuses on educational acceleration as one means of providing for gifted children. The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) is explained to allow for individual differences and to be resolutely interventional, longitudinal, and accelerative. (PHR)

Presents essays that describe the fears, anxieties, hopes, problems, and triumphs of 11 students who chose to go to college early. Difficulties faced included initial academic failures due to immaturity and a lack of well-developed study skills; however, overall achievement was high and the experience was perceived as positive. (CR)

This article analyzes why schools fail to provide for early admission of intellectually advanced children. Reasons cited include misinterpretation of research findings, bias of school personnel, expense of screening, convenience of administering a uniform entrance age procedure, etc. Benefits accruing from early admission are discussed. (JDD)

In this article, a high school student describes his experience pursuing simultaneous coursework at the college level. The complexities of special college admission processes are outlined, and the options presented by college honors courses and extracurricular activities are discussed. The choice of what college to attend after completing high…

This interview with Carolyn Callahan, an expert in gifted education, examines the process of program evaluation and other topics. It discusses how often evaluations should be done, differences between evaluating a relatively new program and a well-established program, inappropriate evaluation practices, program features parents should look for,…

This reprint of an article on the identification of and programming for gifted preschoolers is preceded by a commentary that stresses the gulf between parents' and teachers' perceptions and beliefs when it comes to precocious young children. Findings from the study indicate parents were much more supportive of curriculum differentiation. (Contains…

While diversity and commonality are not necessarily contradictory aspirations in relation to contemporary teaching in higher education, they exist potentially in a state of dynamic tension, fostered by market-based and government-induced policies that strive to have the largest and widest possible client- or customer-base, while reducing costs by…

In this interview, Julian C. Stanley discusses programs of the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science for gifted students, the disproportionate time and money consumed in identifying and programing for minority gifted students, use of intelligence quotient and aptitude test scores, and experience with early admission to college. (JDD)