School Was Too Easy, So 14 Year Old Goes To College

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) -- Aubrey Sparks is like any other 14-year-old girl. She enjoys giggling with her friends and listening to silly music. But Aubrey also sneaks copies of her dad's Scientific American Mind, wakes up early to watch CNN, and, in August, the Springfield Middle School eighth-grader will enroll in college.

Washington County Public Schools Superintendent Elizabeth Morgan said she is not aware of any other local students who have made the leap from middle school to college.

Aubrey will attend Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Va., and participate in the college's Program for the Exceptionally Gifted, which offers special assistance and supervision for young college students.

Aubrey said she knew she wanted to stray from the traditional college path when the middle school curriculum became too easy and she began to feel that she didn't fit in with some of her peers.

"The curriculum was easier than I really wanted it to be, and it was boring," Aubrey said.

Aubrey has taken the SAT several times, most recently as an eighth-grader, scoring 1,770 out of a possible 2,400 points. Her highest score was in critical reading, where she earned 650 points and was in the 90th percentile of test-takers, meaning she scored higher than 90 percent of last year's group of college-bound seniors nationally. J