Parent Perspectives on Sending Their Children to College Early

Early entrance to college, a form of academic acceleration, is an educational alternative that opens pathways for advanced students to have challenging, stimulating, and relevant learning experiences. Children who choose this option enter the adult world several years earlier than most of their age peers. This involves extra growth, adaptation, and a nontypical route through adolescent developmental milestones. These changes may be a great challenge for children and their families. In this study, we report findings from semi-structured interviews with 36 parents whose children participated in one of two different early entrance to college programs at the University of Washington. We explored reasons and motivations behind families’ decisions for early entrance to college, their expectations, concerns, and overall experiences during the transition period and beyond.

An Examination of Self-Determination Within Alumni of an Early College Entrance Program

This article describes outcomes from a subpopulation of a larger study (The Alumni Study) of early college entrance alumni through the lens of self-determination theory. The Alumni Study used mixed methods, was implemented in two sequential phases, and included alumni from two different early college entrance programs (Early Entrance Program and UW Academy). The focus of this article is on the qualitative interviews of 26 UW Academy early entrants who fully matriculated into college as Honors Students after 10th grade. Results indicated that early college entrance (a) provided a more challenging and autonomous environment than high school, (b) provided higher personal control over academic and social choices, and (c) met students’ strong need for relatedness as well as for autonomy and competence. The early entrance to college program gave students a cohort where they could interact with same-age peers who had demonstrated similar academic competence and interests to achieve. However, some participants reported that being younger than their college peers may have inhibited the development of relationships with older college students.