A practical test at the International Chemistry Olympiad, held in Switzerland in 2023. | Image: ETH Zurich / Luca Ferrari

At just 14 years of age, Kathryn Hess enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the USA. She never regretted it. Today, she is a professor of mathematics and Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Outreach at EPFL. In our phone interview, Hess jokes that her IQ is simply “high enough”. She adds: “US universities are very flexible and keen to have gifted students. Had I lived in Switzerland back then, I might have followed a different path”.

This is exactly what happened to Maximilian Janisch, who has an IQ higher than 149 and a passion for mathematics. His case hit the media in 2011 when he was nine and ETH Zurich refused to accept him because they felt he was too young. It was his case that first drew attention to universities being unable to meet the needs of highly gifted children.

“I started playing with numbers early on”.

  • Maximilian Janisch, 19
  • PhD student in mathematics at the University of Zurich since 2022

“I started playing with numbers early on. My father, a retired maths professor, began giving me daily lessons when I was six. At nine I passed the Swiss school-leaving exam in maths and wanted to progress fast, so why shouldn’t I try university? ETH Zurich wouldn’t accept me, but the University of Zurich offered me private lectures by the mathematician Camillo De Lellis – that was a special experience. At the time, I became a controversial figure in the media, but I didn’t care much, I even enjoyed the interviews! I am really grateful that the University of Perpignan accepted me at the age of 12. Now universities are offering programmes for school students, it’s great. But maybe the system should be more flexible. Others participate in math Olympiads. That’s fun but not for me, as the maths is different from what you do later as a mathematician. I am a big advocate of skipping classes, and I was very fortunate that I got support for that. Today, as a researcher, I maybe want to focus on quality over speed”.

“Even nowadays, some universities don’t feel any pressure to chase young, high-potential students because their reputation is already secure”, says Regula Haag, the chief executive at the Foundation of Highly Gifted Children in Zurich. “But others have learned that it’s important to recruit them, otherwise they will go to the US or the UK where they are better supported”. In academia today, there is fierce competition for the brightest minds, because they can help a university to improve its rankings and get more funding. This is why Swiss universities are now also devoting more attention to highly gifted children, setting up initiatives to try and attract them and keep them. But there is still room for improvement, according to all the experts we have contacted.

The gender gap

A highly gifted child is intellectually able to perform better than average in one or more subjects. This is a trait that usually reflects in their scoring more than 130 on an IQ test. “These children want to go deeper into topics and learn faster”, says Haag. They run a real risk of getting bored and depressed, and of underperforming. This means that dropping school classes and entering university as teenagers can be an option for them.

In the last decade, universities have begun offering programmes to secondary schools in an effort to attract such students. EPFL offers the Euler Course, an accelerated maths class for some 30 exceptional schoolchildren (though not all of them are considered to be in the ‘highly gifted’ category).

“Here we pay great respect to treating everyone equally, which is fine. But in exceptional circumstances, we might consider bending the rules”.Kathryn Hess

The universities of Zurich, Bern, Basel, Lucerne and Geneva offer programmes in various fields – mostly in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics – to promote subjects that are in high demand right now. Often, school students are given the opportunity to get credits and pass the first year of a Bachelor degree at the university offering the course in question.

“As a child, I was diagnosed with giftedness, but this didn’t help me much at school”.

  • Christina Gut, 27
  • Master student in German language and literature and economics at the Universities of Basel and Lucerne

“As a child, I was diagnosed with giftedness, but this didn’t help me much at school. Girls are taught to be calm and not to show off, whereas I was loud and demonstrative. I guess that my schoolmates were offended by my knowledge, as were some of my teachers. This had an effect on me. Once I was in high school, I became an underachiever. It’s easier to spot somebody gifted in one subject like mathematics, but I am good elsewhere: in connecting stuff, the German language, and writing. I regret that there weren’t age-suitable offerings for me to explore my needs and potential when I was in high school. I started nourishing my curiosity elsewhere. I became an avid reader and was able to digest 800 pages in a weekend! Once I was at university, I studied religion and chemistry, but I was overwhelmed by the organisational part, and I quit to study at the University of Teacher Education Zug. There I got really good grades, I regained confidence in myself, and am now back at university”.

Attracting gifted people from all walks of life is difficult, though. A gender gap has emerged among highly gifted children, with girls missing out. “Boys are very competitive. But girls, even if they are gifted, often don’t want to show off or skip classes. They want to fit in and keep friends”, says Katarina Farkas of the University of Teacher Education Zug who researches into gifted people. Hess also argues that these school programmes appeal primarily to students whose parents have university degrees, whereas those from poorer backgrounds may not even consider getting involved. She advocates for offering as many opportunities as possible, and for raising awareness about such courses by establishing targeted outreach programmes.

Mentors needed

In order to enrol at a Swiss university, highly gifted students have to comply with the usual admission criteria like any other student. While there are usually no age restrictions, they still need a full Swiss school-leaving certificate. “Here we pay great respect to treating everyone equally, which is fine. But in exceptional circumstances, we might consider the possibility of bending the rules”, says Hess. She didn’t have any diploma prior to attending university, for many US colleges allow students to earn one during their tertiary studies.

A major question is whether gifted children can adapt socially and psychologically to an adult environment. “Each case is different, but if the child has been supported by their school and demonstrates a degree of autonomy, then age is not a problem”, says Haag. Recent research shows that they tend to do well in their subject, and that they perform similarly to other students on a social level. A 2021 study at the University of Vanderbilt (Tennessee) analysed the psychological and social effects of academic acceleration on gifted students over a period of 35 years, and found no cause for concern. As for the older students, they don’t seem to be bothered about the younger, very talented ones: “The very few people who knew about my age were cool about it”, says Hess.

“I was a really curious child and learned how to read before kindergarten”.

  • Mathys Douma, 16
  • 2nd year, Bachelor in mathematics at EPFL

“I was a really curious child and learned how to read before kindergarten. At school, I loved maths and learning, so I naturally went faster and deeper than my peers, skipping two years before seventh grade. I will soon begin my Bachelor at EPFL, starting directly in the second year. That’s because I’ve already done my first-year exams through the Euler Course at EPFL. That meant a five-hour commute to EPFL for lessons once a week for the past six years. The instructors are great, they teach a cool form of maths that helps my mathematical intuition. I also participated in the Swiss Mathematical Olympiad, where I earned two golds and one silver. I’m not worried about starting EPFL at 16: I know the place and I feel comfortable with older people. I can relate more to them and we have similar interests! Mentors could be good for highly gifted students who have insecurities”.

Farkas cautions against considering these positive aspects as a pretext for withholding special attention from younger students: “If a child is happy, then it’s all OK. But if he or she is in a challenging situation, then we need to give professional support”. She suggests assigning high-potential students a mentoring figure. Mentors could help them to get organised, they could be at hand if problems arise, and provide advice on how to study. Haag recalls the case of “very gifted students who went to ETH Zurich and failed their first exam. They’d had to study for it, but didn’t know how, because they’d never needed it before!”

Spotting talent early

Some gifted students would be happier if they could skip basic lessons that are boring for them, even at university level. Several US universities go as far as to offer tailor-made courses and even early opportunities to engage in research. But since Switzerland is part of the Bologna Process, courses here are very standardised, especially at Bachelor level, and difficult to change.

“I really love maths, computing, and science in general”.

  • Evelyn Ebneter, 17
  • 11th grade at Oberwil High School

“I really love maths, computing, and science in general. They come naturally to me. My teachers at school proposed that I skip classes, but I always preferred to stay with my age group and not lose my friends. I was never bored, I got extra assignments, and in sixth grade I started doing maths competitions. Everybody at school was really supportive, and I was never treated any differently from the boys. The school even assigned me a teacher so that I could prepare for the Mathematical Olympiad. I am part of the ETH Math Youth Academy and the Junior Euler Society, which also helps me prepare for the competitions. I won a bronze medal at the Middle European Mathematical Olympiad, and I was twice awarded an honourable mention at the European Girl’s Mathematical Olympiad. I really like entering these competitions and love being in a team. Later, I plan to study computer science, probably at ETH Zurich, but I am still open”.

So far, coaching and ad hoc courses are in place only for graduate students. “In the quest for the next Nobel Prize, universities think that they should support students from the PhD stage upwards”, says Claus Beisbart, the coordinator of the programme for highly gifted secondary school students at the University of Bern, “but we should be more attentive before this”.

“Gifted people could help solve the problems of our society”.Katarina Farkas

One major issue is finding resources and university staff. Regula Haag thinks that small changes could already help. She proposes locating mentors who are experts in giftedness and including them on the boards of Swiss universities. They could then organise appropriate activities and coordinate them with other universities.

Helping highly gifted students to realise their potential would be a winning strategy for the students themselves, universities, and society. “Gifted people could help solve the problems of our society if we keep our eyes open to them and help their development”, says Farkas.

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