There is a high school in the city I live in which have some high-level math courses in their curriculum. It's a special math class mentored by some university lecturers, and the children basically do the first year of university math courses (single-dimensional analysis, linear algebra, basics of set theory and some miscellaneous things).

Students which come from this high school are generally very bright people, frequently participate in national math contests and achieve successes in various areas.

It would be all great, but there is a problem: there is a subgroup that never really had to learn (i.e. put in a serious effort), being smart was enough. When they come to the university, the first year is a breeze (while all the others learns hard work), but the second gets tough (because there is many new things and they are unable to manage their time) and at third they drop out (which is a shame because they were very promising). Also, there are issues with ego (they were always good, and now what), neglect (skipping homework, because "I can always do it") and altitude (like "of course I'm the best", or at the beginning not paying attention because "it's obvious" and later because "I don't know what is going on, why bother catching up, I can always do it later").

I have heard about similar observations from people from different places, always with regard to math or computer science. What's wrong?

The university offers a wide range of courses of varying difficulty, from basic to insanely hard, so it's not a problem of "not enough challenge". Also, the university doesn't have resources to mentor them, so it's not an option. It seems a kind of problem of maturity (they frequently have some childish behaviors), like doing all this stuff in high school (their schedules had to be packed) would leave too little time for growing up, but that's just a hypothesis.

Is there any related research? Are there any solutions or suggestions? Is it a problem of the university, or perhaps the high-school?

There is a high school in the city I live in which has some high-level math courses in their curriculum. It's a special math class mentored by some university lecturers, and the children basically do the first year of university math courses (single-dimensional analysis, linear algebra, basics of set theory and some miscellaneous things).

Students who come from this high school are generally very bright people, frequently participate in national math contests and achieve successes in various areas.

It would be all great, but there is a problem: there is a subgroup that never really had to learn (i.e. put in a serious effort), being smart was enough. When they come to the university, the first year is a breeze (while all the others learn hard work), but the second gets tough (because there is many new things and they are unable to manage their time) and in the third year they drop out (which is a shame because they were very promising). Also, there are issues with ego (they were always good, and now what), neglect (skipping homework, because "I can always do it") and attitude (like "of course I'm the best", or at the beginning not paying attention because "it's obvious" and later because "I don't know what is going on, why bother catching up, I can always do it later").

I have heard about similar observations from people from different places, always with regard to math or computer science. What's wrong?

The university offers a wide range of courses of varying difficulty, from basic to insanely hard, so it's not a problem of "not enough challenge". Also, the university doesn't have resources to mentor them, so it's not an option. It seems a kind of problem of maturity (they frequently have some childish behaviors), like doing all this stuff in high school (their schedules had to be packed) would leave too little time for growing up, but that's just a hypothesis.

Is there any related research? Are there any solutions or suggestions? Is it a problem of the university, or perhaps the high-school?