Schooling Options

Early Admission into Tertiary Education

In the American education system the Early Admission into Tertiary Education option is referred to as ‘Early Entry to College’ and involves a student entering college after the Australian equivalent of Year 10 or Year 11 without formally graduating from High School.

As an ENTER score is required for entry into a university in Australia, the Victorian equivalent of this Early Entry to College, would be a student who completes VCE after radical acceleration (perhaps using a variety of curriculum options) and who enters university significantly younger than the usual 18 years of age.

Example

A student in Victoria has been previously year advanced in their primary and secondary schooling and has completed the required number of Unit 3 and 4 subjects at VCE to receive an ENTER score. They may be 15 or 16 years of age and not the more usual university entrance age of 17 or 18. Usually, these students have already been formally assessed on a WISC-IV or Stanford-Binet V and are most usually highly-gifted students (>150) who are very motivated academically. They are often also socially mature and academically oriented with strong interests in at least one academic area.

Entering university

Each Australian university has an admission policy which will usually specify age requirements. Some universities may have an early admission’s policy and these may be published on the university’s website. At Monash University, as an example, a student must be 17 years of age for entry to an undergraduate degree but the student may, with the Dean’s permission, be 16 years of age. Students who are younger than this will need to seek the permission of the Dean of the desired faculty and the Dean may need to liaise with, and seek the approval of, the Vice Chancellor of the University. It may be likely that the Minister for Education will need to be petitioned to approve entry.

For the very select few who enter university at a young age this option may provide them with their first opportunity to experience learning challenges. It will offer them the opportunity to mix with others who share similar interests and passions. Whilst clearly the option is not for every gifted student, it appears there are positive academic, social and perhaps emotional gains for the early entrant when entering university.

Once at university, the student completes the regular program required, working with students who are older than they are. Usually, no university curriculum enrichment would take place.

In Australia, some highly exceptional students have ‘fast-tracked’ their university degrees, and by completing summer and winter (vacation) schools or, more rarely, through Recognition of Prior Learning, (RPL) have completed their undergraduate degree in less than the usual three or four years.

Key elements in the research

This research is based on international studies only and aims to give Victorian educators some sense of the research findings of outcomes for students who enter a university environment before achieving the typical entry age of 18 years. Students who enter university early are a highly selective group and research is often limited to single case studies so generalisations may be difficult.

A synthesis of the research by Olszewski-Kubilius (2002) shows:

• entrants earn excellent grades
• compared to typical university students they are more likely to complete their studies and to do so within the usual time
• early entrants are more likely to make the Dean’s list (for exceptional performance) and to complete a Master’s degree
• social relationships are generally sound
• in terms of self-esteem, in some studies, it was noted that there were small but statistically insignificant decreases in first semester at university but in others no changes were noted. Differences appeared to be based on the level of support structures within the college and also on the student’s family relationships.
• any decreases in self confidence are usually small and temporary
• levels of depression and stress were reported as high for first year early entrants with some 11 per cent noting suicidal thoughts and almost half as ‘being depressed’ but these figures may be misleading. The girls in this study were not compared to other first year females, or other first year students, so these levels may be comparable, or indeed, even lower than for the general first-year college population.
• rarely do early entrants on completion of an undergraduate degree go into permanent work. Often they pursue post graduate options, a second undergraduate degree (usually in a totally different field), or travel.