Boy, 11, admitted to college to study quantum physics
 

http://now.msn.com/tcu-eleven-year-o...e-student-ever

Boy, 11, admitted to college to study quantum physics At TCU

"Call him the Doogie Howser of the physics world. Carson Huey-You has been admitted to Texas Christian University as an incoming freshman — at only 11 years old. Around the time when most kids are playing with jacks and baseball cards, young Huey-You will be taking university-level courses among teenagers and young adults. And it won't just be any class load. The boy, who scored a 1770 on his SAT, speaks Mandarin Chinese and plays the piano, will be studying nothing less than quantum physics. In a nutshell, anything you try to do to be impressive after this will fail."

I read about this kid the other day. Crazy!

Ugh, I have so many feelings about this, as a (slightly) young college admit. Let the kid have a life.

Is he even really ready to go to college that young? I will admit that I know nothing about gifted children, but do they age emotionally at the same rate, or is that advanced as well as the intellect?

I'm happy for him. I'm sure they have made the decision that's best for their family.

Emotional age is the same as any other child. They've done studies. It all has to do with myelination of the brain. I think that each case is different for these kids. My husband went to college at 13 and med school at 17. He was self aware enough to realize that kids that are advanced often were social rejects and made an effort to be social. Not much you could do about that when you are underage in college, but he had a great time learning. He said everyone was really accepting of him and kind. In med school, he had a GREAT time, almost a fraternity type experience with his group of friends. He knows his experience is NOT typical of kids like him. The idea of being average, however, would never occur to him.

He won't be living on campus like other college students. His mom was very clear that he is just going to school and going home every afternoon, just like other kids do... just a more advanced school.

And not Doogie Howser. This is Sheldon Cooper: The Early Years!

Honestly, he probably wouldn't be treated well if he was in H.S. instead. The option of being placed in a class with children his own age would result in a clearly highly advanced child being left to academically wither because of fears that he should not be taken out of his peer group. Which is more important? Academic stimulation or peer group interaction.

I think as long as his parents get him involved with kids his age (sports, church groups, youth group) he should be fine. He should be able to attend college and be challenged (which I don't see happening in high school). As long as they let him be balanced he will be fine. I wish him the best!

Not to diminish his accomplishment, because going to college at such a young age is obviously something I could not and would not want to do, but only a 1770? I say this because I am bright but not a super-genius and got a 2170. I would think that a kid going to college at age 11 would have scored higher than that -shrugs-

Because I received my SAT score based on the old system (1600 being the max), what's considered a "B average", so to speak, for SATs now?

80th percentile is about an 1800, which corresponds to about a 1220 on the old test. Without knowing anything else about the young man in question, I would speculate that this 11 year old science genius might not have done quite as well on the writing portion of the test as he did on the math. Still, it's a good score.

I have a nephew who is kind of a smartypants in math. He started having anxiety attacks in school in junior high and they figured out it was because he was SOOOOO bored. He stayed in regular school but commuted to Iowa City to take college math classes, even advanced math classes. Apparently one of his professors was pretty pissy pants about it, but hey, if he can keep up what are they gonna say? He is currently being paid to attend college.

In his case, he really just got by in the social aspects of high school, but in college he really came into his own. Going to a kind of a pinhead school, he found his peeps. This is a PERFECT example of finding a college that is the right fit for you. He REALLY wanted to go to Cal Tech (because people WANT to be Sheldon Cooper when they grow up), but they turned him down. It would not have been a good fit. Even for smartypants, I think it's very SoCal. East was a better choice than West, and there's nothing comparable in the Midwest that is not a huge school, which also wouldn't have worked.

He most likely was not studying for the test and took it at school just because. A lot of the SAT requires some study. No one intuitively knows all of the reading and writing parts. 1770 is "good enough" when your 11 years old trying to get into college. There's no competition. My husband only took the ACT at age 11 before he started college, never studied and scored lower than I did. He is unquestionable smarter than I am. The ACT/SAT score is only part of the story.

That's the youngest I've ever heard of someone being admitted to college.

When I was in high school, there was a student who was a freshman at age 11 and a junior at age 12. He started college at NYU at age 13. His parents got an apartment near campus so that he could live with them instead of living in the dorms or commuting from Long Island.

The kid was brilliant. He was in my AP Computer Science class during his junior year, and boy could he code. He was also taking AP Calculus B/C and an AP science class (it was either bio or chem - I took AP physics and he wasn't in my class).

Unfortunately for him, he didn't get to do any of the fun senior-year things such as attending prom or walking out on Senior Cut Day or walking at graduation.