Yes. I always feel comfortable giving you a hard time.

I do think that mixed ability classrooms with differentiation have a lot to offer kids. [I have been in the work world for over 2 decades now and I have always worked in a mixed ability work-place. And public school helped me adapt to some pretty intersting workplaces.] But to really work on a systematic level, there needs to be a much higher adult to student ratio and support for the differentiation. Right now we have to depend on having highly motivated hard working teachers. Many teachers could differentiate if given the right tools and training and a normal number of students.

I was wondering where you got this data.

I know that there are plenty of good colleges that are not meeting their quotas and would be happy to have a higher number of qualified applicants. My understanding from something I read in the Chronicle of Higher Education a while back is that the real problem is that students are focusing all their efforts on the biggest name colleges (which may not actually providing the best education, but have a lot of prestige) rather than on colleges that are good fits for the student and can still give them an excellent education. They are not applying to these schools, not because they are not good, but because they are not famous. So there are kids who don't get into any of the big name schools and get frustrated while, meanwhile, a college that would have been a good fit for them doesn't make its enrollment goal because the student and the college never knew about each other.

Anyway, I'd be interested to hear where you got your information.

Acs, I work at a college, so it's all in terms of reports. Reports that state that there's more of a population of students at college age right now (a bubble so to speak) and more students than ever apply and go to college than ever before-- these are two of the large driving forces.

I am aware there are decent colleges that students can get into; according to all the info I have read, it's expensive, so the colleges that offer the most aid or are the lowest price are getting the students, and the decent small liberal arts colleges are getting less students due to cost. So from what I have seen it is not due to name branding, it is due to cost. (I am at a state school so we are certainly the best date in town)

I think where you do your undergrad is less important than people think. I went to Linfield College and then went on to get my PhD in applied math at UC Berkeley. My husband went to Cal Poly and also has a PhD in math from Berkeley. BTW, I highly recommend Linfield for gifted students. I was a young college student and it was a great fit for me. There is a lot of personal attention from professors including student/professor research collaborations (I was a coauthor on a paper with my physics prof), an honors program where honors students do a thesis project with an advisor and then present it to the school (I did mine on fractals ), and a great international program for study abroad opportunities in several countries (I went to Austria.) I had a full-tuition honors scholarship--my family paid room and board for me.

Thanks, and, yes, that makes sense. It's a larger issue of who is trying to get into college and how they are going to pay for it. State schools are overfull while private colleges (especially the ones without name recognition) are struggling to fill all their seats.

My affiliations are all with small liberal arts colleges so I'm seeing all these empty seats in schools that are very strong academically so it surprises me to see a comment about the shortage of slots. The real issue is money; in-state tuition, scholarships, etc. If every kid could just go wherever they would thrive academically without worrying about paying for it, then we wouldn't have this problem. Is that right?.

(Sorry to put all this college discussion on a kindergarten thread! They do grow up fast, but not THAT fast!)

Ah, another Northwesterner! I like Linfield a lot too. In fact, I think almost all small liberal arts colleges are great fits for gifted young adults because they have lots of opportunities to be truly mentored by smart dedicated faculty. My DH and I met at another small liberal arts college in the NW and also went on to get graduate degrees at UCB. WE were apalled by how their undergrads (especially freshman) were taught there compared to what we had received (and we can say that because we were the ones teaching the UCB undergrad courses! My DH's advisor told him not to waste his time preparing classes because he had more important things to do.)

And you make a good point about the scholarship money. Really smart kids and ones with high financial need rarely pay anywhere close to the sticker price at a liberal arts college. So don't let the list price frighten you.

And well you should! I always enjoy it when you keep me honest!