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Educational Advocacy
& Consulting:
Special Education & Gifted
(310) 314-2113
phone
info@lorenrgrossman.com
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MY HIGHLY GIFTED
HIGH SCHOOLER IS DROPPING OUT: HELP!
- Stay calm! Find
a therapist who works with highly
gifted (HG) kids.
- Talk to your child’s
guidance and college counselors at high school, to try to make personal
connection(s) with her.
- Have him take the
local state equivalent to the GED, e.g., the California
High School Proficiency Exam (CHSPE).
- Have her take the
ACT and the SAT.
- Have him apply
for concurrent high school enrollment at the local community
college and take the math and English placement tests.
- Enroll her in “learning
how to learn” classes at the local community college,
including developing learning skills, career planning, student success,
and speed reading and college vocabulary, as well as English, math,
and foreign language. To choose simpatico instructors, check
www.RateMyProfessors.com.
- His goal is to
complete the Intersegmental General Education
Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) sequence while getting an AA,
in order to be able to transfer 3rd//junior year to a 4-year university.
Community college transfers get higher priority from many colleges and
universities; community college grades can be significantly lower than
those in high school for successful university/college admission; high
school grades are not necessarily relevant; good ACT/SAT scores from
before community college are a plus.
- Ask your child’s
therapist for a referral to a professional college counselor, with an
organization such as the National Association
for College Admission Counseling (NACAC).
- A checking account
with a debit card would be helpful to buy school supplies and go out
for coffee with classmates.
- When your teen’s
grades are up to a “B”/3.0 (“good
student discount”), have her apply for a driving learner’s
permit. A driver’s license can come in handy for sharing some of
that community college commuting with you.
- Although your HG
child may no longer be on the path to MIT, Cal Tech, or the Ivies, at
least at the undergraduate level, there are loads of schools out there
ready to match up with your child’s interests and needs. Check
out the Fiske Guide to Colleges.
Loren Pope’s Colleges That Change Lives (see
www.ctcl.com) is a good read, with a discussion of the merits of
sending your child off to one of these 40 colleges with less than 3,000
students, which might just be a better fit.
- Your state may
participate in a regional higher education admissions program which
offers out-of-state undergraduate public university enrollment for reduced
tuition, such as the Western Interstate Commission
for Higher Education (WICHE) Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE);
see wue.wiche.edu.
- Keep your sense
of humor!
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