How is your gifted kid doing at a lower-ranked college?

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of top or gifted students at UGA. The Zell Miller scholarship is a huge draw for in-staters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, she's not on the spectrum. A psychotherapist friend calls her a late bloomer, which may be the case. She's a kid who reads a four-hundred page book in an hour, yet she forgets to study for an English test. I don't know what you call that. Immaturity?

I call that very, very obvious ADHD. Classic symptoms, in fact.
The hyperfocus part of ADHD means she gets lost in her book.
The inattentive part of ADHD means she forgets due dates and assignments.
It's sad you didn't catch on sooner, because she could have had a much better experience at school, and been much happier. Children with ADHD who are left to struggle on their own often because angry and frustrated, and are more likely to turn to self-medication with drugs or other undesirable activities.

You want to get her evaluated by a psychologist as soon as possible. Don't ask your pediatrician, they are not trained in that specialty.

(BTW, twice exceptional means gifted with disabilities, not necessarily Aspie. It can be dyslexia, ADHD, anxiety, whatever.)

She's been unhappy due to the isolation caused by the pandemic, so I had her evaluated. The psychotherapist said she's gifted and hypersensitive to stress, but no ADHD. She's fairly well organized. Forgetting to study for a test has only happened once or twice. She reads prodigiously.

My apologies, then, I misunderstood.

I think she'll be happier in grad school (or law school or med school), once she focuses on the topics she REALLY wants to study. Tell her she has to power through until then, otherwise she won't reach that goal. What does she like to do?

She won’t be happy in any profession if she doesn’t learn that sometimes you just have to do work you don’t like no matter how gifted you are. Gifted doesn’t mean much without drive and ability to put in the work.

She should work on learning to get something out of even mundane tasks. Because that’s life. Even at Yale.

- a double Yale grad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is a junior, and her only options for college are in-state because of our family's financial situation. She has a 3.88 at a good public high school, one sport, no ECs to speak of. She hates high school with a passion, thinks it's idiotic, all her classes are stupid, hates the administration and its crazy rules and incompetence, etc. She does the work because her friends do it, but she has no enthusiasm for school at all.

She went to CTY at Johns Hopkins for three summers, where she really blossomed. She told me recently those were the happiest weeks of her life. Her CTY teachers said she was "exceptional" and "outstanding."

I'm not bragging, I'm worried. I fear she'll be unhappy and unchallenged in college. We can't afford to send her to a CTY-like top college. If you have a similarly gifted kid who went to a lower-ranked college, how did s/he do? Did your child find a peer group? Were the classes interesting/challenging enough? Any advice most appreciated.

CTY is a pretty low bar to be honest.
What are her standardized test scores?

[Anonymous]

Thread is several years old. Presumably OP's kid is in college. Wonder how it went

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD is a junior, and her only options for college are in-state because of our family's financial situation. She has a 3.88 at a good public high school, one sport, no ECs to speak of. She hates high school with a passion, thinks it's idiotic, all her classes are stupid, hates the administration and its crazy rules and incompetence, etc. She does the work because her friends do it, but she has no enthusiasm for school at all.

She went to CTY at Johns Hopkins for three summers, where she really blossomed. She told me recently those were the happiest weeks of her life. Her CTY teachers said she was "exceptional" and "outstanding."

I'm not bragging, I'm worried. I fear she'll be unhappy and unchallenged in college. We can't afford to send her to a CTY-like top college. If you have a similarly gifted kid who went to a lower-ranked college, how did s/he do? Did your child find a peer group? Were the classes interesting/challenging enough? Any advice most appreciated.

CTY is a pretty low bar to be honest.
What are her standardized test scores?

exactly. 95th%ile is the bar, which is not even in range for top20 privates, and borderline for UVA in state. The kid would be right at home with many similar peers at a typical flagship,

[Anonymous]

Does lower-ranked mean a lower-ranked LAC and second-rier state school rather than the state flagship? I have a kid at Pitt and a kid at Oberlin who both did CTY and they're doing great. DS is in the honors college and is studying several uncommon languages through the LCTL program - I think having a niche interest to pursue at large state schools can be key for a nerdy kid to find their people and place of belonging. My Obie is also doing well, double-majoring and taking language classes and working on lot of campus jobs. Yes, there are slackers or kids who are less focused on academics, but you can definitely find strong peer groups at a variety of colleges. My kids have friends are St Olaf, Lawrence, Muhlenberg, Hobart and Smith, Connecticut College, and Wooster who are all doing well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does lower-ranked mean a lower-ranked LAC and second-rier state school rather than the state flagship? I have a kid at Pitt and a kid at Oberlin who both did CTY and they're doing great. DS is in the honors college and is studying several uncommon languages through the LCTL program - I think having a niche interest to pursue at large state schools can be key for a nerdy kid to find their people and place of belonging. My Obie is also doing well, double-majoring and taking language classes and working on lot of campus jobs. Yes, there are slackers or kids who are less focused on academics, but you can definitely find strong peer groups at a variety of colleges. My kids have friends are St Olaf, Lawrence, Muhlenberg, Hobart and Smith, Connecticut College, and Wooster who are all doing well.

Just to add, they had offers from Penn, CMU, Cornell, Yale, Brown, Williams, and Columbia but my kid at Pitt got a full scholarship and my Obie got a generous scholarship and outside scholarships so we only pay room and board basically. It was a matter of fit and affordability for us and it's working out pretty well so far.