It can be difficult for younger students, especially socially if they are living in the dorms. I always looked at sleepaway colleges as half way houses where kids can experiment with sex, sexuality, drugs , drinking and all sorts of other things. This is a serious judgement call a parent has to make.
Yes, I’ve seen it work out. But the vast majority of the time, the student commutes to a local college. In some cases , a parent moves with the student do the college of choice is local to them.
My son is dating a young woman who was 15 when she graduated high school and started college. She commuted to a local private college where she got a generous tuition scholarship. After two years , and a 4.0 at that school, she transferred to an Ivy League college where she got her degree. By then she was 17.5 which was close to the age of many freshman and that she was in upper class courses was not an issue. The academics were never the issue. I know another woman who did the same. Yet another with some psychological issues that was accepted to a top school but parents decided she needed to stay at home until issues resolved. She ended up going Ivy for her graduate school.
I also know a young woman who graduated from college at a very age, went on to law school and got that degree before she was of age to take the bar and practice.
My UG college had a program specifically for very young students who were academically ready for college , and I have two very close friends who started at college at ages 15 and 16.
Where are all of these young prodigies now? They’ve mostly assimilated into the population and none of them particularly outstanding as compared to the top kids that went on to college at a more standard age.