BU and NYU are not safety/likely schools for anyone, no matter how exceptional. This college list has reaches and safeties and nothing in between for Match/Target. If Reaches don’t work out, why drop down to safety options when there are colleges that are quite selective in between…perhaps in this case, that accept between 20-40% in RD and for CS. For example, Case Western, U of Miami, Wake Forest, U of Rochester, UC-San Diego, U of Michigan.
My child went to college starting at age 16, having earned a high school diploma (entered K early plus graduated after junior year). It is not appropriate for all people and I would not do it if it was solely based on academic readiness. For my kid, she was ready to be in college academically, socially, personally, and in terms of her particular field level of talent required. She went to NYU and lived in the dorms, having grown up in a rural town of 1,700 people. She thrived at NYU on all fronts and was a leader, and so on, there. Received significant scholarship as well.
By the way, EA at MIT doesn’t have a statistical advantage over RD there like it does at some other schools.
The high school’s own classification may be important for calculating high school class rank, but it is not necessarily taken at face value by colleges in the admissions process. Many colleges recalculate GPAs and/or convert GPAs into a standardized format that may or may not line up with the high school’s definitions. For example, we know from the Harvard lawsuit documents that Harvard (during the 2018 cycle, at least) views an overall average of 95 on a 100-pt scale to be equivalent to 4.0, while 90 is equivalent to 3.5.
Our neighborhood high school uses a 100-pt scale, and part of gauging my D22’s academic fit and (particularly) eligibility for auto-merit scholarships was converting to the appropriate scale that a given college uses. Sometimes a 90 is a 4.0; sometimes it’s not.
Which two grades were skipped? In my opinion, the age is more of a social issue than an academic one.
I’ll leave it to others who know more than me. I wonder if colleges still look at subject test scores and, if they do, how they view those taken freshman year.
If a student is graduating at 16 and was an AP Scholar six years ago, many of the AP tests would have been self study. How many of the AP courses were actually taken in person?
I feel like you are trying to use age as a hook and that may backfire. I would focus on accomplishments regardless of the age at which they were achieved.
Thank you all for your thoughts - many great ideas here.
Yes, we ran the calculators on every school before we built a list of colleges to apply to. The budget is somewhat flexible, as studying CS offers decent pay after graduation. NYU fell into a reasonable $ number, surprisingly, for our family.
The college list is longer than we listed here, because of the not so high GPA (4.0 is from 93% in our school), the age issue and no sports/music, etc. We cast a wide net. We also applied to Georgia Tech (EA) and a few more “likely schools” like UMich, Northeastern, UTD, Emory, Macauley, as well as Cornell RD, etc. I agree that NYU and BU are not likelies for anyone, but rather more likely than many others on the list.
We emailed each school asking about starting college at 16 (student will be 16.5 yo)and most said it was not a problem; some suggested to talk to the Dean for additional legalities, but after acceptance. Some said dorms were out of question before 17 yo. Student skipped 2nd and 4th grades and is used to working/studying with older students, but 24-hrs a day dorm environment vs. 8-10 hrs at school and then safe return home are very different scenarios, I agree. Gap year is a big consideration, but we might have problems getting financials in order next year from one of the parents (this year, it worked out). If accepted in NYC (NYU, Columbia) - student would live at home and no gap year needed.
Simon Rock is not for the student - we looked 2 years ago and decided against it.
Student applied to UTD to maximize the National Merit package from this school.
Subject tests - some schools do not ask/allow reporting on them; some do. It is hard to say if they consider them, but we reported where allowed as these are substantial academic achievements at a young age, after self-study.
Agree on MIT EA - no real advantage over RD. Interestingly, though, just recently had an interview and the interviewer himself started MIT undergrad at 16! It was a nice bonding topic to warm up the conversation…
Agree. The age should not be a hook, per se, but a lot of accomplishments were early and self-study, and schools like IV (intellectual vitality) in general. The age issue runs through the application, as it is inevitable, but not as a hook.
Thank you for the CMU book - it is a great resource. We contacted CMU and they said 16 was ok, but need to talk to the Dean after acceptance. The CMU specifies 17 yo for dorms. This is very helpful to know. This is exactly why we had to cast a wide net - age can be quite an obstacle, as well.
I could write a book on this subject. The kid who is going into a well paid profession who graduates into a recession where that particular sector isn’t hiring. The kid who just knows he/she is destined for a successful career in finance who discovers ethnomusicology as a sophomore and can’t think of studying anything else. And the kid who is going into a well paid profession but by graduation has a significant other who is doing Americorps or Peace Corps or similar and so decides to do that as well for a few years so they can be together.
You don’t know. Predicting the labor market five years out is a tricky business. Who could have guessed last January when Tech companies couldn’t hire fast enough that Meta, Coinbase, Lyft, Amazon, etc. would be laying off tens of thousands of employees-- before Christmas- some of whom were hired from overseas (that’s how desperate their companies were) and will now be deported if they can’t find another job in 60 days.
Yikes.
So get a budget. This is what you can afford out of savings. This is what you can cash flow. This is what your son can borrow on his own (a cap, fortunately, the number isn’t unlimited). That’s your budget. You cannot count on his high earnings (when he’ll be all of 21 years old) to bail you out of a bad decision.
Do you know how many petroleum engineers (a sure fire career they were told) couldn’t get jobs after the last oil bust? Do you know how many software engineers were let go when the tech bubble burst in the early 2000’s? Do you know how many banking and finance people lost their jobs AND their entire retirement portfolio when Lehman and Bear Stearns went belly up in 2008? Lots and lots and lots and lots.
Get a budget of what you can actually afford. And if your kid decides on med school (more money, more loans) or wants to become a guidance counselor (grad school and not highly paid) or move to New Zealand and make organic cheese, than at least you haven’t borrowed to the hilt…
I agree - we may have to compromise on the school if too young, on the location if too far, on the gap year depending on other factors. I believe it is the case with many atypical students. Fingers crossed for this one!
Love your thoughts - all very true. I agree with all. Budget is flexible just a bit, just a little, as we are being practical. And, for peace of mind, student applied to UTD, which offers a great financial incentive (almost full ride) for National Merit Finalists.
Why is age an issue? And why is the “age issue” inevitable in his application? Would his accomplishments be less significant if he didn’t mention age?
Stanford describes intellectual vitality. "We want to see the kind of curiosity and enthusiasm that will allow you to spark a lively discussion in a first-year seminar and continue the conversation at the dinner table. We want to see the energy and depth of commitment you will bring to your endeavors, whether that means in a research lab, as part of a community organization, during a performance or on an athletic field.
In my opinion, intellectual vitality is not doing self study AP exams or taking a subject test as a freshman.
I’m no expert, but my instinct would be to downplay the kid’s age, rather than calling attention to it in the application. Precociousness and brilliance aren’t the same thing, and some application readers may be turned off by an applicant being presented as a precocious youngster. I would think it would be best to emphasize accomplishments themselves, rather than the age at which they were accomplished.
My brother in law also went to CMU full ride scholarship when they still offered full
Merit. He was 16 years old too (skipped two grades as well) and was valedictorian at his high school. He did not like CMU- it was hard for him socially there and may have been compounded by the fact he was young and maybe the culture of the school. Would def encourage to visit.
Part of the issue with the age is that a good college raises the bar for the student. If the student went to a CMU CS for instance, the 200 kids would be among the top 200 kids in the country. The kid may place anywhere on the grade spectrum. Grading is often on the curve. Can a 16 year old kid handle the disappointment of seeing their first 3.0 on the report kid? Just in case …
College also imposes other stresses that are not purely academic.
For one of my kids, our kindergarten school told us that they are placing him a grade ahead (we didn’t ask), but that when we take him out, we should place him back with the correct age group in the next school. We took that advice seriously, and “pulled him back” a year – went from third grade to third grade. We are very happy with that decision.
The question is whether it makes sense to do it now between 12th grade and freshman year for kids that are far ahead.