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They Went to College Early
has been less common. At a majority of the institutions Scholars
have shared counseling services available to all students. A few
colleges assigned special counselors to the Scholars. At least one
of these, however, withdrew this service after the first year on
the grounds that the program should "stand on its own feet."
THE
ACADEMIC PREPARATION OF THE SCHOLARS AND COMPARISONS
During their
first year of college, all four groups of Scholars and Comparison
students were asked to list fields of study in which they felt
handicapped by faulty or insufficient preparation in secondary
school. A substantial proportion of all four groups of Scholars
(ranging from 42 per cent to 54 per cent) reported no handicaps at
all, despite the fact that most of them had not finished high
school. On the other hand, a surprising proportion of the
Comparison students (ranging from 40 per cent to 60 per cent)
reported handicaps in one or more fields, despite the fact that
they had entered college with four years of high school
preparation. This is striking evidence of the unevenness of
secondary school preparation in the United States and of the wide
range in ability among high school students.
The 1951 and
1952 Scholars tended to report slightly more academic handicaps
than their Comparison students, but in the case of the 1953 and
1954 groups, the proportion reporting handicaps was about the same
for the Scholars as for the Comparison students. Mathematics and
English Composition were the fields most frequently listed by
Scholars and Comparison students alike in reporting handicaps due
to faulty or insufficient preparation. (See Appendix Table IV,
A.)
According to
the judgment of the colleges, most of the Scholars and Comparison
students had overcome their handicaps by the end of sophomore year.
The proportion judged to have no gaps or omissions in their
preparation still remaining at the end of sophomore year ranged
from 88 per cent to 93 per cent among