CASE STUDIES OF HIGHLY INTELLIGENT COLLEGE STUDENTS: FRAMEWORK FOR COUNSELING INTERVENTION

: There is the need to have an in-depth exploration of these highly intelligent college students in order to have a framework for counseling intervention specifically for them. The intentions were to understand and describe the challenges, coping mechanisms and insights of these participants. The research method being utilized in this study was qualitative, using a case study design. The researchers employed purposive sampling based on the characteristics or criteria stipulated in this study which means that there were existence of specific characteristics or criteria that manifested as being highly intelligent. The researchers decided to focus more on six (6) first year college students of the said locale, ages 18-19 years old from the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Teacher Education and College of Nursing departments. The researchers made use of inclusive criteria: IQ test results, Entrance Tests Results and Senior High Scholastic Report Cards in order to determine students who manifest being highly intelligent. Inclusion Criteria of being highly intelligent were sought: IQ of 120 and above or 90 to 99 in the percentile range; then entrance test results should have a general average of 90 to 99 and for the senior high school report card it should show a General Point Average of 90 or above. Findings highlight a need to; 1) establish a contextualized challenge that will generate validity of the needs of the participants, 2) research should assess the effects of challenges by associating coping mechanisms, which implies the subsequent development of a framework for counseling interventions, and 3) assess interventions to enhance understanding of the ways in which they improve coping with pressure, or may fail and the mechanisms which may explain these outcomes. However, guidance counselors cannot


Introduction
According to Sharma and Bapat (2015), being highly intelligent had always been an intrinsic, unknown and rare latency, which if recognized at a precise age takes possibility for high achievement. In one way or another, it means that being highly intelligent had been innate, mysterious and indefinite. And if these kinds of individuals have been identified at a certain age, their potential was unconstrained. But, as much as possible identification should not be the end goal because most of the time upon knowing that they were highly intelligent, they get alarmed and found themselves not fitting anymore in the environment where the majority were average people. Significant others when it came to his/her personal, academic and career life should make sure that they were given the proper attention and services in order for them not to shun their potential. A highly intelligent individual had the need for an intervening variable to develop his or her potential, and the chance factor or opportunity was one of the main catalysts, aside from family and community. There were those that had difficulty when it came to social and emotional adjustments. They have seemed to have little time for social life but given the chance and help, they can be well-adjusted to a society where they belong. A highly intelligent student had a wide range of interests and abilities. Nonetheless, highly intelligent had trouble narrowing his/her interests to one. In so doing, highly intelligent people experienced stress because great expectations were expected of him/her by the society and family where he/she belonged.
Guidance and counselling services devoted utmost of their time to help a trivial number of students who have the extreme necessity (Hidayata & Makhmudaha, 2016), given the reality that there was a great insufficiency of Registered Guidance Counselors in the country. In so doing, Guidance Counselors focused more on those delinquents, underachievers, misbehaved and dysfunctional clients or students of the institution, giving less consideration and time to those highly intelligent individuals or clients.
Moreover, chances emerged that these highly intelligent students fell short of their intelligence and academic achievements because they have seen and observed that they were not being accepted and were afraid that they are labelled as weird and nerd. As a result, they camouflaged their high intelligence and academic ability with an average level. They did not want to reveal their true self and capacity despite the fact that they knew that they can achieve and do more than what was expected of them. Their divergent thinking was misunderstood because traditional teachers and school heads most of the time emphasized convergent thinking. As a result, they resorted to being uncooperative and a passive thinker.
Students who received guidance and counselling with regard to career and problem-solving skills have a higher inclination to perform better when it comes to academics compared to those who have not received any guidance and counselling intervention (Tuchili & Ndhlovu, 2016). This study also had a great impact on the area of counseling since most of the time highly intelligent students were being neglected because guidance counselors did not prioritize them since we expected them that they do not need any academic intervention because they were already highly intelligent. As a result, most often than not disregarded any academic intervention a guidance counselor offered. As much as possible, we took into consideration their personal/social and vocational/career concerns because as guidance counselors we addressed these three components: personal/social, educational/academic and career/vocational in order for us to help them achieve their fullest potentials. Consequently, many highly intelligent students failed to match their kind of mental ability with their school achievement. There were some reasons for the inconsistency like personality and social problems like lack of internal control, lacked personal power and outside pressures to conformity. In so doing, they withdrew to avoid being inadequate, called attention by engaging in anti-social behavior, or kept their intellect and blended themselves into the average group. A highly intelligent student's educational need was often not met by the school environment. Highly intelligent people found their subjects boring and they developed the habit of idleness. Sometimes, they just daydreamed. Thus, these highly intelligent individuals were not given the opportunity to pursue their concerns at a more advanced level.
Guidance and counseling services have improved a lot because aside from serving the academic and career development of the student, they basically gave more emphasis on the psychosocial and mental well-being of students (Rahman & Atan, 2013). In the subject of counseling special cases, these highly intelligent students were not given much due consideration since guidance counselors most of the time found them not urgent clients to attend to compared to those who really caused such problems to them. Hence, it seemed that there was a great disparity or gap between the kind of guidance and counseling services given to these highly intelligent clients. And they longed to be heard because they too have their own challenges and struggles that needed to be addressed by those helping professionals like guidance counselors in the school setting.
In its pursuit to understand the challenges and insights of highly intelligent college students, the researchers found it relevant to have an in-depth study about them so as to help them achieve their full potential.

Intelligence
The evaluations of heritability did not elucidate the genetic guideline of human intelligence (Barros-Núñez, Rosales-Reynoso, & Rodríguez-Preciado, 2018). This was contrary to what was common knowledge in which intelligence might be due to genetics. Yet, until now it had been a topic of debate if intelligence was due to nature or nurturance.
The biological factors involved in having inherited such intelligence were not yet conclusive (Barros-Núñez et al., 2018). There may be a lack of evidence or validations when it came to the biological factors of acquiring such kind of level of intelligence or it might be that intelligence was a mixture of nature and nurturance.
People really tried harder to fathom and scrutinize the perception of intelligence and it was a fact that human beings were the most highly intelligent of all species here on earth (Chirania & Dhal, 2017). Further, understanding the idea of intelligence was such a confusing and mysterious feat, yet, human beings were the right and the only being that could differentiate the thought of intelligence because of being considered the highest order of mammals among all the species.
In the present education system, improved emphasis was assumed on IQ for the upcoming people of the nation, thus integrating extra prominence on educational delivery than extra-curricular activities like sports and dance (Ahmed & Seoud, 2018). This only showed that the educational system of most countries, really gave focuses on the intelligence quotient (IQ) of its citizens than any creative ability of a person. Nevertheless, IQ did not regulate one's triumph (Mohd, 2018). Hence, having a high IQ did not mean that a certain individual surely succeeds in life. Nowadays, intelligence and victory were not regarded similarly they were beforehand (Ramaraju, 2015). Mainly because, in judging a certain person, an approach should be holistic, especially in the case of highly intelligent students. There were those highly intelligent individuals who seemed fine and victorious but deep inside they have their own struggles and emptiness within. As a result, there were those who tend to resort to suicide when the situation gets worst.
Mental progress has been converted into a significant emphasis aside from physical growth in childhood (Pulungan, Lubis, & Fauzi, 2017). The term giftedness designates the possession and use of untrained and spontaneously expressed natural abilities (called aptitudes or gifts) in at least one ability domain to a degree that places a child among the top 10% of his or her age peers (Gagne, 2008). The Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent suggests a strong dissimilarity between giftedness and talent. On the contrary, the term talent labels the superior mastery of systematically developed abilities (or skills) and knowledge in at least one field of human activity to a degree that places a child's achievement within the upper 10% of age-peers who were dynamic in that field or fields. His model demonstrates five aptitude domains: intellectual, creative, socio-affective, sensorimotor and "others" (e.g. extrasensory perception). These natural abilities, which have a vivid hereditary origin can be detected in each task in which a person was provoked within the development of his/her education. Hence, the mental acumen and development of our youths should be given primordial importance aside from their physical well-being. As a result, achieving the wholistic approach to their development.

Challenges of Highly Intelligent College Students
The implication of the cultural influence should be measured in a wider means subsequently it was a culture that made the essential of the divine rearing of an individual, his action and life-building (Shastina, Shatunova, Borodina, Borisov, & Maliy, 2018). It was indeed obvious that culture was really a great influencer with regard to the kind of attitudes and values these youths possessed. Same was true with the kind of needs they longed for.
In reality, there was no special provision being made in the public education system for the education of highly intelligent students (Peter Merrotsy, 2017). High intelligence implies integration of personal development categorized by a high level of general and professional abilities in accord with enthusiasm and individual features that permit attaining achievement in education and specialized events (Narikbaeva, 2016). Hereafter, these kinds of individuals should be given emphasis in the education system and the educators as well, in spite of the fact that most of them already have high intelligence. Basically, high intelligence was not enough for these highly intelligent students to maximize their full potential.
All guidance counselors should widen their opinion to embrace the likelihood of high intelligence as we define it in any of the students that they associate (Kennedy & Farley, 2018). A guidance counselor who was concerned for the welfare of his/her clients entailed embracing whatever intelligence a client may possess and making use of such probability in such a way that there was an emergence of a self-actualized and fulfilled highly intelligent person.
The students were inclined to be drenched and have less attention to guidance and counseling services (Alhadi, Supriyanto, & Dina, 2016). This was very common since availing of the guidance services of the institution was not compulsory. As a result, most students especially those highly intelligent ones found it a waste of their time when it came to being connected with the guidance services of the institution. These highly intelligent students lacked the personal interest, drive and motivation to avail the services of the guidance office. It could be that they failed to appreciate and know the importance of it. In one way or another, it was a great challenge for guidance counselors to make themselves visible to the students. Up until now, it was good to note that most guidance counselors really made such efforts to reach out to the students.
There is a meager contribution when it comes to the insight of willingness to initiate collaboration and consultation with all the school staff and the eagerness to produce a school setting that provided students' progress (Hidayata & Makhmudaha, 2016). This was a given reality or scenario that greatly caused struggle for our youth who were considered highly intelligent. The efforts of the guidance counselors were futile if there was no collaboration from all school staff as well as the administration because, in one way or another, they consulted each other so as to think and rethink ways on how they really helped those students who were highly intelligent. Kaur and Malhotra (2015) said that it is so uncommon that these highly intelligent individuals had truly come up with any professional help for counselling and see it ambiguous when it comes to the part of counsellors in institutes. With regard to this sad reality, it was very much communal that nowadays, most students did not see the importance of seeing a guidance counselor for them to know their selves better. This was more prevalent among highly intelligent youths because most often than not, they saw themselves who did not need professional help from guidance counselors because they already had the intellect that most clients of the guidance counselors failed to acquire. Another was that the guidance counselors themselves failed to reach out to them and did not recognize that they too have their own struggles and needs.

Purpose of the Study
This study aimed to describe selected cases of highly intelligent college students. As a basis for the design of a framework for counseling intervention. Specific objectives of study (a) describe the challenges of highly intelligent college students; (b) describe how they cope with the challenges; (c) describe their insights about their situation; (d) based on the findings, propose a framework for counseling intervention. For the readers to comprehend the researcher's understanding of how the particular variables in this study were operationalized, a figure was illustrated. Figure 1 above reflects the operationalization of the variables under study. It depicts the aim of this study which is to explore case studies of highly intelligent college students. The exploration of their challenges, coping and insights helped the researchers attain knowledge on how to deal with them. The results of this study could also aid the researchers is proposing a framework for counseling intervention for these highly intelligent college students.

Research Design
Qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). As a result, the researchers decided to make use of qualitative research because she found it the most appropriate and fitting one for this kind of study. In a sense that qualitative research is intended to discover, determine, recognize or describe phenomena that have already been acknowledged but were not well understood. The case study should be defined as a research strategy, an empirical inquiry that investigates a phenomenon within its real-life context (Yin, 2013). In so doing, the researchers made use of the qualitative approach or strategy of inquiry used was a case study to the participants incorporating as well the perceptions of their parents and sibling/s.

Research Respondents
The researchers decided to focus more on six (6) first year college students of the said locale, ages 18-19 years old from the CAS, CTE and CN departments. The researchers made use of inclusive criteria: IQ test results, Entrance Tests Results and Senior High Scholastic Report Cards in order to determine students who manifest as being highly intelligent. Inclusion Criteria of being highly intelligent were sought: IQ of 120 and above or 90 to 99 in the percentile range; then entrance test results should have a general average of 90 to 99 and the senior high school report card should show a GPA of 90 or above.

Research Environment
The location of this study was Cebu Normal University, Main Campus. The said campus, offered the College of Nursing (CN), College of Teacher Education (CTE) and College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). It had achieved its recognition as the Center of Excellence in the field of Nursing and Teacher Education. From time to time, it emerged top-notch students in the Licensure Examinations. These in one way or another, proved its appropriateness in conducting my study on those youth who were highly intelligent based on the criteria of the study.

Research Instruments
The researchers made a semi-structured interview guide for the in-depth interview The questions have been anchored on the research problems being stipulated in this research. As to the determination of the IQ level of the participants, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, fourth edition (WAIS-IV) Full Scale IQ results have been used. Full Scale IQ was the sum of scaled scores of verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory and processing speed.

Data Gathering Procedures
Inclusion Criteria of being highly intelligent were sought: IQ of 120 and above or 90 to 99 in percentile range, IQ test was standardized, comprehensive and it has not been used in the entrance test, specifically the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, fourth edition (WAIS-IV) results; then entrance test results should have a general average of 90 to 99 and for the senior high school report card it should show a GPA of 90 or above.
Meanwhile, the researchers had the participants from the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), College of Teacher Education (CTE) and College of Nursing (CN) based on the criteria that were used. The top five (5) students when it comes to entrance test results were sought from each college. A total of 15 students all in all from the three colleges, the researchers had the top six (6) among them the participants of the study.
They were administered with Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, fourth edition (WAIS-IV) for their IQ. However, five (5) of them fall behind the required IQ for this study, hence, they were rejected as one of the participants and only one (1) remained. The researchers chose another five (5) among the fifteen (15) students to compensate for the five (5) rejected participants.
Moreover, an approved letter of request regarding this study was sought from the Office of the President, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Department Deans of Cebu Normal University -Main Campus. The researchers also secured permission from the persons in authority of the locale's Testing Center in order to gather data regarding the IQ test results and Entrance Test Results of freshmen. As well as to the Registrar of Cebu Normal University-Main Campus when it came to accessing their Senior High School Report Card.
After determining the research sample, the researchers had an individual administration with the semi-structured interview guide for the research participants. During administration, the researchers should make sure they have understood the inquiry very well. Prior to administration, the informed consent form was provided for them. An informed consent form is for the research sample who was invited to participate in this study given that they have manifested the criteria of the study. The informed consent form had two parts, the first part was the information sheet that consists of the introduction, purpose of the research, type of research intervention, participant selection, voluntary participation clause, procedure, duration, risks, benefits, compensation if any, ethical consideration and confidentiality, right to refuse or withdraw clause and to whom to contact if they have further questions and clarifications. The second part was the certificate of consent in which the printed name and signature of the participant were affixed as well as the date of signing. It also consists of a statement by the researchers taking the consent in which the researchers also printed her name and affix her signature. The date of signing should be evident as well. The accomplished informed consent form was appended in appendix G.

Data Analysis
In order to know the answers to the research questions or objectives in this particular study, the researchers decided to analyze the data in five phases, which included: 1) compiling the data being collected: data from the demographic profile questionnaire and the responses from the semi-structured interview guide; 2) disassembling the data per case, research problems and responses based on the semi-structured interview guide probing questions; 3) combining data to see the similarities or commonalities and uniqueness of the participants' responses; 4) connecting data in order to make an analysis among all the data being gathered; 5) interpreting data in order to come up theme/themes.
As regards this study there were six cases being analyzed and compared to generalize the findings, summary, conclusions and recommendations for this study. The data within each individual case consisted of a demographic profile questionnaire and a semi-structured interview guide. The first data being analyzed was the participants' demographic profile questionnaires that were being filled in. This questionnaire contained the following information: personal data, family background data and educational background of the participants. The second data being analyzed were the responses of the participants based on the semi-structured interview guide. The audio recorded data was made used together with some important notes being written by the researchers during the interview. The responses of the participants were analyzed based on themes, relevance, similarities or commonalities, significance and uniqueness to the research problems and study in general. Table 1 presented the data of the participants' demographic profiles. Among the six cases, there were two who were 18 years old and the rest were 19 years old which was in accordance with the research sample requisite of this study. The same is true with their courses and majors in which two of them took up a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, one had the course of Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, another one was taking up a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and two of them were having the course of Bachelor of Science in Education major in Mathematics and English. Hence, the three colleges or departments were represented by two participants.  Table 2 described the challenges of highly intelligent college students. Five (5) of the participants resented their situation as being highly intelligent. Only one (1) of them felt thankful that he has such mental acumen. Annie narrated that she felt tired of being an intelligent student. Then John said that he felt the burden is becoming heavy and he wanted to be just an ordinary boy. As regards to Rose, she felt that she is restless and failed to enjoy a life that others have experienced. Consequently, Mary wanted to live as an ordinary and normal college student or daughter of her parents. For Liza, she resented because she tends not to enjoy life to the fullest because of trying to indulge others' demands. All participants have their own sets of challenges because of their being highly intelligent, these challenges came from their very own mindset, from their very own family, friends, teachers and others. Highly intelligent students may express various concerns it may be associated with their families or schools; this implies that the struggles they encountered change conferring with the environment where they belong (Gamer & Hadi, 2017). This means that the challenges of these highly intelligent individuals may vary according to the kind of families or schools they belong.

Description of Challenges of Highly Intelligent College Students
As to the unique responses of the participants, Paul narrated that he was challenged because his friends became aloof to him because according to his friends, he sometimes became proud, boastful and impatient with his friends who were not that intelligent. While Annie has a hard time choosing friends who would understand her situation. She also has a hard time disclosing to her friends and parents problems with academics. Another unique response was the responses of John and Liza. John said that his struggle was the lack of resources to hone his intellect. While Liza shared that her struggle was her friends who manifested being envious of her intellectual ability. Table 3 showed the description of how the participants cope with the challenges being encountered. Based on the responses of the participants, they all have coped with the struggles because of their ways of conditioning their minds by accepting the challenges that highly intelligent individuals have to surpass and all they have to do was to recognize, be thankful for their abilities and to do their best to maintain their said capabilities. Five (5) of the participants really revealed that their way of coping is being willing to accept the thoughts and feelings of being highly intelligent students. One common way of coping with the aforementioned cases was the support coming from their families, friends, relatives and teachers. The family communication strategy was one way of coping with stressors (Shaunessy & Suldo, 2011). This affirms that having open communication with their families was a must for them to be understood by their loved ones. Assuming there was a lack of such, misunderstanding and assumptions may creep in. Paul really felt the support coming from her mother, given the fact that he has no father anymore. More so with Annie, because she is an only child, she was given all the support that her parents could offer. John narrated too that he felt the support coming from his significant others. The same is true with Mary because her parents are both Medical Doctors, as a result, they can afford to support Mary with all the resources that could hone her intellect and talents. Liza also felt the same way, but she made mention that she has experienced support from her teachers too.

Description of How They Cope with the Challenges
Meanwhile, talent plays an important role in mental health (Yahya, Banat, & Alzaboun, 2012). Their talents served as their diversion; hence, they really make it to a point of showcasing their abilities to others. They also involve themselves in certain competitions and contests like the case of Rose, all the other cases also performed their abilities when there were requests from their families and teachers. In the case of John, he was earning some extra amount of money through his drawing works.
One unique response was from Annie whom she said that she had to be assertive with her friends when they tend to inhibit her to study and excel more. She had to be assertive in a way that she defriended those friends who failed to support her. Table 4 showed the insights of being highly intelligent college students. Highly intelligent students agonize from catastrophe and issues of developmental character, some of their problems may occur and increase during a specific academic phase or age, and some may associate with males or females (Yahya et al., 2012). This was really true based on the insights given by the participants mainly because they have been challenged and pressured to really maintain and act on being highly intelligent. In the case of Mary, she was very anxious about what would happen to her in the future. As for her, it implies a great responsibility that she had to cope with and it became a burden on her part. She needs help to cope with the high hopes of her significant others.

Insights of Being Highly Intelligent College Students
The same was true with Paul who felt that he is responsible for whatever the consequences of his own actions will be. Annie then has the need to unload the burden coming from her parent's expectations. Hence, there is a need for help with regard to their responses. A help that could aid them overcome the challenges they were facing. Some insights and perceptions of the parents and siblings were that they were proud and happy with them being considered highly intelligent college students. Yet, in Jane's case, her parents gave her the responsibility of helping them survive the financial crisis they were in. In the case of Rose, her parents gave her the obligation to financially support her two sisters because her parents have meager income. The most important needs and issues of distinctive students in Jordan were seeking perfection, stalling, and a curriculum that does not motivate their abilities (Yahya et al., 2012). Since they were obligated to realize the demands of their loved ones, they want to appear perfect in their very eyes and impressions. They also want to make things that were productive for their seeking of perfection, hence, a delay in such a task was a disappointment for them. Time wasted means an opportunity being wasted. Wrong moved means a failure on their part. These participants really wanted to maintain their academic status because it is as if the feelings of pride and joy coming from their significant others rely on the mental capacity that they have performed on their academic and career tasks.

Framework for Counseling Intervention
The results of the study suggested the following core findings in terms of the challenges, coping mechanisms and insights of these participants as a result a framework entitled, "Kaalam sa Pag-amuma," in Visayan dialect while in English it is translated as, "The Brain of Nurturance," was designed (Figure 2). This figure expounded the needed counseling intervention for highly intelligent students. Accordingly, this will serve as a guide in formulating guidance programs for this kind of population.
Identification of highly intelligent college students was done first by having an inclusive criterion. With regard to the responses to their challenges, the needs of this population emerged be it personal, academic or career-wise. Having heard of those, in order for the guidance counselors to formulate such applicable programs for them, there were important elements to consider. These elements were school administration or management, personnel, budgetary requisites and partners or agencies that could help the school and guidance counselors as regard the needs of these highly intelligent students. We should also take into consideration the important contribution of having a support system for this kind of youth. The family was central to the existence and support of highly intelligent college students despite its influence of being the source of their struggles it gives purpose to their survival and it motivates them to persevere. Thus, support coming from the guidance counselors and significant others is very important in order to achieve the target outcomes. Desirable changes in the well-being and functioning of these students will emerge. Well-being includes multiple operationalizations of well-being, including life purpose, emotional vitality, positive affect, life satisfaction, happiness and optimism (Boehm & Kubzansky, 2012). This implies that well-being is indeed an important target outcome for those highly intelligent students who will be given the rightful counseling intervention. Whereas, functioning is a target outcome that refers to the performance of daily living tasks including physical activity, participation in schoolwork, community involvement and maintaining healthy relationships with others.

Conclusion and Recommendations
The challenges of highly intelligent college students significantly influenced their coping mechanisms and insights. Their challenges were not hindrances for them to be an achiever when it comes to academics. When it comes to their coping mechanisms, it can be concluded that their significant others especially their families, motivate them to maintain their good performance despite its influence on their challenges as highly intelligent college students. Henceforth, support coming from the significant others and the Guidance Counselors was essential for the realization of helping this kind of student who has innate needs and potentialities. It is therefore resolved that there was a great need for help from their significant others and Guidance Counselors. Support and attention from Registered Guidance Counselors in their school settings were being resolved as their common insights. Guidance counselors served as an advocate for these highly intelligent students and liaisons between the various professionals that could best serve this population. They should be given equal attention even though these highly intelligent college students did not cause any harm or problems to their school and family. Based on a qualitative analysis of the objectives of the study it can be concluded that the challenges, coping mechanisms and insights of these highly intelligent college students are important factors to consider when designing and targeting the framework for counseling intervention for this kind of population.
The schools and community should strengthen programs, structured learning experiences and activities for highly intelligent individuals to address their unique needs. Some areas for further study will be on the integration of focus on the unique personality profile and counseling needs of these highly intelligent college students. As well as on the exploration of specific counseling approaches and their effectiveness in working with highly intelligent population. Additional research might explore what type of support systems were offered by schools, community and certain agencies across the country and whether or not these may have effects on the functional living of highly intelligent college students as well as researches that deal with highly intelligent individuals who underachieve, committed suicide and other dysfunctional behaviors. Since this study was exploratory, which was considered qualitative research, quantitative research is recommended as well for this kind of population. It is likewise recommended that future research be conducted implementing a mixed method design in order to provide a better comparison of findings between these types of designs of highly intelligent college students. Lastly, it is highly recommended to have further study on the Filipinos who are gifted and talented students in order to see how similar and different are they with those of Filipinos who are highly intelligent students.