<p>Graduating summa cum laude majoring in chemistry minoring in math. </p>
<p>That’s kind of amazing but I can’t help but wonder if she ever had a childhood.</p>
<p>Seeing as how at 18 months she was asking “what makes water wet?”, my guess is she had a childhood, it just was a lot more cerebral than most kids’ childhoods!</p>
<p>Kids develop at extremely varied rates. </p>
<p>One college friend GRADUATED WITH HONORS from my LAC only a year older at 17 than the student in the OP story. From chatting with him and others who started college as young as 13, they’d have been absolutely miserable if they had parents holding them back academically for the sake of their perceptions of a “childhood” or for “social factors”. </p>
<p>Incidentally, said friend is now a well-adjusted young adult on the tenure track at a well-known North American university.</p>
<p>The NSF is perfect for her; it offers that polar research opportunity over the summers and it sounds like she can benefit from that.</p>
<p>Congrats to her! Although I will say that she’s going to be drinking a Coke when the grad students go out to happy hour, lol.</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree. Different people enjoy different things. I’m a regular doctoral student and not a genius, and I loved school - LOVED it. I spent my summer attending free summer school programs when I could, and reading and reading and writing when I couldn’t. I’m assuming that’s the way she felt about chemistry, and studying, when she was younger.</p>
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<p>Honestly, it’s more disruptive to one’s life to try to have a baby while as a postdoc or assistant professor than to start a PhD at 16. The last president of MIT had a baby when she was 42, something which is not unusual for academics. It’s not ideal.</p>
<p>My son started college at 14. He’s now 18 and still having a childhood! He and his younger brothers are all about Star Wars and Legos.</p>
<p>Not having experienced a wunderkind, I do wonder at times if they every have an actual childhood. But kudos to those that successfully navigate puberty in college and I actually do mean that sincerely.</p>
<p>I don’t see how the teenager referenced in the article lost any part of her “childhood”. She lived at home and commuted to a nearby public U. at the same age as many students are commuting to attend rigorous public or private high schools. If anything, she probably had more free time over the past 4 years than her same-age peers in high school. She didn’t have to be in class all day or try to juggle a whole slew of APs, while at the same time trying to juggle participation in sports or school clubs in the hopes of having a good set of EC’s to impress a college ad com. </p>
<p>I can see that sentiment (lost childhood) expressed for the situation of a young teenager off to an intense academic environment like MIT, but Colorado had the reputation of being a more fun type of campus (it tends to rank very well on “party school” listings)-- I’m sure that Natasha was focused on her studies, but my point is that if she was intellectually capable of keeping up in the classes, then she may very well have had more time for leisure activities than many other high schoolers.</p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like she was pressured as a child – she was homeschooled and attended a Montessori school. </p>
<p>I’d note that it can be very hard for a highly gifted kids to relate to same age peers in any case – although it is also very common for kids like that to have different circles of friends for different activities and interests.</p>
<p>I feel like that’d be odd…It’s already hard to be one of the youngest people in your grade when you’re in the right grade…I mean, I know someone who skipped two grades and probably should have skipped at least 4…But I think his parents held him back from that due to medical problems (he has muscular dystrophy)…</p>
<p>I mean, it’s never easy. You end up resented. Because when you combine the age difference with the intellect, they seem like smart alecs. Because, let’s face it, these kid geniuses never are normal students. Even skipping grades, they’re A students. And being an A student who is different is kinda hard…</p>
<p>I said this before, but there was a teenager of 16 starting in the worm’s grad program. very nice mature young man.</p>
<p>I was in college with a fellow student who was 13, and in a club with him. He wasn’t resented, though at times we laughed at some of the weirdnesses of brilliance combined with the the awkwardness of being a (young) teen. </p>
<p>He became one of the youngest (perhaps the youngest) tenured professors at the university, and has had a brilliant career. His work is very heavily cited, and you’ve probably seen him on TV at one time or another. </p>
<p>I think he did just fine, academically and socially. In terms of being a social outcast, my guess is that he would have been far more of an outcast spending five more years in junior high school and high school.</p>
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<p>Amen to this. I know many kids who would prefer to just be allowed to follow their own academic path early, rather than being constrained by tedious requirements. I don’t know if I feel the same way because I do like learning about other subjects. At the same time, I think if we were given more freedom, this cohort would probably pursue their passions and also “learn the basics” independently. World History is an amazing, beautiful subject - unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that way when you’re cramming one civilization after another.</p>
<p>One of the things that distinguishes early college kids is whether or not they are singularly focused and driven. This wonderful young lady knew what she wanted to study from a young age and never strayed.</p>
<p>My oldest son began college classes at age 12, having passed the Cal. High School Proficiency Exam at that age. He began algebra at age 7. The difference was that 1) he was a meanderer and did quite a bit of unschooling during his elementary/jr high years and 2) he had no clue what he wanted to do 3) he didn’t want to attend a local university and didn’t want to leave home early. He was more of a Renaissance Man, so to speak. It would not have made sense for him to go full time early. So, he did lots of other cool stuff besides early full time college and he began full time college at 18.</p>
<p>For this young lady, it makes perfect sense that she took the path she did. I loved reading her story! :-)</p>
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<p>The kind of person who would start college before she enters puberty and then gets into “a Ph.D. program in atmospheric chemistry at Harvard University on a three-year National Science Foundation fellowship” at 16 is highly unlikely to have more time for “leisure activities” than a high school student.</p>
<p>The article supports my claim. This girl served on a bunch of boards and societies at her university, and participated in research and internship programs:</p>
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<p>The only difference between her and a high-achieving high school student, it seems to me, is that she’s significantly smarter.</p>
<p>Frankly, I question the idea that someone whose cognition develops more quickly than normal needs the same amount of time to experience “a normal childhood” as most people.</p>
<p>One of my kids have mostly older friends. Not gifted by any means but he relates better to older students and to adults. When he signs up for activities, job etc there is never a question of the ages of the other participants.
On the other hand my other kid (with similar intelligence) does not have a single friends that is not the same age AND the same grade in school.</p>
<p>As long as she was able to pursue the activities that interested her, I doubt she “missed” her childhood. It all depends on how we define childhood. Is it the specific activities, or the ability to enjoy the activities you choose? A particularly bright child might not enjoy the same activities as other kids. The musical prodigy certainly doesn’t want to spend years in youth orchestras, waiting for the other kids to catch up. The young genius who is good at sports, for his age, but can’t act on his understanding of why he isn’t better (because his body hasn’t caught up) might not enjoy organized sports. If they are supported in doing the things they want to do, they are not missing their childhood - besides, there’s plenty about childhood that I’m sure most of us would be more than willing to skip.</p>