http://today.ttu.edu/posts/2016/08/jeremy-shuler
His parents are moving to Ithaca and living near campus so their son can walk to his classes. I suppose there are plusses and minuses, but his social development will be entirely different from that of his peers.
Geez, what a slacker.
If you’re that brilliant your social development has always been different from that of your peers.
Wow… Only thought comes to my mouth. What amazing talent he is. My question as I’m not that talented, is this natural and healthy?
Is there balance in his life? What about middle school or high school? Sports? Overall social skills? Prom?
He can just join a fraternity. 
Aren’t there any places where extremely talented young people like this can go and develop but not be a decade behind your peers in terms of life experiences? Being 12 at a college seems like it would suck. I can’t imagine undergrads hanging out with a 12 year old in any typical way.
There has been a series of articles running in our paper for years, following a super smart guy who started college at 14 or 15. He started in the engineering department and took 9 credits. He struggled from the beginning. He couldn’t find a group of peers because there were no other kids his age. He didn’t have the same schedule as other students, not on campus after 5 pm,couldn’t get to campus unless his mom could drive him. He was still a growing kid and needed a lot of sleep, still wanted to play more juvenile games on computers, etc. He took breaks from school, did other things, returned and I think he finally graduated at about age 22 and then stayed for grad school where, surprise, he was once again a superstar because he was now the smartest of his peer group (he HAD a peer group).
I don’t know if any other choices would have worked better (homeschooling, traditional high school, G&T school?). As pointed out above, this student’s school life has always been different.
This would be an awesome “Chance Me” thread.
It’s natural in the sense that I presume the kiddo was born this way. I doubt undergrads are going to "hang out with him’ socially. Many undergrads probably have younger brothers or sisters so should be able to interact. That said, I would not choose to parent a youngster like this if I could choose.
Or even younger… (in college at age 8)
http://nextshark.com/moshe-kai-cavalin-nasa-genius/
Are his parents going to be pissed if he goes to a keg party this fall?
Great talent…but why are they making (or letting) him go to college at age 12? He’s not going to have any sort of peer group whatsoever.
If he is a commuter, he will be living at home with mom and dad like any other 12 year old. Hopefully his parents can encourage peer interaction in other areas of interest- scouts, church youth groups, little league, robotic clubs etc.
What are his parents going to do when they move to Ithaca?
His father will continue working as an engineer at Lockheed Martin; his mother, also an engineer, had given up her work to home school. Maybe she will be able to return to work.
My not-as-smart-as-him daughter took 60 semester courses at local community college in age 11-13. She had some problem at 11, but at 12 had no problem making friends in her classes. Older students tend to care less when they need a good lab and group project partner, and don’t mind sending late night texts begging to share test-prep notes. When she started wearing makeups at 13, people started to not notice her age. She also has age-peer friends, and will start attending a high school this Fall. She was hanging around with them after classes too.
The reason I sent mine at 11 was because it was the best educational opportunity available. She wanted quality art courses and nothing designed for high school students was satisfactory. Ironically, she will now join high school art classes. But she will be doing mostly independent works with mentoring only.
His parents must be caring as they have probably done quite a work to pull this out. I believe that they will also diligently work on his social interaction.
Many students start college before 12. Most of them don’t like publicity so you won’t hear them often.
Kids like them are not that common if that’s what you mean “natural.” Mine is probably one in a thousand. The student is probably one in a 100 thousands or less. He might invent free energy for the world and we will then all thank god that his parents did what they did.
At my kids’ high school, they let students take any level of courses they are qualified for. D1 said there was a 9th grader in her AP Cal class, but he was in the same homeroom as kids his age. Their school offered a lot of advanced courses and there was a major U nearby for the kid to take more advance courses when he got older. He graduated high school with students of his age.
A 16 y o began graduate school with my son. He attended UCB as an UG, commuting from home. I’m sure there are many more outstanding students like him.
If I may offer a bizarre tangent on the other end of the spectrum-- one of my workmates told me about when he entered middle school (6th grade) at 11 yrs old. In his school was a much older 8th grader (who must have been held back a few times or some other circumstance) – who was old enough to drive himself to school! He must have been 16! The kid parked in the teachers’ parking lot and came in the faculty door. That’s CRAZY to think about – especially for an 11 year old!
My friend always wondered what happened to him.
I think you missed understood my “is this natural comment”. As I stated before hand I’m not this talented. As far as “1 in a ?”, I can tell you we are all one a zillion.
If your going to call out my post, I think it’s only fair you respond to all the questions I brought up and not be selective in your response that was not pointed to you or your son.
To disregard my parents love for me speaks more about you than of any point you attempted. Played on several traveling sports team and your response is very similar.
You chose to call out a HS student asking about life facts, but never addressed any situation of the other young person who struggle in the process.
Lastly I hope he can help the world and parents like you. I prefer not to be perfect, the last person was crucified.