Find
Out Why
The Academy May Be
A Better Option Than
Your AP Classes
Welcome
to the Advanced Academy of Georgia
The Advanced Academy of Georgia is a residential, early-entrance-to-college program for gifted and talented high school-aged students. Students generally apply during their sophomore or junior year, but we also occasionally accept younger, high ability students. We are located on the campus of the University of West Georgia, which is a comprehensive University offering more than 20 different degree programs with more than 50 majors, including the University's 2-2 Regent's Engineering Transfer Program with the Georgia Institute of Technology.
The Advanced Academy of Georgia is one of nine programs in the United States that provide opportunities for gifted and talented high school-aged students to earn concurrent high school and college credit in a full-time residential program. The Academy is NOT a high school. Our students exclusively take regularly scheduled university classes taught by university professors for which they receive high school and university credit.
We explore and develop the unique gifts of each individual mind,
heart, body, and spirit, offering an unparalleled opportunity for individuals to achieve
their dreams. At the Advanced Academy, academic opportunities are virtually
unlimited. Whether the dream is to become an astronaut, chemical engineer,
software designer, medical professional, author, musician, or professor,
we have a program for you!
Welcome to the Advanced Academy of Georgia web page!
If you have discovered this web site and are reading this letter, you may be looking for an alternative to the last two years in high school for either yourself or your child. You may have more questions than answers, questions such as: "How can I get ahead in my academic career?" "I am neither stimulated nor challenged in my current situation. Is something else out there for me?" "My child is bored in school. How can I help him or her?" We believe that answers to these and other questions will be discovered herein.
The Advanced Academy of Georgia is located on the campus of the University of West Georgia and is a residential, early-entrance-to-college program for gifted and talented students who wish to accelerate their academic programs. We have a diverse student body that comes from Georgia and beyond, including international students.
Our students take college classes, exclusively, that are taught by University faculty. In this way an exceptional high school student can advance from being a high school junior to a college junior in two years. The Academy is designed for intellectually gifted and motivated high school students who find themselves yearning for a curriculum that is more challenging, more exciting, faster-paced, and less restrictive than that which they currently have.
At the same time, our award-winning residence hall staff and programs ensure that opportunities are provided for students' balanced academic and personal growth by regularly offering community service, social, cultural, and leadership activities.
I have been a part of the Advanced Academy of Georgia since it's inception in the 1995-1996 academic year, and I know it to be a wonderful and challenging experience. Perhaps it is the experience you have been looking for. We invite you to visit our beautiful campus, go on a campus tour, meet Academy students and staff, and have a first-hand look at our program.
Hope to see you on campus!
Sincerely,
Susan Colgate Director, Advanced Academy
Mission Statement
The mission of the Advanced Academy of Georgia is to provide an enriched, residential, early-entrance-to-college program for carefully selected, bright, and motivated high school students who are interested in accelerating their academic careers. The Academy seeks to provide opportunities for educational advancement in an environment that also supports students in developing the skills that will help to ensure their success, both in the Academy and as future leaders.
History of the Advanced Academy
The Advanced Academy of Georgia is the brain-child of Dr. Beheruz Sethna, the president of the University of West Georgia (UWG), who had experience with early-entrance programs in two other states prior to accepting stewardship of UWG. He felt the time had come for Georgia to offer an accelerated academic experience for her brightest students who were ready for and who needed greater academic challenge in a residential, university-based program.
When we started, the Academy was one of 10 similar programs in the country. Now there are 16 schools that offer some form of early entrance. It is an idea gaining in acceptance and popularity as students and their parents look for challenging alternatives to high school and for a place where no child is left behind due to dearth of opportunity.
The Academy's first students enrolled in the university at the start of the 1995-1996 academic year. There were 21 intrepid young scholars who registered for classes that year, and the rest is history. The Academy has continued to grow in both population and stature since that time. Our students have excelled academically and personally, gaining post-Academy entrance to some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the country, winning scholarships and academic awards, conducting remarkably sophisticated original research, and enhancing the university's environment by their presence on campus.
While the primary motivation at our inception was, and remains, to provide an enhanced academic experience for our students, it would not be possible for our students to be so successful as they are without the stellar residence hall experience that we offer. Beginning in 1997, the Academy began to emphasize the creation of true community among its students. The effort has rewarded us with a truly exceptional living experience for the university's youngest students.
We maintain our original commitment to provide an enriched environment where young people will flourish, learn to seek knowledge for its own sake, participate in leadership and character developing activities, and experience balanced academic and personal growth.
About Early-Entrance
A great deal of information about early-entrance as a form of acceleration for gifted students is available at www.nationdeceived.org . The information contained in this site is the result of a May 2003 Summit on Acceleration that was held at the University of Iowa. Distinguished scholars and educators from around the country were invited to help formulate a national report on the acceleration of gifted students. The report was funded by the Sir John Templeton Foundation of Pennsylvania , which not only funded the report but arranged to have the report available for downloading.
In brief, the report indicates that students who are moved ahead tend to be more ambitious, and they earn graduate degrees at higher rates than other students. Interviewed years later, an overwhelming majority of accelerated students say that acceleration was an excellent experience for them. Accelerated students feel academically challenged and socially accepted, and they do not fall prey to the boredom that plagues many highly capable students who are forced to follow the curriculum of their age-mates.
Other findings of the report indicate the following:
That no other arrangement for gifted children works so well as acceleration;
Almost all forms of acceleration result in growth in achievement;
When bright students are presented with curriculum developed for age-mates, they can become bored and unhappy and may be turned off from learning;
For many gifted students, acceleration provides a better personal maturity match with their peers than do non-accelerated programs;
There are no deleterious social/emotional effects from acceleration;
Research on early-entrance-to-college has shown extensive evidence of short-term academic success, long-term occupational success, and few social and emotional difficulties; and
It is important for parents to be fully involved in the decision-making process about their child's acceleration.
Young Scholars Institute
The Advanced Academy sponsors a residential summer camp in July for rising eighth and ninth graders. We offer one week of instruction in math and science and one week of instruction in arts and humanities. Students may enroll for one or the other or both weeks. For more information, please see www.advancedacademy.org/ysi .
