11-yr-old’s Ultimate Goal: phd Theoretical Mathematics

[TorsMama]

I still think that you're robbing Peter to pay Paul.  If you can spend his high school years doing whatever you want to do, with some free CLEP thrown in to get him past the basic stuff, he may still graduate from college early, but have it all paid for.  I would not spend a dime on TESU/COSC, which will cost you thousands, when you have better opportunities coming up. If he wants a "college experience" and it sounds like he does from what you just said, then looking at online schools is kind of negating what you just said.  He WANTS to wait until he's 17/18 to graduate, he WANTS to go on campus to do his courses.

You also have to consider that he has a much better chance of getting the things he needs to move towards a PhD if he's doing an on-campus program.  He has a better chance of getting teacher recommendations, a better chance of getting internships, and a better chance of getting scholarships by being there with teachers that will notice his abilities and try to help him advance than any online program you could find.

My BFF's daughter is a very good student (4.5 in HS, 4.0 in college) and was able to get all kinds of work by being on campus because she was THERE: she got offered 4 positions by 3 teachers at the end of her freshman year, worked in the chemistry lab as a tutor for 1 year, as a lead her 2nd year, and running it her 3rd/4th years (she's a 4th year junior for personal reasons).  She was able to get recommended for special programs, and spent 2 summers doing research as a paid intern in another state.  Now her last 2 years are paid for because she won a very prestigious scholarship, and has 2 more years of paid internships coming.  She's been offered all sorts of other opportunities by her teachers, been given tons of recommendations by them, and is probably going to get a scholarship to get her master's degree because of all of this.

Now, I'm not saying that every student will get this - but your son certainly won't get these types of opportunities by trying to test out of a degree rather than being on campus and surrounded by people who can help him attain his goals.

So yes, you should do college-level work with him.  Yes, you should try to CLEP out of as much as possible, knowing what will work at the school of choice.  But that's as far as you should go with this.  It's what I would do if my child had what yours does.

That is what I essentially said in my updates on the post (I think - maybe I was not being clear as to what I meant).

The current plan (after reading all the lovely replies here and considering and talking with my son as to his desires) is to:
- try to use CLEP/AP for the general ed classes our university will accept (not for math or other areas of interest)
-continue with the excellent deep education he is receiving currently in his homeschool 
-when all the tests are done, see if he can do dual credit at our local university for classes of interest (especially his maths)

Is this still robbing Peter in your opinion? I think I am confused.

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I am pretty sure then TESU and the other big three are off the table for this child. Which is totally fine. I have three other younger kids it might work for.

Your son could *literally* take all the CLEP tests just because.  They are free now through Modern STates, and if you take the approach of injecting college credit based around what you're doing anyway (as opposed to degree planning which will dictate his homeschool curriculum) I think he'll have a nice bucket of credits that may work for him later.  You could also do AP, which may be more appropriately aligned to his future goals.

EDIT TO ADD:  ALL of the people who replied to you (myself included) have all earned at least 1 college degree this way, and at least 2 of us homeschooled/are homeschooling our own kids. I can't remember if Dave's kids did CLEP/AP, but none the less, our comments are coming from a place of seeing the pros/cons of earning credit this way.  Trust me when I tell you that there ARE disadvantages to using CLEP for the bulk of your classes, and that pros/cons list is being shared through the lens of giving you the full picture of what he'll give up on that road.  You're not going to hear these disadvantages from a lot of people simply because they might not understand from all angles- that of a parent, that of a homeschooler teacher, and that of a test-out degree holder.  Honestly, I can think of 100 reasons to do the majority of a degree via CLEP et al, and only a dozen not to- but I think your son's case ticks off most of the boxes on the "not to" column, and that's being echoed by the others who have good-deep-knowledge in this area.  It's not a criticism, it's to help you help him achieve his dreams.

  I truly don't feel criticized. It is very hard helping a child make these decisions and I am grateful for all perspectives. The current plan then is to take tests around what he already studying esp if our university accepts them. That’s how we did the first two CLEPs he passed and it worked well. Then even if he ends up changing his mind and going with a school that accepts no cbes (Ivys etc.) he will have a strong transcript and even more acquired knowledge.