3 years younger? hurt or help...discuss

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>As the title of my thread has already informed you, I am a 14 year old high school senior. I am also African American. My stats are decent for most colleges:
ACT: 30
I.B. candidate in great standing(most demanding course load).
Top 10-15% of my class
I have taken classes at the local university(Calc. 2 and Linear Alg.).
Because most school leadership roles are closed to me because of my age, I have had to attain leadership outside of school. This has allowed me to log over 1000 hours of community service.
I have danced for over 11 years.
I will also be 15 1/2 when I start college.
I also have a thing for foreign languages…6 under my belt.</p>

<p>THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
One of the schools that I’ve applied to sent a rep. out to interview me. What is interesting about this is that this college does not offer interviews.
Another, interview lasted for 2 days(one day 2 hours and called me back and wanted to talk for an additional hour).</p>

<p>My biggest question is, has any one seen some one like me on a college campus??
Do you have a story??
What do you think of the situation with my interviews(one is an ivy)?</p>

2

<p>any takers???</p>

3

<p>not knowing much about about the subject, I’ll throw my opinion out there anyway…</p>

<p>first off, you’re a URM, with a pretty decent ACT score and a good GPA. You’re taking pretty high level classes for your age (even for older students) and that is huge. </p>

<p>so I think that’s a big plus</p>

<p>second, the bad, you’re young. While I’m not too sure on major college’s policy on the age, you have to kind of look at it from an admissions point of view. When I see a kid that’s in high school, most of them are very very young, and very very immature. </p>

<p>That being said, I think if you’re a mature individual, the interview process will help a lot. </p>

<p>Personally I think you have a great chance at some of the top colleges. But quite honestly, I really have no idea, and this is just my personal guess.</p>

<p>another question - which might sway — the class rank is a bit low in my opinion for Ivy’s, and what do you mean by 6 languages under your belt? Are you fluent in them? Or do you know them somewhat? Can you only read / write? or speak? or can you do both?</p>

<p>For example, I’m fluent in Chinese and English, but I know enough of Korean, Japanese, Italian, French and Latin (lols dead language) to be able to talk with people that live there. That being said, I can’t write / read worth anything, so on my apps, I put only Chinese and English.</p>

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<p>bexline, think <em>really</em> carefully about going to college so young. </p>

<p>You seem mature, but do consider what it will be like - would you be comfortable with being around drugs, alcohol, sex etc etc ad nauseum, on top of the stress of living away from AND taking far more advanced classes than you are used to? Will you be comfortable with <em>always</em> being the youngest, and with possibly being patronised? Will you be comfortable with your peers perhaps not taking you seriously? Will you be comfortable with having years less life experience in common with everyone else around you?</p>

<p>I’m not saying this will happen, but it might. </p>

<p>Basically, do you think you are ready to live on your own? If the answer is yes, go for it, and I hope it all works out. But do consider what it will mean, not just in terms of academics but also in terms of social life.</p>

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<p>I graduated at sixteen, so I [underscore]somewhat[/underscore] understand your predicament. Generally, I have discovered that admission officers don’t look unfavorably towards early graduation, but they don’t exactly regard it as advantageous either…or as much as you would think. I’m slightly worried that you might be too young…please excuse the unfounded and bombastic judgment. I was wondering if you have considered taking a gap year and exploring yourself and possibly the world? I’m currently taking a gap year and I’ve been working and studying and intend to teach English in India within a few months. It might be an option worth considering. If you think you are actually ready though, then you definitely have a reasonable chance at some “good” schools.</p>

<p>Link:
<a href=“http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=5530[/url]”>http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=5530&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>“patronised?”</p>

<p>I miss the spelling. That and sausage rolls.</p>

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<p>Lol :stuck_out_tongue: Did you used to live/study in the UK? </p>

<p>Depending on my mood, I sometimes Americanise/Americanize my spelling. Guess I missed it that time ;)</p>

<p>But sausage rolls?? Ick.</p>

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<p>Blasphemy! Next you will tell me you don’t like Walkers crisps or fish and chips :). No, actually I’m English, but I moved to Italy then the states a few years ago.</p>

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<p>Even if you were 18, I think you’re in at any college. Explain to them why you can’t get leadership positions, and emphasize 1000 hours of volunteering.</p>

<p>But… I would think about which colleges you’re applying to. If you’re going to go to a big school, you will inevitably get tortured by kids who will make fun of your age. Maybe stick to a school close to you so you can commute, and always keep transferring in mind.</p>

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<p>You are right in saying that some schools would see it as a liability. I had to really explore my list of schools and 3 of them(Amherst, Swarthmore, and Cornell) told me absolutely no 15 year olds. So, my list of 9 colleges that I applied to, are colleges that look kindly on younger applicants.
And remember, it is not like I decided to graduate early, I’ve been with the same group of people for 7 1/2 years. I also went to Harvard over the summer, just so colleges can see how I handle being away from home.
You would never know my age to look at me…you might say I was a young looking senior.
Does anybody have any comments on my interviews??</p>

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<p>Thanks for the story Qwilde. It’s funny reading that because my parents went out of their way to make sure that I would have a social life and did more creative things(dance, art, ect.). It is easy to “hot house” highly gifted children, but you can loose so much in the process. I too started Algebra at 6, but I really didn’t care for math that much…even though I was good at it.</p>

<p>I, too thought about Stanford, and quickly took it off my list, even though 2 years ago, they admitted a 12 year old boy to their school.</p>

<p>I was in the paper when I started high school and the reporter that interviewed me said that of all the “child prodigies” she interviewed, I seemed the most well adjusted. </p>

<p>I am hoping that I can relate that message in all of my interviews. Can anybody tell me what they think of what happened with my interview’s??</p>

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<p>I don’t think anyone can really! We don’t know you, and we don’t know the interviewers… I would think the fact that one interview lasted 2 days is a good sign - it shows they are serious about checking you out thoroughly before making a decision. Not sure about the other one though - even though they may not habitually offer interviews, they may offer them to all non-typical applicants.</p>