16 year old graduating college, headed to Harvard for PhD

calmom
Wed, 01 May 2013 19:45:02 +0000

I don’t see how the teenager referenced in the article lost any part of her “childhood”. She lived at home and commuted to a nearby public U. at the same age as many students are commuting to attend rigorous public or private high schools. If anything, she probably had more free time over the past 4 years than her same-age peers in high school. She didn’t have to be in class all day or try to juggle a whole slew of APs, while at the same time trying to juggle participation in sports or school clubs in the hopes of having a good set of EC’s to impress a college ad com.

I can see that sentiment (lost childhood) expressed for the situation of a young teenager off to an intense academic environment like MIT, but Colorado had the reputation of being a more fun type of campus (it tends to rank very well on “party school” listings)-- I’m sure that Natasha was focused on her studies, but my point is that if she was intellectually capable of keeping up in the classes, then she may very well have had more time for leisure activities than many other high schoolers.

It doesn’t sound like she was pressured as a child – she was homeschooled and attended a Montessori school.

I’d note that it can be very hard for a highly gifted kids to relate to same age peers in any case – although it is also very common for kids like that to have different circles of friends for different activities and interests.