kind of a weird question...

Colleges & Universities Duke University
1

<p>Though I am sixteen (born in '92), I am a senior this year and applied to Duke RD. They will obviously note the fact that my birth year is a year later than everyone else’s, but other than that, I didn’t deal with it anywhere else in my app and I know for a fact my teacher recs didn’t say anything about it either.</p>

<p>I skipped a grade in elementary school and have never had a problem socially/academically adjusting, I’ve always been the youngest but when most people find out they can’t believe it because I’m a pretty mature person.</p>

<p>I’m worried that Duke will hesitate when reading my app because I will be a seventeen-year-old going to college with 18-22 yr olds, and they might be wary that I will be able to deal with that…do you think this will negatively affect my chances?</p>

<p>I have strong scores, strong extracurriculars, strong recs, etc. so there aren’t any “signs” that I’d have any sort of problem being the youngest.</p>

2

<p>There are plenty of 17 year old college students. No need to worry about it.</p>

3

<p>There was a 16-year-old in one of my classes last semester, and he was a sophomore. You’ll be fine.</p>

4

<p>You definitely wont be the only 17 yr old college freshmen. It should not be a big deal. A friend just turned 20 this September after her graduation (she was Duke class of '08). Sometimes I am the one who feels older- as a 2nd year who turned 20 in November. And also, some kids in your class will be older than the norm because of gap years and such. </p>

<p>Sometimes age is really just a number.</p>

5

<p>My roommate had JUST turned 17 when we moved in freshman year. Your academics/ECs will speak to your maturity…don’t worry about it! If you’re ready for college, you’re ready!</p>

6

<p>I have three friends who started college more than a year younger.
A senior who is now 20 (turns 21 in July), a junior who is now 19 (turns 20 in September), an a sophomore who is now 16 (turns 17 in January).
I have another friend who attended another college for freshman year, dropped out early on, took the rest of the academic year off and reapplied to many colleges including Duke- starting college at Duke at 19 AND turned 20 the September of his freshman year.
It’s not so rare to not start college at 18.
I almost skipped a year myself (in hind sight, it would have sucked since I would have only been able to drink legally for two months, now add a year, :D) but my parents thought it was better that I whored out the APs in my school- so that’s what I did instead…
It seems to be especially common for internationals who didn’t go through the American school system.</p>