@Ksty1098 The reason I “asked the question” was to get more opinions. I’m also trying to give a complete description of the situation, as I think those details may change these people’s opinions.
We don’t know your involvement with this kid, but in general, it’s not possible to assure us the essay will be slam bang excellent in adcoms’ eyes, nor that teacher recs will resonate. Or that the ECs are either all so exceptional or hold any significance for elite adcoms looking for the right combos of values, energies, experiences, and other attributes. Plus that 3.97 suggest the record includes some less than A grades. It will also matter what the possible major is, what the student’s geo location is, the competitiveness of the hs. And more.
CC goes over this time and time again.
Not a positive.
Cambridge has recently stopped taking students under 16, Oxford is on the cusp of doing so, and both are looking harder at 16 year old applicants- b/c of the failure rate. These are extremely gifted kids, who seem completely mature and ready for college, but they struggle socially, b/c they are so much younger than their classmates (who are not interested in hanging out with a 16 year old). Then a couple of years in, many of them burn out and leave without finishing their degree, or finish their degree and are then lost.
HYPS will certainly consider the potential for a student who would be a minor for the first 2 years of college running in to trouble.
@collegemom3717 This student would graduate at 16, but only be a minor for 1 year of college. They are extremely adept socially and you wouldn’t tell the difference between them and their peers.
Where did you hear this about Cambridge and Oxford (the student is also heavily considering English schools)?
You seem to be quite insistent that this should be a net plus. A few years back, I would have thought the same. But then I saw the experience of my younger son. He finished 8th grade at 12, and turned 13 over the summer. Then, he started high school. Intellectually, he started at the top of his class and stayed there. Emotionally, he is as steady as a rock. But the folks who run the school and teach at the school were, at best, tentative. They were concerned whether or not he could handle high school. They were concerned about his ability to mix socially, his ability to keep up intellectually with kids, sometimes who were as much as two years older than him, etc. There was one moron math teacher who kept shrieking about “brain development,” and how it was impossible for him to be ready for more abstract math subjects.
I viewed these as stupid prejudices. I still do. We homeschooled through elementary school, and our kids were quite used to learning with kids older than them, younger than them, and the same age as them. They were quite comfortable learning material that was “too advanced” for their tender little minds. My older son taught himself Latin, and entered 9th grade and was the top Latin III student of his year. ahead of all the 11th graders in the class… These rigid ideas of what kids can and can’t do are hogwash. It’s important to look at each individual student and what he’s able to accomplish.
Anyway, all through high school, we had to fight tooth and nail to let my younger son do academically what he was able to do. But I’d tell him, “You do the work, I’ll fight the powers that be.” And he did. But they were always skeptical of what he could do. I remember one idiot math teacher went to the principal and said that my son couldn’t handle failure emotionally. He was always his own toughest critic, and she thought it showed emotional weakness… What it really showed was grit. The funny thing is, this school is a national sports powerhouse, and when ATHLETES show grit, they say “he’s a winner, not a quitter.”
At 15, he was more mature than most seniors. He was very hard working, very responsible. He knew he had to be to give me the ammunition I needed to fight on his behalf. When he applied to college, he had the grades, the test scores, the ECs, the essays, and the letters of recommendation. Nonetheless, I know through backchannels that at least some places were concerned he was a little young. In the end, he got into his first choice school, and he’s having a blast. But his relative youth was NOT a plus. It’s not fair. That’s just how it is.
^^ Same experience as notjoe’s. It’s definitely not a positive and could be a negative depending on the circumstance.
Most gifted kids (eg the ones applying to HPYSM with realistic chances) could have easily skipped one or two grades in elementary or even middle school if given the opportunity or their parents pushed hard enough for it. The reason that it is not done very often is because there are more downsides than upsides to doing it. Being smaller and less developed athletically, driving one or two years later than their friends, the list goes on and on. So no, it is not a hook.
[url=<a href=“http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/admissions/handbook/section2/2_2.html%5DHere%5B/url”>http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/admissions/handbook/section2/2_2.html]Here[/url] is the official policy for Cambridge.
[url=<a href=“http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/aug/21/highereducation.accesstouniversity%5DHere%5B/url”>http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/aug/21/highereducation.accesstouniversity]Here[/url] is an (old) article about Oxford’s considering put in an age limit of 17 (currently, Oxford is the only university in the UK that will accept students under 17).
Also, it doesn’t matter if we can tell the difference between this person and their peers: there is the question of social acceptance. 18 year olds are hyper-sensitive to the distinctions between themselves and people older/younger then themselves. For example, I know that a 16 year old (who is accomplished enough that his achievements are in Wikipedia- and he didn’t write it) was admitted to Oxford in 2012 (don’t know of anybody that young since, though). I also know, first hand, that it has been a lonely journey for him: the older students are not unkind, but beyond the dining hall they don’t socialize with him much.
Now there’s an entirely different can of worms. Assuming your first sentence is true (which IMHO it very much isn’t for “most gifted kids” unless you set the bar for giftedness significantly higher than the typical +2SD cuts used by public school), that is a pretty sad commentary on public schooling.
In my experience, the only reason kids skip is that there are more upsides than downsides for that kid, at that time. No one suggests that the typical student be held back a grade despite mastering the material so as to be taller / sportier / earlier to drive, despite all those upsides!
@Falcon1 This student is extremely sociable and I would say even more physically mature than a good number of their peers. It made sense when they skipped the grade, and that’s the reality of the situation. Just so you know, the student even plays and contributes on a Varsity team at their high school.
I also think your comment about the average HYPSM applicant could have skipped a grade is very misconstrued. In my experience - and just about everyone elses - it takes a very special kid to skip a grade (or two) and still succeed academically and socially. The fact that this kid does that is why I think it might be considered a plus.
“The fact that this kid does that is why I think it might be considered a plus.” …despite basically everyone’s opinion here to the contrary.
I’m certain my kid could have skipped 3rd and 5th grades. But he was already young, and what would be the point? He can’t grow up sooner. He has to learn to deal with classes (and life) with others less “gifted”.
I think this is why less kids try to graduate early, or why less parents allow it: no point in it. Upsides are few, possible downsides many.
Colleges have to protect themselves, and likely try to limit their responsibilty for minors…now if she was 10…
So she’s not that young then? My daughter just turned 17 when she graduated HS. She didn’t skipped grade but could easily skipped a year or two if we wanted. Graduating young in HS is not unique.
@2018dad Graduating at 16 is very young. There is no one in this student’s graduating class that is within a year of the student’s age: everyone is at least a year older and some will even be 19 when they graduate. The situation seems unique.
http://www.mequonnow.com/news/mequon-middle-schooler-aces-the-act-b99509050z1-306042461.html
This 12 year old middle schooler just scored 36’s across the board on the ACT. Now that’s impressive.
@lollollol Since you’ve made up your mind, why are you even bothering asking? Having taught at a top Ivy and having attended one myself at a young age (17), I think that kids are better off being older rather than younger when they start college.
You seem to have a hard time grasping the concept that unless the kid is a bona fide genius, colleges would rather not have a younger than the norm kid on campus. There’s very little upside and a lot of downside. One of my kids was slated to work with a professor this summer in Cambridge, MA but even though the project was computational could not get permission to work in the lab because there were hazardous chemicals and my HS kid was a minor. Your student would have the same issues. Anyway, good luck to your student. She sounds like a competitive applicant.
I think I will close the thread now. The OP is getting the same answer over and over.