This is impressive but I can’t see anyone pulling this off with full AP load and making top 10% in a competitive school unless they have no family, social and extracurricular lives.
Some people really are that much smarter.
To be clear, he’s graduating from Harvard Extension School, not Harvard College. Still, quite an accomplishment.
Online courses. “Bachelor of liberal arts in extension studies in government.” Uh-huh. Summer courses on campus aren’t the college experience.
So just watch how far your jaw drops.
“So just watch how far your jaw drops.”
Mine never even opened. :)) No denying the kid’s accomplishment, but it’s funny that anything with “Harvard” is newscatchy even if what follows is “Extension”…
Anyone can take courses at Harvard Extension. Their aim is community education. I took several programming courses and a creative writing course through the extension school in the late 80s.
Harvard Extension really isn’t impressive but if your not familiar with it it sounds more impressive than it is.
Why not just think, “Good for him”? Why look for ways to diminish him?
Indeed, it’s good for him but no one is trying to diminish it, just question its value as it’s not as extraordinary as portrayed. Journalists like to paint work horses of driven parents as child prodigies and after they get their 15 minutes of fame, you never hear of them again.
It is accurate that the extension school is part of the university, but as everyone has written, it is not Harvard College, and the degree is different. The BLA also doesn’t really provide the kind of experience of the AB academically though it is fairly rigorous. The course selections are more limited.
I don’t really know why anyone would do this other than for the name. There are all kinds of great online programs for high school students, and state universities as well. The expense is high, especially since everyone is full pay for the first three classes.
Lots of high school students attend the Extension School, especially from Cambridge Rindge and Latin. It really is no big deal except that he finished his degree there.
He could have gone to Simon’s Rock, or graduated early and gone to college.
This way he will miss out on the true college experience -academics, social life and extracurriculars- and the time to mature.
The parents may know better but the article on graduation from Harvard University with the banner and the misleading text is a little annoying 
What is best for one isn’t necessarily best for everyone. People have different reasons, life situations, goals. All good!
Agreed. Sadly, this example is not unique in journalism (and elsewhere).
This is just a separate discussion group. Most of us know the extension is not the full college experience. Nor are onlne classes. Many of them (depending) are not taught by profs. It’s a different egg. And for anyone hoping to trade off on the H name, not a true H credential.
AND, at many colleges, the extension program is not simply adult continuing education, but a revenue generator.
Lots of kids take a full two year college load through DE, on a campus.
The BLA degree from Harvard Extension is a Harvard degree. Graduates are considered alumni of Harvard University, but not alumni of Harvard College. It is an impressive degree for working adults who choose to go back to school. It is also impressive for a 16 year old while still in high school. It is not impressive for an 18 year old who attends Harvard Extension full time just to get the Harvard name.
I know, “a Harvard degree.” But not Harvard College.
I’ve got a specialty certificate from a program of grand repute and the joke is I asked the school President if I now could call myself an XXX graduate. He said, Yes! Someone later pointed out the benefit is I’ll get the alum magazine (I do) and get solicited annually for fund drives (I do.)
So, I should have said, “…not an HC credential.”
Same difference.
But note my point: we’re not dismissing him to his face, putting this down to his parents or scoutmaster. We’re discussing it among ourselves.
There once was a poster here on CC, a Harvard College alumnus, who felt that Harvard should not only close the Extension School but also The School of Education and the Kennedy School of Government! He did not feel that the latter two schools had sufficiently high admission standards to justify the almighty Harvard name.
I think this illustrates how difficult it is to get an appropriate education in the US as a gifted student. Not all of it has to do with whether the degree is impressive or not. Most HS students just are not interested enough to pursue this kind of thing on their own time in these subjects. I wish Harvard extension was around here and allowed middle schoolers. My 12 year old wants to learn Ancient Greek and you can guess how many middle and high school in the US offer that. It’s very few.
As there are dozens of articles out there but no mention of GPA, class rank, SAT score, National Merit or any big award, it’s hard to say if it’s a boy wonder as mentioned or not. One article did mention LSAT not meeting Harvard Law School requirement.
Didn’t HLS abandon LSAT? If kid is hard working and now has celebrity factor to offer, they should just admit him.
@Riversider some of the smartest people earn D’s and F’s, drop out of HS and never take the SAT. What do GPA, SAT score, or NM things have to do with someone’s innate intelligence or curiosity about the world? They may or may not correlate.
As long as you have internet, it is ‘around.’ Online. I don’t know if they allow middle schoolers to get credit but time will cure that as she’ll someday be in high school.