Early College offers these young people a new kind of learning institution combining high school and college. They are places designed to:

• Engage adolescents in serious intellectual work, rewarding performance with access to the rigor, depth, and intensity of college-level course work;
• Inspire underachieving and better-prepared high school students alike to work hard and stretch themselves intellectually, making it more likely young people graduate not only high school but college as well;
• Eliminate the need for high school seniors to select a post-secondary institution, enabling them to focus on their studies in high school rather than spend their time tangled in the maze of college and financial-aid applications;
• Save tuition dollars for students and their families and tax dollars for everyone, making college more affordable;
• Offer young people a much-needed alternative to traditional high school education and a path to college that includes substantive guidance and coaching from adults through the first two years of postsecondary education.