By the end of her freshman year at Hanover High School, Blythe Adler had completed single-variable calculus, the highest math class the school offers. But that didn't mean she had to stop there.
Adler, a 17-year-old junior, takes her math classes at Dartmouth now. She is enrolled in her sixth Dartmouth course, Math 38: Graph Theory. Most Dartmouth students will never get that far.
And how has she done in her classes at the College?
"Mostly A's and A-minuses," she said modestly.
For bright local high school students like Adler, the Special Community Student High School Program provides an opportunity to take Dartmouth courses free of charge, giving them an Ivy-caliber head start on their higher education. Students from 20 area high schools are eligible to participate in the program.
"It's sort of an exciting challenge," said Hanover High head guidance counselor Gene Kadish. "It gives them the opportunity to take college-level courses, to push themselves to the next step."
Kadish said Dartmouth courses offer much better preparation for the college experience than traditional Advanced Placement high school classes.
In addition to the benefits students receive, "[The program] tells us something about the preparation of our students," Kadish said.
To apply to enroll in a Dartmouth class, high school students must have completed the highest course offered by their school in that academic department. Then they meet with a guidance counselor, principal or other school official to secure permission.At Hanover High, students generally must earn an A or A-minus in all their high school classes in the area of interest and maintain an overall average of B or better.
Normally, only juniors and seniors are eligible to take Dartmouth classes, but some students, like Adler, have had that requirement waived.
Unlike Dartmouth, Hanover High operates on a traditional semester system, and students take up to seven classes each day. Adler has managed to schedule her classes this quarter so that she has two free periods in a row, allowing her time to walk from the high school to Bradley Hall where her math class meet three times a week.
Just another College student
Paul Kinlaw, a Hanover High senior, first tried taking a Dartmouth class when he was a freshman, but found he was in over his head. He withdrew and returned for a class the next year.
Now he's taken seven classes here, and he calls the program "very convenient."
Kinlaw has run into scheduling difficulties in the past, he said, but like Adler's, his schedule now leaves him time -- from 10 to 2 every day -- to take a Dartmouth class.
How do Dartmouth professors react to having high school students in their classes?
"The professors are always really understanding," Kinlaw said, referring to classes for which he's had to arrive late or leave early.
Doug Drinen, Kinlaw's current professor for Math 43: Functions of a Complex Variable, said he hasn't had to make any special accommodations for Kinlaw.
"He doesn't seem any different from any other Dartmouth student. He's right on track," Drinen said.
Out of 21 people in the class, "He's just about as good as anyone else," Drinen said. Kinlaw said he hopes to receive credit for the Dartmouth classes he's taken when he matriculates at Brown University next year.
Adler also feels her experiences at Dartmouth will ready her for future university-level studies.
"I think it's prepared me really well, no matter where I go to college," she said, adding that she also hopes to obtain college credit for the Dartmouth courses she's taken.
Although she doesn't have any close friends at Dartmouth or spend much time here outside of class, in class she said she feels she fits it well.
"In general, I just feel like another college student," she said.
Working at a more challenging level
Adler's Math 38 professor, John Mackey, talked about the benefits of allowing high school students to enroll in Dartmouth classes.
"I think they'll be challenged to think at a more challenging level -- not that high school isn't demanding, but [Dartmouth classes] can enrich them in new ways."
Mackey stressed that in order to benefit from the program a student must be extremely focused on the subject at hand.
Kadish estimated that 10 or 11 Hanover High students take Dartmouth classes each Fall term. Many of these are seniors "looking for an opportunity to challenge themselves," Kadish said.
Fall of senior year is a common time for students who will just take one college course during their high school years to do so, he added, since it is a time when the colleges they will apply to will examine them closely.
By Spring term, Kadish said, the number of Hanover High students enrolled in Dartmouth classes has usually dropped to four or five, who are students like Adler and Kinlaw -- taking a series of classes, most often in either mathematics or foreign language, he said.
Regulations stipulate that high school students can only take one Dartmouth course at a time, and no more than four total. Adler, Kinlaw and others have obtained waivers allowing them to circumvent the four-course rule.
So far, Kadish said, no one from Hanover High has applied for to have the one-course-at-a-time rule waived, although he said he saw that as a possibility.
He explained that the differences between the Dartmouth and Hanover High calendars are often difficult to reconcile. While Adler and Kinlaw have both rearranged their schedules for this term, in the past they both described situations in which they had to miss part of a Hanover High class because of scheduling conflicts.
When this happens, Kadish said, students are responsible for making arrangements with the teachers themselves. Usually, it's not a problem, he said.
"We're talking about students who have a lot of credibility with the teachers," he said.
Although students occasionally need to withdraw from a Dartmouth course, Kadish said, the majority do well. According to Hanover High's web site, students need to earn B's or better at Dartmouth to continue taking courses at the College without re-applying.
"When it's hard, it's really hard," Kinlaw said of his Dartmouth experience. "But it's a really good resource to have."
