<p>[‘Mind</a>’ boggling - NYPOST.com](<a href=“http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/hs_kid_gets_into_harvard_and_mit_ZqLY8RPivQzlP8CCtdbKcL]'Mind”>‘Mind’ boggling)</p>
<p>This 15 year old was accepted by Harvard and MIT, but if he wants to wait until 18 years old before joining one of these universities, would that request be acceptable?</p>
<p>MIT will grant deferrals of admission, but I think that if you want more than one year, you have to submit a special appeal.</p>
<p>Sure! I don’t see anything in there that says he does…but if you know something I don’t, Zach could definitely defer. Just tell him to email us.</p>
<p>Oh that article was from 2010 anyway.</p>
<p>Thank You So Much for replying Chris it’s great to have authority to speak here. I would like to ask a few more questions:</p>
<p>(1) But Zach’s only 15, do you mean he could defer his offer for 1 year or even 3 years.</p>
<p>(2) Under what circumstances will MIT grant 3-years of defer to their offers? Like to prodigies like Zach?</p>
<p>Are you just curious? As Chris said, this article is from 2 years ago.</p>
<p>There’s nothing about deferring admission in the article. And the kid was 15 but it looks like he was a senior in high school. So MIT didn’t do anything special by admitting him. </p>
<p>I’m sure there are no set policies about what would constitute a special deferral for 2 years. If you are training for the olympics or want to go to the peace corp for a couple of years (if you can even do that at 18,) then that would probably suffice.</p>
<p>But being young and wanting a couple of years to veg out is not a good reason.</p>
<p>Anyone can ask to defer for one year; you just have to give a decent reason.</p>
<p>he joined harvard that year:
[15-Year-Old</a> Whiz Kid To Join Harvard | Flyby | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/5/12/young-whiz-joins-harvard/]15-Year-Old”>The Harvard Crimson)</p>
<p>Do I miss something? He said that he missed competition math. But I can’t find him qualifying for USAMO.</p>
<p>My son’s interviewer asked me why I didn’t send my son to MIT when he was twelve and made a 33 on his ACT coming out of homeschool. The answer was that I felt I should raise him ti adulthood. In truth, he also needed to complete certain courses first and learn how to manage a heavy courseload. His homeschool experience had allowed him to plow ahead at his own pace, but I had not required much formal schoolwork from him. Also, I and other family members had been prematurely promoted and found it unsettling to be so much younger than the others though we adapted. Making a much larger leap and being in a city on a large campus without a parent would seem irresponsible. I doubt that even if he were prepared that they would have accepted him. He was offered admission and a scholarship fir a smaller local school but I refused on many grounds. He needed to be in an age appropriate setting with other kids. He wouldn’t be served by a lesser education completed early. And, I couldn’t ensure his safety or be sure instructors would know how to handle such a young kid. His answers would have been too advanced for some if his classmates then, so why put him in a situation where he is likely to be lonely, vulnerable to inappropriate influence, and not necessarily challenged? Instead I put him in public school and heavily supplemented with college materials and advanced learning opportunities such as time with a NASA engineer, taking college classes unofficially in summer one at a time with handpicked profs, and summer programs. His test scores were perfect on the first try by high school and he ran out of math and physics, returning ti homeschool for self-study. But, he is still probably an average student at Caltech. I don’t for a minute regret keeping him at home till he was 18. Those kids who go to too schools earlier have to not only be exceedingly brilliant but they also need to have organizational, concentration, and time management skills far better than many adults. And, you have ti be ready to skip, fly through, or endure a bumpy ride through some developmental stages. I spoke years ago with the mom off a kid who did it. She walked him to every class and couldn’t really work as a result. Her son was happy academicalky but really had to work hard to deal with two separate worlds–middle school age playmates and adult classmates.</p>
<p>@Journier, thank you for sharing your experience here.</p>
<p>Nice article… But what did he do besides chess :O?</p>
<p>Also… If his taking Honors Complex analysis at 16 years old… How’s that even possible? You would need a bunch of prerequisites… Or take like a placement test… Like for me I’m taking Real analysis right now as 16 1/2 yrs old but it’s not as prestigeous as MIT/Harvard</p>
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<p>Technically, the only prereq necessary is real analysis (well you don’t even need that). Honors Complex Analysis (aka undergraduate) often uses Alfhors, which isn’t too bad of a read. You’re probably thinking of graduate-level complex analysis, which indeed does require lots of topology/geometry/algebra.</p>
<p>Just sayin’</p>