Early entrance to college, sometimes called early admission or early enrollment, is the practice of allowing high school students to be accelerated into college, one or more years before the traditional age of college entrance, and without obtaining a high school diploma. In some cases this is done individually. Often, however, it is done as part of a cohort acceleration program, in which many such students are accelerated into college together at the same time. These programs are usually targeted to gifted students, and may provide their students with a social support network and help in dealing with the adjustment.
By placing students into full-time college studies, early entrance differs from dual enrollment, early college high school, Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and Advanced International Certificate of Education programs, which are alternative methods of earned college credits (or their equivalent) while in high school.
Early entrance programs take a number of forms. Some, like the Advanced Academy of Georgia and The Clarkson School, are special programs within larger colleges. Others, like the early entrance program at Shimer College and the Early Entrance Program at CSULA, allow high school students to learn on an equal footing with college students. Bard College at Simon's Rock is the only four-year college designed exclusively for younger students.
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