<p>My D will barely be 17 and half when heading off to college next year, so most of her freshman year she won't be of legal age. She plans on going to school OOS. Has anyone else experienced this? Could she have any problems that I'm not aware of?</p>
<p>I was in the same situation as your daughter thirtysomething years ago, and there were no problems whatsoever, even though my college was OOS and a five-hour drive from home.</p>
<p>However, I did not get sick during freshman year, and I did not participate in any classes or extracurricular activities that required travel.</p>
<p>I think that, after your daughter has officially enrolled in college, she should contact the college health service to see whether you should sign some sort of authorization so that she will be able to get medical care promptly without waiting for your consent. Also, if she is going to be involved in anything that requires travel, she should probably tell the person in charge that she is underage as early as possible, just in case you have to sign some sort of permission slip.</p>
<p>My daughter was 17 for about 6 weeks at the beginning of school. Before her 18th b'day, she did get sick, she did travel OOS with her college athletic team. The school sent us specific forms for the parents to complete, sign, and return regarding her underage status. She also registered to vote months before she was 18 (our state lets you do that as long as you are 18 by Election Day).</p>
<p>I am 17 and am going to college >.>. I skipped first grade. I am going to feel so wierd... not even registered to vote till my freshman year (late).</p>
<p>Plenty of people in this situation. You might need to co-sign when setting up her banking situation at the school.</p>
<p>Last year, my D started college at age 16 1/2. She is now a soph and was 17 1/2 at the start of this school year but has just turned 18. There were no problems associated with this fact. I recall some form when she started from Health Services that we had to sign about consent for services, something of that nature. Nothing else has arisen. In fact, she traveled for a week to Kentucky (her school is in NYC; we live in Vermont) on a school sponsored trip, paid for by the school, with her Scholars group. Again, nothing special I had to do. She actually is traveling to Brazil with them in a couple of months and I imagine if she were still 17, then maybe I'd have to give consent to take her out of the country but she is now 18, so it is a moot point. So, there was nothing else that arose. There was an issue with a bank in NYC even though my name was on the same account and they had FAR more restrictions than the bank my child has had an account with here in our state since she was much much younger as she has earned income for some time and we've had a joint account. The banks in our state unfortunately don't have branches in NYC. So, that issue came up with the bank acct. in NYC, but again, not so at our local bank. </p>
<p>So, I haven't had any problems with her being underage. The college knowingly accepted her as an early graduate, so they were fine with it. In your D's case, she is not at all unusual because there are some freshmen who are 17 upon entering, particularly if their school system had a K entrance deadline of Dec. 31 (which is not the case here but it is elsewhere). For kids like that, many don't turn 18 until several months after starting college. My D was younger because she not only had an early entrance into K (we have a Sept. 1 deadline here and her birthday is in Oct.) but she ALSO graduated after her junior year of HS. Thus she was 16 upon entering college, and that was not the norm.</p>
<p>stow
S is a freshman now OOS and wont be 18 until Nov 9. We had to sign the housing contract with him,whereas an 18 yr old doesnt need the parent to sign.We took care of banking at home,using a Bank of America b/c it had branches near his campus and ATM's on campus, and a branch near home. They let him open his own checking with ATM/Debit card, but he cant get a credit card till he's 18.We thought we could get around this by adding him as an extra card carrier on our American Express (for emergencies) but you cant do that either till they are 18.Solution,in case of emergency, was to leave a larger balance in his checking account for these first few months than I normally would with a new freshman.He plans on Nov 9 to hightil it over to the branch bank and fill out the credit card app to link up with his checking LOL.
Other than that,I cant think of any problems.He registered to vote prior to leaving for school and we requested an absentee ballot.He recently applied for,and received his passport w/o us,no problem.He used the health service there to get his menningitis shot and that wasnt a problem either.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your help. When she skipped 1st grade we had to think of consequences that might happen as she went through school, but I guess we never thought about her being young at college until recently. She takes post-secondary classes at the local university so I know the work won't be problem, but we didn't have to worry about illness or banking with that. Thanks again for all your responses.</p>
<p>My D was 17 when she started college and had enough credits to graduate after 3 1/2 years after fall semester before her 20th birthday. She begged us to let her stay an extra semester to graduate with the rest of her friends and added a minor. She refused enticement of a new car, a round the world vacation and cash which would have cost us less than paying for the extra semester. She said since she skipped a grade (7th), she was already "robbed" a year of "carefree life". We relented.
She had no problems at college and I don't remember doing anything special for her because she was a year younger.</p>
<p>I was barely 17 when I started college. My HS was pretty bad and I had almost no one to relate to. I applied to college during Jr. year, got accepted and never looked back. I had an instant peer group when I got to my campus; compared to HS, this was heaven on Earth. It may not work as well for everyone, but it was wonderful for me.</p>
<p>Stowmom: I was only 17 when I started college; I caught the flu my second week there and had to be sent home for 3 days (Thurs-Sun) because I was not allowed to stay at school being so sick and underage. My parents brought me back and signed a waiver with the infirmary that allowed me to stay there. I turned 18 a few days later.</p>
<p>Incidentally, my D has a birthday the day after mine, and will also be 17 when she starts college. Pitt is up there on her list (just got the acceptance last week!)</p>
<p>Last year, when my daughter was 17, she used the health center, no problem. As I said, I had signed some papers when she started school.</p>
<p>I added my son to my Visa when he was 17 without any problems.</p>
<p>My D, age 20, is spending the junior abroad. The Off Campus Studies office just sent us a form for our signature giving her permission to go. Somehow they had not picked up on the fact that we had not signed it. As they explained it to us in the cover letter, if she was an Ohio resident she could make the trip without our signature after age 18. But she is not an Ohio resident and a non-resident would have to be 21 to go without our written permission. She is already there, we signed the form, sent it back and everyone is happy. But I gather this is something determined by Ohio law? Everywhere else I thought age 18 meant a child was able to act independent of parents.</p>
<p>1) Banking was an issue with our 17 year old, because there are no common banks in our state and hers - most people will have a BofA or Wachovia, we just live in the back of beyond.
2) Credit cards were a bit of issue, because we wanted her to establish her own credit, and use a credit card for internet purchases (not a debit card). We had to wait until she was 18 to resolve this one.
3) She was 19 yesterday, and we still had to sign papers for her to go on a study abroad. I found it ironic that I can't get info about her health, but they won't let her out of the country unless I sign!
4) She used the health service without incident, but we did sign papers sent from the school for underage students - both for health, and for some other business reasons that I don't remember.</p>
<p>My S went to college at 17, and up til then had been very conservative in terms of activities -- far more conservative than what his dad and I would have allowed. He didn't date (We would have let him). He didn't party or socialize. He had some incredibly rigid ideas about the punishments that teens should get for things like underaged drinking -- ideas that were so reactionary sounding that his dad and I used to shake our heads. (We are not in favor of underaged drinking, but didn't think that underaged drinkers should be jailed, which is what S thought).</p>
<p>We suggested that he take a gap year, but S insisted on going to college, and went to the region of the country from where we'd moved when he was in elementary school. There, he worked at the school newspaper, and hung out with a group of guys who were several years older than him and who had a lot in common with him in terms of having a strong interest in journalism, something that S had not experienced with his h.s. peers. I don't think that the guys realized how much younger S was because he is tall and also has lots of facial hair. He also was an extremely good journalist who was teaching things to the upperclassmembers.</p>
<p>We later learned, that S got very heavily into drinking and partying with that group, which contributed to S's flunking out with the worst gpa that I've ever seen. S had entered the college with virtually full merit aid.</p>
<p>I know that students differ a great deal, and I went to college with some very sober, hard working students who excelled academically, so my story may not be at all what will happen with your daughter.</p>
<p>However, if I were to do things over again, I would have insisted that S take a gap year, and would have let him live at home while working a job. He could have benefited greatly from that extra maturity. Even students who didn't skip can benefit from a productive gap year during volunteer work or a full time job, so IMO those on the young side definitely can benefit.</p>
<p>My D is a 17 yo at Yale. She won't turn 18 until late February. We did sign a health form for her. She has her own debit card that she has had since she toured Europe with a choir at age 13. She's socializing just fine and seems very happy. She was thrilled to learn that one of the sophomores in her a capella group is, as she described it, "young, too!" He just turned 18 and seems to be watching after her. I must say, however, that she has been an independent kid for a very long time...toured Europe as a member of a fine arts choir at age 13 and went away to an 8 week summer camp each summer during her high school. So, not all 17 year olds are alike. If your child is independent and reliable, then she'll do fine.</p>
<p>I was 17 for my whole first semester of college a zillion years ago, and it worked out fine. I don't remember having any serious health issues though. I was oos and 8 hours away from home but I don't remember dealing with any issues that weren't common to all new freshman.</p>
<p>Mine was 16 when she went off, and credit cards were the only issue. At 17, she went off to Cambodia, Thailand, and India by herself. Now she is 18, and spending her junior year in Italy. </p>
<p>She is not particularly "mature" (read: sex) even for her age, and has watched those around her with mostly a detached sense of bemusement.</p>
<p>My nephew who skipped a grade just started college--he's barely 17. He did have some problems the first couple weeks with not being able to go on field trips because he wasn't able to sign for himself. His dad had to call the college and straighten things out--I think the parents had to do some extra paperwork. Anyway, the kid was sort of humiliated at being "outed" as underage--but he got over it. (I started college at 17, was socially immature--also had that "detached sense of bemusement" at a lot of what went on around me).</p>