@THEGAMER10293847 you sound like a very gifted young person with huge potential for a future of great success. However, you do need to understand that the application process is not limited to test scores. It is the what’s beyond the test scores that tip the scales. If you have those what’s now, great. But equally consider the students who are functioning on a similar level and what they manage to put on their resumes over the the yrs from 13-18. If you are able to join SET and or even just read cogito.org, you will see the accomplishments thatyoung students across the country are achieving. Those students’ profiles are sitting on adcoms desks. The whole matters. Only you know what you have accomplished beyond test scores.
Fwiw, have you consider things like MathCamp? Summer camps are a great way to meet peers, learn, and have fun and those contacts can lead down all sorts of paths.
lol, @Mom2aphysicsgeek (and high-five to a fellow traveler)- I was thinking the same thing. I see so many students from test-centric backgrounds who ask 'will these scores get me into [tippy top university]. Some of them really struggle to understand that there is pretty much NO set of standardized test scores that will be enough to ‘get’ somebody in. So the OP could have full scores on the SAT and the subject tests and still not be sure of getting in. I would imagine that it would get a good hard look by the AdComms, but there will always be other elements to the assessment.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Thanks a lot! Unfortunately, I’m in India, and we don’t have MathCamp or summer camps here.
@collegemom3717 I understand what you’re saying because, the “tippy top university” IS tippy-toppy because it looks beyond the scores…? If they do, then that’s all the more reason for me to apply there, because from where I am, marks are all that matter, really =((
Admissions will also look at your grades, regular SAT or ACT scores, essays, extra curricular activities, and recommendations from core academic teachers. You would be competing against highly qualified high school seniors for a slot. If you are international and need aid, UChicago is not need blind; students who need a lot of aid have a reduced chance of admission.
As an aside, @Mom2aphysicsgeek, getting inviolved with Cogito was one of the best things that ever happened to my D2. But as the OP has informed us that he/she is international, I don’t think SET or Cogito are probably available.
Also, regarding your question, Philip Glass is a famous American musical composer who entered UChicago at age 15. But he is very exceptional.
If you want any chance of getting in, you need to focus on finishing secondary school and making stellar achievements in all the areas required for admission consideration.
If you are unfamiliar with AoPS, you might want to check them out as well. http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/community AoPS has online forums as well as online classes and fabulous, challenging texts. AoPS attracts high achieving math students from around the world.
Those 2 resources will help you find some of the what’s that other applicants will have. Fwiw, there are other stellar math camps beyond MathCamp. Check out AoPS website to read about some of the others.
There are few child prodigies who get into colleges at early age but colleges probably do not want kid at 13 lives at their dorm with other late 10 or early 20s kids. Those parents have to move near college to provide college education to their child prodigy kid or the kid need to go to a college near home.
BTW, at my daughter’s school, there are students who get 2400 at SAT I during 8 or 9th grade every few years. Still no one think they are ready for college and need to go through high school. If OP is truly exceptional at academic performance, yes, he can find a college for him and one of his parents need to dedicate for his education. Otherwise, it will be more beneficial to go through high school experience, imo.
Okay, some people seem to have—or let me correct myself, it seems I have not framed my question adequately. I want to take the full SAT, two SAT subject tests, and do other stuff that’ll improve my chances of getting admission into UChicago. My question, is this–you know what? Leave it. I had some questions, people answered them. There’s really no need to waste your time here. So please, if someone reads this, my questions HAVE BEEN ANSWERED. I need to study for the SAT now. This is THEGAMER10293847 signing off…
One answer I haven’t seen is that, if you’re under 18, you won’t be allowed to live with freshmen, so that getting into UChic is pointless if you can’t live in Chicago with a parent, and commute. So, beside working on tests, courses, and extra curriculars, you need to make sure at least one parent can move with you - which is a pretty big deal if you live in India.
I couldn’t possibly imagine how a 13 year old kid would enjoy living and interacting with adults on a daily basis. S/he would be so out of place, especially if living on campus, would probably make no friends, and would not be able to participate in any non school related social events. Would you be commuting from home if admitted?
@MYOS1634: That’s not true. I was under 18 and I lived in college accommodation. Another freshman (who later became a math major) was 16 when he matriculated. He lived in a different house but the same dorm. Forgot whether my parents had to sign a waiver or something during orientation.
^Some exceptions may be made if the student is close to 18 (such as, “will turn 18 during the year”.)
I can’t quite see how the decision was made for a 16-year old to live among 18 and 19 year olds in dorms. Lots of factors must have been considered because a HS sophomore vs. a college freshman, that’s a HUGE difference, and the liabilities alone would make most colleges’ liability offices ’ hair stand up straight. (“sophomoric” wasn’t invented out of thin air.)
But I’m certain no 13 year old will be allowed to live in the dorms.
My niece was allowed to live on campus at 16. Whether or not that was a good idea is another issue.
One thing that does happen at young age is the denied access to certain activities. For example, a research trip or working in certain labs might be restricted to non-minors. Our ds was denied permission to travel to Kitt Peak for a research project with a professor bc he was 16 and the university refused to budge on the minor issue. He wasn’t allowed to work in one lab until he turned 18.
@MYOS1634 : Do you have any support for the rule you cite, other than your own reasoning? Because I have never heard of a rule like that, certainly not at Chicago. I agree that with a very young student, a college might hesitate to house him or her in a dormitory, and all students of whom I am aware who graduated from college before they turned 17 or 18 lived with their families. But there were a number of 16-year-olds in the freshman dorms when I was in college. My future spouse might have been one of them if she hadn’t decided to take a gap year before matriculating at 17. She was admitted to several colleges at 16, including one that was unwilling to let her take a gap year before beginning, and no one at any of them suggested that she not live in college housing.
It is my understanding, by the way, that “sophomore” (and by extension “sophomoric”) originally referred only to college students, those who were just beginning the course of mandatory exercises in sophistry that were included in standard British university education in the 17th-18th centuries. They were “sophumers” at Cambridge, and somehow morphed into “sophomores” at Harvard and then elsewhere in the U.S. in the 18th century. Its extension to high school is relatively recent.
As an earlier poster noted, Chicago had a particular tradition of admitting students who had completed only two or three years of high school. (Its first president had entered university at 9 and earned a PhD at 17.) In the 1940s-1950s, it became a deliberate policy initiative of the university, which in part is how Philip Glass and Susan Sontag got there. However, in retrospect that policy is seen as a serious mistake that contributed heavily to the near collapse of the college in the 1950s and 1960s. In the current environment, I think Chicago, like any of its peers, would be happy to admit any truly brilliant young scholar, but those students would be rare exceptions. The rule is that more accomplished, more secure applicants probably have an edge, and those applicants tend to be older rather than younger. Lots of 15 year-olds are capable of handling college-level academics (I was at that age), but only a tiny number of them will get admitted to elite colleges.
Actually, yes, because I asked the question on many campuses and I was told that for liability issues minors can’t be housed with students 18 and over, with the permissible exception of 17 year olds who will turn 18 during the year. Liability was cited MUCH more than anything else :). That’s 2002-today.
I know there were no/fewer problems in the 1996-1999 period (and I didn’t have any reason to ask for 1999-2002).
I knew of one post-2002 exception, for one 16 year old at one campus (not UChicago); she wasn’t in the traditional freshman dorm but in the “healthy living” dorm.
Right now, there are some “Early colleges”, and that may be what OP is after: like at Simon’s Rock, the classes are college-level, but there are houses not dorms, with houseparents. However, I would imagine that being a 17-year old transfer would carry the same problems as being a “typical” transfer, ie., no/little financial aid.
I do not know why you are in such a rush to go to college. You should take the time to develop your application. Other applicants would have many things to do present to UChicago and other top tier colleges. To be honest, an 800 on Math Level 2 is good but it’s not something that says to colleges “wow we need this kid”. The percentage of percent scores that get an 800 in Math Level 2 is actually pretty high. Did you get accepted to USAMO or something else that actually narrows you down to a very small percentage of people? I too got an 800 in Math Level 2 in 9th grade along with Bio M and got one in Chem in 10th grade. But, in my school at least, these scores are not really something outstanding, rather it is more of a “baseline” or expected result for an applicant of a highly competitive school. I’m not saying to get in you need an 800, but I am saying most kids who apply to these competitive schools have high scores. Along with high scores, they have high SAT1s and grades. They also may have research experience and published papers. Others may also be Division 1 level athletes. As i said before, use your time to prepare and develop your application into something more than just a few scores.
800’s for 13-16 year olds, are extremely rare. But admissions are not based on test scores. 750 or 800 scores are good but ultimately your admission to highly selective universities depends on much more.
For the youngest kids, it’s because they had demonstrated genius-level in one subject (what we call “well-lopsided”). So, look for international competitions in your best subject - could be international math olympiads, for instance.
And someone else might have a relevant comment experience.