Early-entrance students: impressions of their first semester of college

Although the long-term impact of early entrance to college has been examined, one issue that has received inadequate attention in the gifted education literature is how students enrolled in early-entrance programs adjust during their first semester of college, which is arguably the most critical juncture for them in terms of their transition from high school. The purpose of this study was to identify the unique academic social, family and transition issues that challenged the inaugural class of the National Academy of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering (NAASE), an early entrance program at the University of Iowa. Through the use of in-depth interviews, behavioral observations, and student and parent surveys, a rich picture of the students satisfaction and challenges with their first-semester college experiences emerged. While the primary aim of this research was to examine the NAASE students first-semester adjustment, the study also served to evaluate the effectiveness of the NAASE program from the students perspectives.