It’s that time of the year again, when high school students across the country are entering the most intense phase of their college journey: college applications and decisions!

Just when gifted students have finally found the appropriate educational services at their high school or homeschool, they are now tasked with identifying a new learning environment that will best serve their needs. Important factors including school size, curriculum, course offerings, extra-curricular activities, campus culture and cost loom large as students try to find the 鈥渞ight鈥� fit.聽 Even though there are a plethora of college-oriented resources for parents and students in general, we鈥檝e compiled a list of suggested resources specifically aimed at helping gifted and advanced students on their college selection journey:

Kate Duey is the founder of Admission Planning, LLC and has advised students on college and graduate school applications for over thirty years. She鈥檚 also worked with 优蜜视频 supporting gifted students since 2009 and has a wealth of knowledge about their unique challenges and their wonderful potential. Kate has a BA from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She earned a College Counseling Certification from UCLA and is member of the National Association of College Admission Counselors, the Western Association of College Admission Counselors and the California Association for the Gifted. She has also facilitated several EXPLORE workshops for high school students and meetings, where she鈥檚 discussed How to Prepare Gifted Students for the College Application Process. See the recorded livestream of her talk on !

Are you hyper-intelligent? Self-directed? A late-bloomer? Or just different? This book covers the most exciting schools in the United States and Canada, with a new chapter on eco-schools, an update on tuition-free schools and the total low-down on the so-called top-ranked schools. When you need a great school that will challenge, nurture, inspire, and motivate you and this book will also give you the scoop on things like:

• Totally free schools, including one where financial need is a requirement for admission
• Universities that don鈥檛 give grades
• Schools where you can design your own degree program
• Science and engineering schools where undergrads get their own labs
• Campuses where students love to study, even on Saturday nights
• Schools that offer programs in computer game studies, comedy, auctioneering, special-effects makeup, and more

Sure, prestigious colleges are easy to recognize, but there are a handful of Colleges that Change Lives that offer unique learning environments and experiences that may fit the needs of a gifted high schooler. CTCL has a comprehensive that offer exceptional features, like 96% of faculty have a Ph.D. or equivalent terminal degree, the only college in the country with a research nuclear reactor that is staffed primarily by undergraduates, a college with an option for a self-designed major and the college that ranks in the top five percent among all colleges and universities for students ultimately earning a Ph.D. CTCL also offers a national series of information sessions and college fairs for students, parents and college counselors. Check out the page for a list of their upcoming fair dates and locations.

College Board鈥檚 BigFuture is a free comprehensive web resource that improves the college planning process by providing a step-by-step approach to make college planning easier to navigate for students. Students and educators collaborated to create the interactive tools and videos that guide students as they find, afford and enroll in a college that鈥檚 a good fit for them. BigFuture helps families see that college is possible, find schools that fit their needs and keep their students on track toward a college education.

What is it like to be 13 and going to college? This book describes 14 highly gifted, young women, now in their 30s, who left home to go to college at age 13 to 16, skipping all or most of high school. The authors describe what they were like as young college students, the leadership, idealism and sense of purposefulness that they developed, and their lives 10-to-13 years later. This inspirational book also helps educators and parents of gifted children understand that gifted kids need academic challenge, that there are colleges with specific programs for such students, that it doesn’t harm them to leave home early and that keeping them interested in learning is vitally important

TiLT Parenting was founded by Deborah Reber, a parenting activist, bestselling author and speaker as a website, podcast and social media community for parents raising differently wired kids. For this podcast, Deborah interviewed Susan Hyatt about her son launching and starting college at an out of state school and how that transition happened. This episode is also about the transition to college for a differently-wired student, but from the point of view of an educator and consultant who specializes in helping atypical kids be successful before, during, and after this transition. Things you鈥檒l learn from this episode include:

• The real story behind if, and how, colleges and universities support their differently wired students.
• The difference between accommodations and services in the university setting.
• Whether or not universities recognize IEPs and 504 Plans.
• How to find the best university for your child when it comes to how well their needs will be supported.
• How students can best set themselves up for success throughout the application process.
• What parents with younger children can be working on today to support this transition in the future.

This paper by citizen activist and gifted advocate Sandra L. Berger delves into the characteristics of gifted students that affect their college planning, suggests recommendations to help resolve the problems encountered by gifted students, shares important steps to learn about colleges and discusses the points of view to consider when thinking about the application process.

Figuring out how to pay for college can often be overwhelming! 优蜜视频 has curated a comprehensive Scholarships and Competitions Guide which provides a library of over 100 resources for students in grades K-12. The guide is indexed by topic to assist the gifted student in finding the most appropriate opportunity to suit their unique interests and talents. You can find a list of additional resources for gifted youth at .

Admission Matters demystifies the college application process and offers practical advice for choosing the right school, writing an effective essay, navigating financial aid and more. It helps all students who are applying to college understand the process and find the school that fits their needs, provides expanded information on testing, early decision/early action, applying as a home schooler, tackling the dreaded college essay and offers updated advice on financial aid in tough economic times.

10. SENGinar: Surviving the College Transition: A Gifted Undergraduate鈥檚 Perspective

In this interactive, discussion-oriented presentation, Trent Cash, a gifted second-year Eminence Fellow at The Ohio State University, will start a conversation about how these common traits of giftedness have affected his transition into college while discussing strategies for overcoming the challenges they can present.

If you have a resource you鈥檇 like to share, please include it in the comments down below for other readers to consider! For additional resources appropriate for the gifted learner from preschool through high school, visit 滨贰础鈥檚 online .

Lisa is the mother of 3 gifted children and lives outside of San Francisco.

My middle son is a junior in high school. It鈥檚 time for him to start thinking about college. To help the process along, his school invited a speaker from to speak to the parents and students. She reminded the parents that the search should be student-centered. To make her point she told stories about over-involved parents who push their children aside during college fairs in order to speak to the admissions officers and those who get their pronouns confused when talking about the application process, as in, 鈥�We are still in the process of writing our 别蝉蝉补测蝉.鈥�

I have never pushed my children, and I am very conscious of which pronoun I use. That said, I was very involved in my oldest son鈥檚 college search, and I plan to do the same for my middle son. My experience has given me sympathy for the parents she ridiculed. It鈥檚 a fine line between over-involved helicopter parent and helpful consultant. But whichever side of the line you fall, there will be consequences for your child and a corresponding label of their own.

My involvement in my children鈥檚 educational decisions is not unlike that of many parents of gifted kids. For the past 10 years, I鈥檝e been helping my children get the resources they need to challenge themselves and feed their passions. In the past, that meant online courses, tutors, extracurricular activities and schools. Two years ago, it meant helping my oldest son find a college. It wasn鈥檛 until he began his college search that I understood how my involvement has influenced the way he thinks about his own education.

鈥淚 want a school with a good visual arts program, but I don鈥檛 want it to focus solely on the object.鈥�

He wanted to paint, draw or sculpt at a school that didn鈥檛 focus on the painting, drawing or sculpture. If you are confused, so was I. Even he didn鈥檛 know exactly what he was looking for. But that didn鈥檛 prevent me from searching for this elusive school. I (yes, I am aware of the pronoun I am using) looked through course catalogues for visual art classes with unique titles, eschewing schools that only offered the vanilla 鈥淧ainting 101鈥� or 鈥淒rawing Techniques.鈥� I looked at their capital expenditures on the arts and made charts detailing their core requirements. We visited colleges on the East Coast and in Southern California where I asked more questions than my son during the campus tours. The accordion files I created for potential colleges bulged.

My search led him to the University of Chicago. He was intrigued by the classes titled 鈥淰isual Language: On Time and Space鈥� and 鈥淧erforming Tableware.鈥� He enrolled last year. When my husband and I delivered him to the campus, we knew that the school would provide a rich academic experience for him. But he wasn鈥檛 done personalizing his education.

At the beginning of his second year, he decided that the majors available at University of Chicago were limiting. So instead of settling for a major that mostly provided what he wanted, he decided to invent his own. He is going to declare a major in Interdisciplinary Studies. This do-it-yourself major allows him to combine studies in the humanities. He is going to craft a major in the fields of anthropology, visual arts, creative writing and psychology. The tentative title of his major is 鈥淪torytelling.鈥�

Just as there are contrasting labels that can be applied to me, you may be tempted to apply one to my son. On the positive side, you could say that he is self-actualizing. On the negative: he feels entitled. While I will argue the former, I will admit that the latter also applies. My interference in his educational experiences led him to believe that he can expect a personalized education plan that feeds his passions, wherever that may take him. This may mean that he will enter a work force that does not value his efforts and that he will spend his twenties living in our basement. On the other hand, he may have developed skills that allow him to pursue a career his father and I have never imagined. After all, there are people making a living creating Google Doodles. Who knew that was a career 10 years ago?

I believe that my intentions are good and that my behavior furthers my children鈥檚 goals. My middle son is going to test that belief. An extraordinary math talent, he doesn鈥檛 want to pursue math in college. He wants the educational equivalent of Sid Meyer鈥檚 Civilization game series鈥攁 program that combines politics, economics, history and philosophy. I am going to do my best not to slip in a math component, but I can鈥檛 guarantee my behavior at this point.

I know that I am both over-involved and helpful. I am certain that my children are seen as both entitled and on the path to self-actualization. Which label you apply to my children and to me depends on your perspective. I suppose the only judgment that really matters is my children鈥檚. If later in life they are leading happy and fulfilling lives, then you can call us whatever you鈥檇 like.

Have you struggled with the fine line between helpful and over-involved? Please share your experience in the comment section below.

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