<p>I know a woman who did the “early admissions” program at age 15 at a California state college. She has done fine with graduate admissions, but I do think that she did not really mature normally (IMO) or have the normal high school or college experience. I think that the education that she received at the early admissions program did not equal an undergrad education at a better university and although this is not a stumbling block in her field, I do think there is a difference. Seemingly all of her cohort also go on to good grad programs. I don’t know the other kids, so I don’t know how they turned out.</p>
<p>I was in college at 16, if you have a social life, then it’s fine. If you just stay in your room all day and night, and don’t have any friends I don’t know if it’s such a good idea; don’t grow up too fast, take some time to have fun !</p>
<p>I agree with the Bard College at Simon’s Rock idea. It’s geared to younger students who are intellectually ready for college. It’s a four year LAC, but many transfer out after 2yrs.</p>
<p>Please do look into Simon’s Rock. Most of the students who enter are 15 or 16, occasionally even younger, and it is an excellent LAC which is respected and would give you two or four years with your peers before transferring (if you want to) or entering grad school. My daughter attended and had a great experience there. If you have any questions send me a PM.</p>
<p>I can see were you are coming from. I am way not as smart as you, but I am thinking about dropping out and going to college at seventeen. I thought that I would be super unready for college because of my age. I see now that if you feel ready, you need to do what you feel is right. If you think that you can do it…then you should go for it.</p>
<p>In addition to Mary Baldwin College, and Bard College, both Clarkson (the engineering school in Pottsdam NY) and Boston University have associated on-campus High School academies. Your boarding, EC and social environment is age appropriate which lets you grow and develop normally, but you move into the college classes when ready. </p>
<p>My brilliant ex- arrived at a top US boarding school way way way too young and was killed socially. He is still angry and scarred 50 years later.</p>
<p>I started college at 14 but it was a community college. :S</p>
<p>I’m 17 now and got in for transfer at UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, Boston College, and Duke University. Attending Duke this fall as a junior.</p>
<p>I would advise that you not go to college at such a young age.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Missing out on all those years can mess up your personality/maturity, and when you do go to college, you may be an outcast simply because you act like a middle schooler.</p></li>
<li><p>If you go to college at 15, unless you’re a super genius, you probably won’t be accepted to the top colleges. Sure, you might be able to transfer later, but I know that at least some universities–such as Princeton–do not accept transfer students, so you would be eliminating your chances at going there.</p></li>
<li><p>Going somewhere like a community college or Mary Baldwin will not reflect well on you. For instance, when you apply to grad school or for a job, people may not be impressed by, “I went to a mediocre undergraduate college, but that’s because I was sooooo young, so I’m still smart!” It’s better to go to a top-notch college at a normal age than to go to a not-so-great college at a younger age.</p></li>
<li><p>What’s the point? Enjoy life while you’re still a teen. If you want, you can start doing real world stuff when you’re 15, 16, 17, and 18, waiting to go to college. Start a business. Start a charity. Create an organization dedicated to doing something productive. Do a research project. That way, when time comes for everyone to go to college, you at least still shine out–not for being ultra-young, but for having already accomplished something that most people don’t accomplish until they’re at least thirty.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Personally, I don’t think it’d hurt you. One of my sisters graduated high school at 15(Georgetown U. Alum, now) and ended up graduating when she was 20 (she turned 16 during her freshman year at college). By the time she graduated, she felt like it was the best thing she had ever done- high school just wasn’t enough of a challenge for her. It shouldnt hurt your admissions process either, because being so young will allow the admissions committee to see how hard-working and intelligent you are to be such a young senior.</p>
<p>I entered college when I was 16 and it didn’t work out for me. I had no purpose or direction and chose my program based on what the high-school counselor, who I only met once, told me would be good. Then again, my college experience happened outside of the U.S., in a place where the course curriculum was fixed and had no electives, and the average student age in my program was 20+. The fact that I couldn’t pick my own subjects was probably the main factor why it didn’t work out: half of them were just totally wrong for me (imagine a 16-y/o doing business meetings and political speeches!).
It was also hard to socialize with other students, as they would drop me from their social group as soon as they found out my age. Again, maybe that’s different in the U.S.</p>
<p>I think that if you want to go for it, you should make sure you know exactly what you want to study (unless you’re going to an LAC), and make sure that the schools you’re applying to have good enough facilities to support someone your age in case of any problems adjusting, especially if you’re planning on living on-campus. It would also be good to find out whether there have been any other young student-enrollments and how they fared in the past, both academically and socially.</p>
<p>I want to stress that I personally don’t regret having tried college at 16; it taught me several life-lessons. I was one of those people who thought I needed to do everything faster and better than everyone else; only after that experience did I realize how wrong that attitude was. Academic smarts are no substitute for maturity and sense of purpose. It took me a few more years to find the latter - I’m still working on the former. ;)</p>
<p>I believe 16 should be the very youngest age to go to college. You can drive and your at that mental maturity where you should be able to handle things well. I think it’d be helpful if you told us your SAT I and II scores. My friend Steven goes to an extremely competitive asian public school in CA. and he said there’s a kid called Edward Huang? (i thnk that’s his name) who’s going to college this year at Berkeley at age 12. He was also an Intel Science Talent Search semifinalist (although ppl say he just piggy banked off of his dad who’s a research scientist). Go look him up in the Intel STS thread by searching age 12 or Huange… Anyway… point blank. he has 800 on the Chemistry, Physics, and MATH 2C SAT II’s but his SAT I was horrible because his english skills have not been developed yet at age 12. He finished taking AP Calculus BC at age 10 and took AP chemistry, physics, etc. too. However, he was rejected by all the top colleges and is currently going to Berkeley… in this case… had he been 17 (regular age) when applying to colleges… I have no doubt he would have done extremely well.</p>