<p>My 17 year old needs one more vaccine. She can’t get it unless I’m there to sign for it (county health department, because it is free and otherwise at the doctor, where I still have to sign, it’s $350+). So she just waits until I can be there. Both kids went to college with their debit cards from the credit union. I’m still both accounts because they were opened when they were both underage.</p>
<p>These are not insurmountable things, but they are issues that add up. If the parents are unavailable to sign documents, arrangements have to be made for someone to sign them or for the child to be emancipated. I had to sign a lot more documents for my 17 year old than my 18 year old when they both started college this year. I still have to follow up more with the 17 year old. Do-able, but more work. It sounded like OP is cutting all ties, that she never wants to return to ‘her island’ (which I don’t know if it is a real island or just her description of home). There are minors who are truly independent, but they often have a source of income (Justin Beiber, Ariel Winter from Modern Family). If OP lives in the dorms, what does she do for breaks, summers, etc. One school she listed was CU-Boulder. Boulder is not friendly in that way and she’s going to have a lot of arranging to do. No one in Boulder would rent her an apt without an adult’s signature, and there is not a lot of dorm housing for upperclassmen.</p>
<p>Several years ago there was a genius who started in the Boulder engineering program at 15. He was from the area, but his mother moved to town for him to go to school because he couldn’t drive himself to school. There were issues from the beginning. He only took about 9-10 credits because he was 15. He needed sleep. His body was that of a 15 year old. He ended up taking a gap year, then a few classes, and now he’s about 25 and in the graduate school. He’s still a genius, but so much of college is working in groups and he just couldn’t make it work being a part time student, living with his mother, being young, not fitting in all that well socially. OP sounds like she wants a college experience, and I don’t think it is possible to get that at 15. There is just too much to juggle.</p>
<p>OP, I am rooting for you to leave the island. However, I do have concerns about you going to college at fifteen. I don’t think college is dangerous, I do think you are smart enough to handle yourself, but I worry that you are going to grow and change so much over the next few years that college next year may not be the best choice. </p>
<p>I really like the idea up stream that you do a gap year, travel, live off the island some, then go to college. Heck, my kids were eighteen when they went to college, and I think I gap year would have helped them! Life isn’t a sprint. Don’t be in such a hurry to check all the boxes. </p>
<p>Your passion for learning is awe inspiring and BRAVO for all your effort and hard work. You are very likely succeed in life with a start like this.</p>
<p>College is not about moving to a big city, it’s about moving in to a dorm room with a roommate and a resident advisor. You probably won’t go off campus much (Stanford in particular exists in a “bubble” because campus is so large). There may even be a program for younger students - check.</p>
<p>But on the other hand, the other students may be at a different life stage, and you may find you don’t enjoy the same thing 18 and up students do. Maybe programs that are oriented for extremely bright and hard working younger students would offer you more fun? Take a look at Simon’s Rock and Bard, and Davidson Academy in Nevada (which is tuition free for HS age kids to take courses at U of Nevada) for example. Check out Hoagie’s web material on radical acceleration and early college. </p>
<p>My daughter has enjoyed Phillips Exeter Academy, where she takes a full slate of college level courses and lives in a community of passionate learners her own age. Financial aid is great, free tuition, room, board and a computer and travel if your family makes less than 75 thousand dollars a year, and generous up to a family income of 200K. Would spending a year or two there be an option?</p>
<p>Your parent’s fear is primarily of the unknown, and it sounds like dialogue is open. If you are admitted, try a visit with them. Call the college ahead, explain your concerns, and arrange for meetings for your parents with the Dean of students, etc. </p>
<p>I think it would be very beneficial for OP to do some research on programs that cater to younger students ready to begin college courses, like many have suggested. I think that living with new freshman that are anywhere from 18-20 would be a difficult transition. I am not saying that all college students would have this frame of mind, but I couldn’t see those who are older wanting to befriend a 15 year old (at least some of the people I met while in college wouldn’t). </p>
<p>This is a ridiculous worry. Neither of my kids had/has a car at college at all. That is what Campus Security is for. Twice my D2 has contacted them in the past few months to assess and injury and help decide if she needed to go to the ER, and they would arrange transportation if necessary. That is the LEAST of the OPs worries about going to college at 14. Tons of college students don’t ever have cars in college, so what good does it do for them to even have a license in this situation?</p>
<p>I’ll add one more concern. OP has had no meaningful assistance from either parents or school staff in deciding whether to attend college now or determining what colleges make sense for her, and I don’t think a 14-year-old, particularly one who has bee raised in a restrictive environment and is desperate to get out, has the wherewithal to make this kind of critical, life-changing decision by herself. Two years at an elite boarding school would provide a stimulating intellectual environment, terrific college counseling, and the opportunity to grow and mature, while still satisfying OP’s desire to get away from home. I don’t agree with the relatives’ scare tactics, but I think that they’ve reached the right decision–for this particular student, it’s too soon for college. Time to abandon that effort and look for appropriate secondary schools.</p>
<p>@Pizzagirl, see post #40. There are some universities that have issues with students who are not legal adults. This is not my opinion, this is just what some posters have said over the forums here on CC.</p>
<p>^I agree 2 years taking college-level classes at an elite boarding school would be better for OP - she’d get to leave the island, she’d get challenging academics, but there’d be peers and advisors and more structure than on a college campus, plus excellent college advising.
A year abroad, such as with YFU, Nacel, AFS… may be another idea to get you to leave the island and it’d be intellectually challenging without getting into a social scene that isn’t age-appropriate - @timezonegirl: what foreign language(s) do you speak? Any country you’d like to spend a year in?
An advantage of elite boarding schools over a year abroad is that they have excellent financial aid (the top ones would essentially be free if your parents are lower-income) AND they often include an opportunity to spend a semester abroad. :)</p>
<p>^wow, great idea… I hadn’t thought of suggesting that but it would be something entirely different from living on a small island… international school, classmates who come from all over the world, international curriculum, guaranteed scholarships to various colleges in the US :)</p>
<p>I went to college when I was 16. It worked out fine, in part because being a girl, I looked old enough to be the “right age” for college, and in part because my college was supportive of younger students. I would wait and see where you get in (if it’s your ED school or another) before worrying about it - schools and their surrounding neighborhoods are all different. You can always take a gap year should you so decide. However, I do realize that the world has changed since I was a very young college student. (Then again, the drinking age used to be much lower than it is now; there was likely easier access to alcohol on campus.)</p>
<p>OP, I’ll give you the same advice I gave my 11-year-old daughter when she was overwhelmed by her grandparents encouraging her to go to a near-by school: just tell them “Thank you so much for the advice/concern. I will take this into consideration when I make my decision.” I also told her that she didn’t have to consider it for more than 3 seconds :-)</p>
<p>I wouldn’t waste any breath trying to convince your relatives that you are right and they are wrong.</p>
<p>I’m glad that other replies have mentioned schools with early entrance programs – I would strongly encourage you to look into some of those and/or ask the schools you’re currently considering what kind of support they offer to younger-than-usual students (and you only need to consider my suggestions for 3 seconds :-). </p>
<p>As the mom of a gifted D who often seemed older than her chronological age, I would be very anxious sending a young daughter off to a large, urban campus (or any campus, really.) My D had to deal with a truly ugly situation (roommate bringing home a guy she met on the internet that day.) I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, but I certainly wouldn’t want a younger teen to have to deal with that.</p>
<p>OP, if you are still reading, I want to tell you that my niece went to college at 15. It was in the California system, and she definitely was not allowed to live on campus.It was a special early college program. This is an issue at least at some places. She did go to grad school at 18 or 19, and was very young when she got a PhD. you need to check these things out.</p>
<p>Do keep us updated - if you open a thread in “Hindsights and lessons learned” called “My college admission story and college life”, or something like that, I’ll be sure to follow. </p>
<p>What a compelling thread. First, congrats on Stanford! </p>
<p>If there is any advice I might offer, don’t try to convince the naysayers of anything. Let them have their say, then do what you want to do, esp since you enjoy the support of your parents. You are evidently quite an extraordinary person. Get a counselor who can mentor you along some of the bumps that you will inevitably encounter, and go for it. </p>
<p>You do sound extremely mature, but sadly I know two stories of young people who went to college at the age of sixteen, both Ivy League, and it was a fiasco in both scenarios. Which obviously doesn’t mean it will be for you, but I think you need to consider the whole social ramifications and support system. Who will be your friends? Who can you turn to in the geography you select who is an adult who can help you if need be?</p>
<p>I don’t think you owe your relatives answers to these questions if your parents are supportive, but I do think you owe them to yourself. It is going to be very challenging socially at your age. I am a very laissez faire style parent, but I would not encourage my children to go to college before age 17 regardless of maturity. </p>