My D started through dual enrollment when she was 15 juggling a full time credit load at a local cc, ECs and a few high school courses she still needed. Her hs is a little different because they mix the age groups up quite a bit in the classrooms (just like college a wide age range in class) and most college bound students start dual enrollment at 15. It is a small school and kids are very close and stay in touch after graduation. When she could drive she would go off to visit her older friends for weekends on campus and when she got her dorm there were plenty of under classmen from her hs that would crash at her dorm, too. The best part of college visits for me was getting personalized tours of campuses from her friends and knowing she’d have someone to turn to if she needed anything. Even if you don’t have any older classmates you have strong connections with I would encourage you to stay connected to friends from your high school. You might be a good resource for them when it is time for them to think about college and they might be a good resource for you for other life lessons you’ve missed by skipping so much of high school.
Being super-young at university is almost never a problem academically and is almost always a problem socially. Oxford has stopped taking super-young students, partly b/c of the social issues during college, but mostly b/c so many of them struggled (including many who went spectacularly off the rails) when they moved into adult life.
If the primary motivation for your skipping 3 grades was to get you to a level of academic work commensurate with your ability and interest, seriously look for things that you can do to give yourself time to mature. If sports and ECs aren’t your thing, consider going to a boarding school in a country for which you are (or would like to be) strong in the language and take the final year of college prep. The level of rigor will be plenty intense. Look at countries that have elite institutes in your area of interest- they will often have something for highly capable students.
Buying yourself a year to mature is a gift that will keep on giving. You may be very mature for your age, but:
a) your brain is still 14, and even clever brains keep maturing for another 7-10 years
and
b) life is long. Some day you will not be ‘the wunderkind’- you will ‘just’ be a super-clever person, who has to do all the things that mortals do: develop the relationships that see us all through life- a partner, friends, perhaps children; navigate work environments; cope with life’s challenges. cf, Steven Hawking.
Actually, Western Kentucky University might be a good fit. They have an entire education department devoted to teaching gifted youth and house many gifted students from across the state in their own dorm with additional residential services who are full time college students. Even if you can’t participate in the gatton dorm life because you have graduated early, you would have plenty of people your age in classes and to socialize with and the university would probably allow you to dorm with the regular undergraduates. http://www.wku.edu/academy/
I might think about going to a smaller liberal arts college more near by and transfer to my school of choice after 2 years when I am 17. I believe that would be better for me since I can still live at home.
So much depends on the individual. My sister was just 16 when she started at UCLA; it didn’t go well. She had a hard time socially, didn’t know how to handle that, started skipping classes, got behind and – ended flunking out. She went back to a Cal state two years later and graduated with high honors.
OTOH, a friend of the family was 15 when she went off to a small LAC, set on being a doctor. The school looked after her, made sure she had a good balance of academic/social life, and she ended up graduating before she was 19. At 21 she started med school.
@roethlisburger, unless he goes on a tour or organized program, it would be very difficult for a 14-15 year old to “go traveling.” In this country you can’t even get a hotel room at that age.
In this country, no hotel will rent to someone under 18. However, if mom and dad reserve a room in their name, and with digital keys/digital check-in, I bet many hotels aren’t going to worry too much about who’s actually staying there. It’s just a hypothetical. Don’t take it too seriously.
I’m in the same boat-- currently fourteen and will matriculate at fifteen. My top choice is a religious school that currently has a few young students on campus.
I’ve been FT dual-enrolled at the local community college for a good while now, and while CCs are certainly distinct from actual four-year schools, social interaction has not been an issue for me. In chemistry last semester, I made it through 2/3 of the semester before someone asked my preference as to red vs. white wine-- the cat was let out of the bag at that point, haha! It helps that I appear older than my chronological age, in any case.
Best wishes this year!
OMG ^^ You sound JUST like Sheldon on 'Big Bang Theory."
And I mean that in the nicest possible way.
I’ve been meaning to watch that show, your comment may prove to be the impetus! 
I forgot to add that, by virtue of the classes in which I’m enrolled/number of STEM majors, many of my classmates are now well aware of my age. Many are initially surprised by my age and spend a few moments freaking out about the “child genius” in their class. I find this very condescending and uncomfortable, and there have been a handful of times where I’ve specifically requested that classmates not refer to me in that way. Generally, though, classmates cease to refer to me in this manner once we’ve worked together in lab or engaged in discussion outside of class. Even in one of my humanities classes, where the demographics are a pretty even split between middle-aged mothers and typical freshmen, everyone has treated me wonderfully, to the point that I’d say that I’m considered a true peer.
I’ve seen some young students arrive on campus and flounder because they “flaunt” their age. Your aim should be to stand out by virtue of your academic achievement at the level which your academic peers are working, not your age.
@jacobreed222 : I strongly suggest you consider the option of a year abroad at a foreign boarding school or in a foreign family. Do you speak any world language - and if not, can you use your intellectual talent to learn or improve yours?
If your family has some money, look into YFU or AFS. You’d stay with a family and they’d place you in a rigorous local high school. (You could specify you’d need to be placed in the 12th grade despite your age and explain how, otherwise, you’d be starting college in the US).
If your family doesn’t have much money, look into NSLI-Y and Rotary. Those programs are very selective but are free of charge.
In both cases, you’ll be stretched like never before and learn more than you can imagine now.
College will still be there a year later and you’ll be better equiped to actually benefit from it at its fullest.
As of now, see if you can dual enroll (also called PSEO, Running Start, Early College). This would be done as a HS student, thus not jeopardizing your freshman status.
Part of college is living on campus and making connections there. If you wait a bit you’ll be able to attend college with peers. Right now you’re too young to live in dorms but a lot of college (residential college) rests on dorms. You’d miss out on a lot. Even if you’re used to being isolated, it is quite suboptimal. If you were just a year older, you may find colleges hospitable to younger students (some top colleges are used to that, and your parents could explore that situation).
I have a kid that has academically always been years ahead. He has tested as college ready on the ACT since middle school. So we have been knee deep in a large and local GT community in a major metro for years. I have to say, the kids that skip and go away to college early in my experience do tend to struggle socially. You are not social peer of an 18+ adult yet. I know kids that started out and had to be pulled back to take a gap year because they were lonely and floundering. And I have to say, now that my own PG kid is pushing 17, he is going to able to embrace a college environment when he graduates both academically and socially in ways he would not have a couple years ago.
If you were going to do this, I’d look specifically for a program specifically for young applicants at age 15. Or live at home and start college. I think the exchange student overseas idea is a great way to kill a year and would look great on a college application. I would not attempt to jump into a typical dorm situation at age 15.
And graduating HS now, having parents who drive you to college… you’d miss out on so much.
You’d lose your freshman status and the scholarships that come with it, the opportunity to make friends and develop socially/psychologically among peers (because, yes, at age 16 you’d have 17-year old peers at some universities, you wouldn’t stick out, you’d be one of many - which can be scary but is also awesome), the independence that comes from living on your own in the transitional space that is a dorm…
If the sports life year or the year abroad don’t tempt you, what about exploring other “gap year” ideas? On the websites for highly gifted kids, what have you found?)
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/at-just-14-ucla-math-student-moshe-229359
Note that the student described started at East Los Angeles College at age 8 and transferred to UCLA at age 12, and lived with his parents (when he was at UCLA, they lived in UCLA housing normally offered to graduate students).
^is that a possibility for this student though?
And there’s a difference between a kid who starts college at age 8 and thus needs his parents, and a kid who starts colleges at 15 who needs parents but has a shot at socialization with just one more year (a 16 year old can easily socialize with 17-18 year olds, less so a 14-15 year old, and a 12 year old simply can’t.)
A vote for Dual Enrollment and taking any APs that haven’t already been taken.
You might want to look at Bard at Simon’s Rock. Definitely not for everyone but exclusively for kids who are ready for college at high school age.
@DadTwoGirls My cousin did the same thing. Very, very difficult socially. He went through a tough period in his life because of that.
yes, i think it is too young. Consider doing a foreign exchange program before college.
WAYYY too young.
You will find it very very difficult to socialize with other kids