Ambitious teenager started taking college classes at 14

Colleges & Universities Harvard University
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<p>FOSTER CITY — When most teenagers get bored, they often turn to video games or TV. When Foster City resident Yan Yan Mao got bored at the age of 14, she went to college.</p>

<p>Now, four years later, Mao, 18, graduated from Hillsdale High School as valedictorian and received an associate of arts degree from College of San Mateo, and she soon will start her freshman year at Harvard University…</p>

<p>… Mao intends to get her bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Harvard, then to go to medical school, where she hopes to specialize in cardiology.</p>

<p>“I really like science, and I want to help people, and I don’t really get all grossed out by guts and stuff,” she said.</p>

<p>It was a joyous day for Mao when she found out on March 30 that she had been accepted to Harvard with a full scholarship.</p>

<p>Her family was proud, too. Mounted above their fireplace is the framed Harvard admittance certificate and photos from her Hillsdale and CSM graduations.</p>

<p>What she is looking forward to most about Harvard is the variety of courses she will be able to take. In addition to tons of science courses, Mao hopes to find time for ballroom dancing.</p>

<p>But Mao admits she may get a little homesick.</p>

<p>“I’m going to be gone for at least four years. I’ve never been gone away from home that long,” she said.</p>

<p>She’s especially going to miss her mother’s Chinese food.</p>

<p>“I’m a very picky eater. I usually like to eat Chinese food, and I don’t think they have a good selection of Chinese food there,” she said.</p>

<p>“But I won’t starve. I’ll find something in the dining hall.” </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_4032278[/url]”>http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_4032278&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>That’s one way of getting into Harvard I suppose.</p>

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<p>I started taking college classes when I was 14 (granted, almost 15). I didn’t get a degree but that’s just plain freaky.</p>

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<p>how can you get a degree…?</p>

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<p>At the risk of sounding like a wet-blanket, and certainly that girl in the article has accomplished some amazing things, but I’ve always wondered why do newspapers write gushing articles about ‘hometown heroes’ who get into Harvard College, but they never write anything about those who get into graduate school at Harvard, despite the fact that, in most cases, it’s significantly harder to get into grad school than undergrad at Harvard. </p>

<p>For example, I know a SLEW of people who went to (or are currently studying at) Harvard Business School, yet no paper has ever written any articles about them. Why not? After all, gaining admission to HBS is, I would gather, more impressive than getting into Harvard College, as plenty of Harvard College grads apply to HBS and get rejected. The same thing can be said for Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, Harvard GSAS PhD programs, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Kennedy School, etc. Plenty of Harvard undergrads find that they can’t get into grad school at Harvard. So why is it so newsworthy when somebody gets into Harvard College, but not newsworthy when somebody gets into Harvard grad school?</p>

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<p>Hey, there was an article about me getting into Harvard’s grad school in my hometown newspaper.</p>

<p>Granted, it’s like ten lines long. But the headline does say “<my last=”" name=“”> accepted to Harvard", and apparently several people stopped my parents in town to congratulate them. </my></p>

<p>Small-town life. Can’t beat it. ;)</p>

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<p>shes smart enough to get into harvard but she cant find good chinese food in boston???</p>

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<p>Well, lots of people find Chinese food in Boston does not compare with Chinese food in Toronto, Vancouver, SF, New York. I’m from the Boston area and I agree.</p>

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<p>Here are a couple of Hoosierland college grads reportedly off to study at Havard Business School, on “Orr Fellowships”, according to the Indianapolis Star:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060616/BUSINESS/606160425/-1/ZONES04[/url]”>http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060616/BUSINESS/606160425/-1/ZONES04&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>:University of Ulster Law graduate Cathy Fitzsimons will spend next year at Harvard Law School, one of the world’s leading legal teaching institutions.</p>

<p>Earlier this year it was announced that Cathy (21), from west Belfast, had won a Kennedy Scholarship to attend the top Ivy League university.</p>

<p>She beat off stiff competition to become the first ever UU student to win a coveted Kennedy Scholarship and one of only a handful of people in Northern Ireland to receive the honour. All the other recipients of the scholarships this year were students at either Oxford or Cambridge Universities.</p>

<p>Each year hundreds of outstanding students from around the UK apply for the Kennedy Scholarships which were set up in memory of John F Kennedy. The scholarship includes all tuition and travel costs, healthcare cover and a living allowance of US $20,000.</p>

<p>Cathy flies to the US on August 8 to prepare for her academic year at Harvard. She plans to take a Masters of Law (LLM) course in criminal law with a particular focus on human rights before coming back to Northern Ireland to pursue a career as a criminal law barrister.</p>

<p>Harvard Law School (HLS) is considered to be the top legal teaching institution in the USA, and one of the most highly regarded internationally by judges, academics and practitioners. One of Cathy’s tutors at UU, Dr Cathy Gormley-Heenan, is a former Kennedy Scholarship winner herself…"</p>

<p><a href=“Ulster University News”>Ulster University News;

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<p>This reflects my great worry about Harvard admissions. It seems to discourage people from having a life. To take college classes at 14 is by defintion excluding yourself from social life. It’s just not right.</p>

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<p>Here’s a kid who seems to have a life outside the classroom, UKRUS:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www2.townonline.com/watertown/schoolSports/view.bg?articleid=532771[/url]”>http://www2.townonline.com/watertown/schoolSports/view.bg?articleid=532771&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>UKRUS:</p>

<p>Having a life means different things to different people. My S’s idea of having a life was to take Harvard Extension classes at 14. Why take high school classes and be bored out of his skull? True, it meant that the college classes were on top of the usual high school load but he still managed to enjoy himself outside school. And he did not do it for the sake of getting into a top college, but for the sake of getting out of boring classes.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://english.people.com.cn/200607/02/eng20060702_279327.html[/url]”>http://english.people.com.cn/200607/02/eng20060702_279327.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Taking community college classes at 14 is not unusual. High schools allow students to take languages not offered in high school at community college, and advanced math and computer students who can arrange their schedules and transportation take classes at Cal or online classes through Stanford. What’s unusual is that she bothered to earn an AA.</p>

<p>You can google news stories from local papers about outstanding students and athletes heading to a whole variety of colleges. Surely, it’s not a boost to Harvard’s reputation to keep posting these.</p>

<p>The story about the Taliban at Yale…that’s worth posting.</p>

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<p>Yeah, but she’s not from any of those places. She’s from Foster City. Granted, SF Chinese food is arguably better than Boston Chinese food, but Foster City? Come on.</p>

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<p>She said her MOTHER’s Chinese food, not Foster City’s. Home-cooked meals are magic, haha.</p>

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<p>LOL – aside from boarding school kids, this is true for pretty much everyone going to college in the entire world.</p>

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<p>Byerly, here are my comments about your posts:</p>

<p>First off, the Tanzanian ex-PM example is not ‘really’ an example. After all, he was already famous in his country, so anything he does is going to be newsworthy. For example, if he got arrested, that would be newsworthy. If he was dating a supermodel, that would be newsworthy. Anything that a guy like that does is going to be newsworthy simply because he’s already famous, just like if Britney Spears decides to drive her car with her baby in her lap, that’s newsworthy. I’m talking about people who were not famous, and who then went to Harvard, not people who were already famous deciding to go to Harvard. </p>

<p>The example of the Northern Irish girl is also not quite what I’m getting at. I noticed that the publication that ran it is her college newspaper (the University of Ulster), and it’s basically a marketing press release (the way that most publications from campus newspapers are basically a way to brag about the school), a fact that is given away by the citing of the University of Ulster Department of Public Affairs at the bottom of the article. So basically, this article was really just a form of fancy (and tricky) advertising. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just that it’s not “really” news, just the way some magazines run ‘special advertising sections’ for fancy marketing press releases that aren’t really news.</p>

<p>However, the FIRST article you cited, now THAT one looks like real actual news. That one I will accept. However, just notice how hard you had to search for it. Hence, I still believe that there is a strong bias in favor of Harvard College over Harvard graduate schools, despite the facts that, #1, Harvard grad school is invariably harder to get into and #2, Harvard grad school has more students.</p>

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<p>Yes, there’s a bias toward celebrating Harvard College – a bias I share, despite my Harvard graduate degree. But this also has to do with media realities. These are human interest stories. There’s more human interest in a remarkable teenager than in a remarkable 22-year-old. Plus, the terrific kids have often moved away from home long before they get into grad school, so there’s much less interest in the “hometown hero” once she’s already spent four years outside of Podunk.</p>

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<p>Fair enough, but then that’s not exactly a particularly telling comment she made. After all, unless she was considering living at home and going to a local college, or unless she was thinking of having her mother move in with her, she was going to have to find good Chinese food by herself no matter where she went to college.</p>