The Early Entrance Program (EEP) at California State University, [Los Angeles], was founded in 1983 by a [psychology] professor on the faculty. For most of the [80's|80s], it was a small program of only a few students, but around [1991], when I started, the roster grew by [leaps and bounds]. There are currently roughly 100 students at the CSULA campus who started through the EEP, and the [freshman] class consists of 20 to 30 people every year.

Offering an [alternative] to the dreadful [doldrums] of [high school], the EEP offers gifted students between the ages of 11 and 16 the opportunity to start at a [university] full-time while maintaining a reasonably ordinary social environment. To gain admission, students must score over 1100 on the Washington Pre-College Test, an [SAT] equivalent, and maintain tolerably good grades during a trial summer quarter. Additionally, the director conducts an [interview] to make sure that the student really wants to join, and that this [adventure] is not exclusively their parents' idea.

Speaking personally, the EEP was an [incredible] opportunity and the best choice I have ever made. Although I would have grave [reservations] about sending an 11-year old off to college alone, the EEP provided a place to go between classes, and a closer group of friends than I'd ever found in [junior high]. The classes were newly challenging, the environment granted some precious freedom, and my friends were smart enough that I gained a bit of [humility].

Particularly important in the [success] of the EEP are two factors. First, it has attained reasonable size, a sort of [critical mass]. In a program of fewer than 10 or 20 students, anything close to a normal social environment is impossible, and this becomes more like the individual cases of early college entrance that have occurred elsewhere for years. Second, it has a dedicated [lounge] on campus, a place where the students can go between classes, and which provides a degree of cohesion.

Sadly, the EEP at CSULA is the only program of its kind in the [nation], although the [University of Washington] and [Johns Hopkins University|Johns Hopkins] maintain vaguely similar ones. Many colleges are willing to admit teenaged students, and a few even have programs to [encourage] them, but none have a considerable support structure. I consider it rash, and probably [detrimental], to surround 13-year olds with an exclusively adult environment. On the other hand, students in the EEP tend to form large groups of friends that stick together well after [graduation]. I'd like to see other programs like this one spring up [elsewhere]. [Simon's Rock College] bears more resemblance than anything else, but it targets distinctly older students.

Early Entrance Program at CSULA (thing)