Highly intelligent and studying at university. Ideal, right? Not always, because high intelligence can also cause problems. The Centrum voor Begaafdheidsonderzoek (CBO, Center for intelligence research) launches Project StudentTalent this week, to try to help ultra smart students feel at home at campus.

Overall, everything was going well in the life of Eveline Eulderink (22), an exceptionally intelligent student in Educational Sciences. She graduated high school without any problems and started her scientific education full of confidence. That is where the trouble started.

In spite of her excellent high school grades, things are not going smoothly. Because she does not know how the study for exams – she never had to do that before – her efforts for the first exams are not rewarded with good grades. ‘I tried all kinds of things, it made me very desperate. In the end I chose to either read the book or go to the classes. For me, it works best to just read and find out for myself what the writer means.’

Eventually, she had a class on high intelligence for her studies. ‘I recognized myself in the information we received.’ She realized that she wasn’t weird, but that there was a word for what she was going through.

Underachieving
According to the Landelijk InformatieCentrum Hoogbegaafdheid (National Information Center for Intellectual giftedness), someone is highly intelligent when he or she scores over 130 in an IQ-test, shows extreme perseverance, and is creative in, for example, coming up with solutions to problems. With this definition, around 2 to 3 percent of the population is highly intelligent. At the CBO, this definition is not used strictly. Because, says Lianne Hoogeveen, head of the center, highly intelligent people often have problems that cause them to underachieve. ‘Someone with a low IQ score can still be highly intelligent, it is not visible on the outside. This is also the case at university: a lot of highly intelligent students drop out, because of problems they have. That is a pity, because this way, we lose our best students.’

Eulderink does not drop out, but is struggling with her studies. ‘I do not blame the university for this, because the barriers were mostly my own. But something is missing in the study programs at university, a form of guidance. I know more people are struggling with this.’ Because of this, Eulderink is launching the StudentTalent program, to help others that have similar problems at the university.

The ideal course
The program contains five meetings. After that, the students decide for themselves how often they will see each other. Every week, participants talk to each other to get to know themselves better and to discover how they can improve their study value. They also have homework. ‘Eventually, the students will design the ideal course for the university. It would be wonderful if this course will actually be taught someday.’ / Kelly Janssen