Prodigy chooses HBCU over Harvard, Yale

Parents Forum
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<p>I’m not sure where to put this story? There’s neither a specific section for news stories pertaining to college nor a section for this college or HBCUs in general. If you know a better place, don’t hesitate on letting me know. :slight_smile: All I want to do is share an interesting story.</p>

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<p>14-year-old prodigy turns down Harvard, Yale for HBCU
Ural Garrett (Black College Wire) | Posted June 26, 2008 1:40 PM</p>

<p>While many 14-year-olds look for ways to spend the summer vacation, Polite Stewart Jr. has made his plans. He will be beginning his freshman year at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La.</p>

<p>Home schooled by his parents, Ava and Polite Stewart Sr., until the age of 10, he later attended academic programs at Southern. According to retired East Baton Rouge school system teacher Stewart Sr., he enrolled his son in the programs at Southern because Stewart Jr. was “surpassing my knowledge.”</p>

<p>The knowledge gained from programs like the Garrett A. Morgan/Ford PAS Summer Business Institute, a national program at Southern University that mentors pre-college students, the HBCU Summer Up-Smart Pre-Algebra Program and the nationally honored Timbuktu Academy, led him to score a composite 30 on the ACT.</p>

<p>He was later recruited by Harvard, Princeton and Yale, but turned them all down to become a member of the “Jaguar Nation.” The fact that both of his parents are Southern alumni along with his success at Timbuktu Academy contributed to his decision to attend the university.</p>

<p>“Because of Dr. Biola Bagayoko and the Timbukutu program, I would feel guilty to go to another school,” Stewart said.</p>

<p>The one-on-one attention in the classroom was also a reason because he felt that at other schools he would be “just another number.”</p>

<p>He described an experience he had recently. “I needed something explained and I couldn’t find the teacher who taught my class,” said Stewart. “I found an instructor who dropped everything to help me and that stuck with me.”</p>

<p>Because of the programs he attended at Southern, Stewart said being a full-time student “wasn’t that big of a step.” Currently, he is taking general psychology, freshman composition and honors colloquium classes. Stewart said that while his planned major was biology, he was considering a change to physics.</p>

<p>Stewart attributes his achievements to reading. He says he read 100 books three years in a row including encyclopedias, science books and more. He also said he loved reading books above his level because it challenged him to learn more. According to Stewart while his favorite book is the popular Japanese comic book series Naruto, he takes an eclectic approach when it comes to his reading selection.</p>

<p>“His discipline comes from his parents,” said Stewart Sr., who believes that parents should lead by example if they want their children to succeed. Making sure that parent’s focus on a child’s education and that they participate in educational programs is what Ava Stewart gave as advice toward parents.</p>

<p>“Just like we run behind football, basketball and other sports; we need to run behind academics,” said Ava Stewart, who teaches middle school for the East Baton Rouge school system. “If your child needs help in school, go seek help for your child.”</p>

<p>At the time of the interview with Black College Wire, Stewart Jr., who has garnered plenty of attention form the national media, was preparing to be interviewed for Ebony magazine later on that day.</p>

<p>“Well, for me, the media attention hasn’t been a problem… I’m the modest type,” said Stewart Jr.</p>

<p>Keeping modest and humble is easy for him; he tutors kids, is a part of the youth ministry and sings in the choir at Greater Mount Carmel Baptist Church. Faith is also important to the Stewart family because according to Stewart Sr., keeping their Christian values first helped tremendously. Though he was homeschooled, Stewart said that attending church also kept him socialized.</p>

<p>“If you keep Christian values first, everything will be much easier,” said Stewart Jr.</p>

<p>While his academic career may be going hundreds of miles an hour, he said that he’s still a kid who loves to play video games, watch television , play sports and more. Stewart also said that in the fall, he would like to participate in music activities on campus.</p>

<p>Ural Garrett is a student at Southern University in Baton Rouge and a member of the Southern Digest staff. Garrett is a writer for Black College Wire.</p>

<p>[Black</a> College Wire - Teen Prodigy Picks Southern University](<a href=“http://www.blackcollegewire.org/index.php?option=com_ywp_blog&task=view&id=5550&Itemid=28]Black”>http://www.blackcollegewire.org/index.php?option=com_ywp_blog&task=view&id=5550&Itemid=28)</p>

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<p>This is a good forum for this post. Thanks for sharing the link, and congratulations to the student.</p>

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<p>Not the first time and likely not the last time. The 2008 Morehouse College outstanding graduating senior turned down the Ivy League too when he left high school.</p>

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<p>Weather could certainly be a factor…H and Y aren’t known for their balmy winters.</p>

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<p>Condi Rice started at Southern, I believe (also at 14 or so). (Hardly a recommendation, but…)</p>

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<p>Had this young man decided to go to Harvard, Princeton or Yale, could those schools have provided an environment where this 14 year old could live near his parents? I support HBCUs, but were Iveys they even possible? If you have an 8th grader going off to college, and you aren’t rich enough to give up your career to follow him or her, the local school seems like the best bet. Seems to me the headline should have been Southern vs. LSU or Tulane or Loyola.
Congrats to parents, special teachers, elementary teachers and Sunday school teachers for helping such an extraordinary kid find his place.</p>

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<p>I know a 14-year-old who went to H. and graduated last year (a homeschooler as well, and without a transcript of any kind.) Originally from Alaska, so hardly close to home.</p>

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<p>dragonmom: you are absolutely right. The family support is really important. It would have be very lonely for a 14 year-old at Harvard. Ultimately, what positive effect would it have had to be at an Ivey at that age, away from home, church and family?</p>

<p>Too many of these prodigies turn out to be misfits because they lack family support and a peer group. This young man is very lucky to have it all.</p>

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<p>I hate to be a party-pooper, but it says he was “recruited” by Harvard, Yale and Princeton, not “accepted.” It’s quite possible that he and his family mistook those “You got a great score! Consider applying to [SCHOOL]!!!” letters as being “recruited.”</p>

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<p>Harvard sends out 70,000 recruiting letters a year, at least. </p>

<p>[Online</a> Extra: How Harvard Gets its Best and Brightest](<a href=“Businessweek - Bloomberg”>Businessweek - Bloomberg) </p>

<p>Getting one of the 70,000 recruiting letters should not be taken as a sign that the recipient will get one of the approximately 2,000 admission letters.</p>

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<p>That was my first thought upon reading the article also.</p>

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<p>a 30 ACT? Recruited by HYP? hmmm…</p>

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<p>I agree with the other posters who have stated that it really doesn’t say that he was accepted by HYP. A quick google search doesn’t find any articles that state this either. One article does say that he got an 1830 on the SAT at age 13. While those are great scores for a 13 year old, there are probably plenty of CC’ers who had similar scores at that age. Even if he did get into HYP at 14, I don’t think I’d send my kid away to college at that age. He seems like a nice kid, though.</p>

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<p>I was at Yale early June for an interview and in my interview it was mentioned that my interviewer had also interviewed “a 14 year old” twice. I was there for the non-trad program and I thought she was talking about him being admitted through that, which I thought was odd. Anyway, I wondered what happened with him so I did a google search today. So, yea, I think he was definitely admitted at least at Yale.</p>

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<p>This assumes the family can only provide support in person, and I disagree that this is the case. I read some study a few years back that most parents have less than 15 minutes per day of chatting one-on-one with their children who are school-aged or beyond. I am pretty sure my son and I chat for longer than that each day. For example, tonight I heard about how he decided to help the students who were seeming like they were getting lost in class by pairing them with the students who were clearly getting things to work on a project, and contrary to how it often works in classes, this worked well and several students told him after class that it was a good class. I also heard at length details about the lab colleague in Afghanistan currently sending a photo of some major weapon - forgot the name of it now - that is near the lab she set up there and how people have walked 90 minutes in 100+ degree heat to get to the lab to use the Internet and make a key chain and have said it was the most amazing experience they’ve had in their entire lives and how she is carrying a knife on her for protection and that it is a very real possibility that armed men could come in at any time and take over the lab. I also heard about what he plans to write a paper on in the next few days to try to get a business trip to Venice in the fall. And so on.</p>

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<p>I don’t think that is a given. Our son moved to MIT graduate housing at age 14 and has been anything but lonely these past two years. He was elected to his dorm government (indeed, he has won two awards for his service to the dorm at the first time he was eligible and he didn’t apply for either), he was elected to co-direct a program at MIT where high school students take college level academics, and he’s had a bunch of other activities where he has done social things (parties, dances, movies, concerts, boat trips, beach trips, squash, tennis, soccer, sledding, board games, etc.) with all sorts of people/groups (from faculty and fellow grad students to undergraduates and teens who are high schoolers). He took an undergraduate to the Grad Gala, and was asked to a high school dance by a high school gal within a few weeks of one another. I would say he has a problem being too social only he earned his master’s with a 5.0/5.0 and for all we know, could pull this off with the doctorate, too (time will tell).</p>

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<p>I would guess the positive effects could include (and this is far from an exhaustive list):</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Having life experiences in sync with where your physical (that kid in the article looked large for his age, as is often the case for early to college people), intellectual/academic, and emotional levels are.</p></li>
<li><p>Having a greater number of people around who “get” your reasoning on various topics, comprehend your ideas for inventions, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Having a better chance at landing a top choice graduate program and/or job right out of college (though I will also note the Ivy education isn’t necessary for this to happen; our son didn’t attend an Ivy or any top college for that matter for undergrad and still landed his top pick for graduate program and got very sweet paying job offers and clients right out of college).</p></li>
<li><p>Experience living in a new place (often good for people to have, even young people).</p></li>
<li><p>Perhaps a better financial package (as Harvard is giving full rides to many from families with middle class SES now and not just those under the middle class zone).</p></li>
</ol>

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<p>Have you any research on how many end up being “misfits” and how many fit in well and how many lack family support and have a peer group versus how many don’t? I’ve actually been researching this for years and it’s hard to know exactly what sort of family support and peer group many of the “prodigies” (never really liked that word for those in college early) have had and “misfit” is a rather subjective term, but if you have any research to share here, I’d love to have it to add to what I already have collected. So far as I can tell, plenty of early to college students are not lacking in support of any kind nor “misfits” (though there are certainly some whom I also don’t doubt many would say fall into such categories). One could argue that even one would be “too many”, but then it should also be considered, “Would this person have been LESS of a misfit if the person had not gone to college early, had more support, whatever?” And there again, the answer can only be speculative for any given individual as there is no copy who took a different path (this is one area where I have yet to see what would be closest here - a twin example; though I might I will have a twin example upcoming who will be attending the same college, they won’t be attending different colleges or one sticking with age peers while the other goes to college).</p>

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<p>The student is happy with his college, his family, his church and his community. I don’t think he will have trouble getting into grad school or jobs. This isn’t rocket science, it’s common sense. HE’S HAPPY, HE’S 14, GET OVER IT!!!</p>

<p>I am also happy for your son being in grad school AT MIT at age 14. HE’S HAPPY, HE’S 14, GET OVER IT!!!</p>

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<p>swatparent, to be clear (as I feel I must not have been by your response), I was not saying this kid SHOULD have gone to a top ranked school (I don’t believe top ranked schools are necessary for any PG people, nor even formal education of any kind unless a credential is needed for the desired field like medicine). I was answering questions posed by you as to what benefits a person of age 14 COULD have going to any Ivy and responding to other such specifics in your post. I see plenty of myth around the right age to do this and that (move away, go to college, etc.) and what I am trying to do is put some light onto how there isn’t a right place nor a right time for all people of a given age or IQ or whatever and that these situations all have to be addressed on an individual basis as your earlier post seemed to imply there could be no benefit of a 14-year-old attending an Ivy. I’m also trying to respond in a factual, friendly manner and don’t feel yelling orders in all caps helps conversation in that end, so request that in the future (if you can remember me, as I don’t remember posters by name often and can understand if you also have this issue) you not yell at me.</p>

<p>And as for our son, he is happy, but he isn’t 14. He started at 14, but he’s 16 now. I wasn’t sharing information with the eyes of a parent who had just a few months of observations of one child’s experience living on campus with older students (as those in his dorm are mostly in their twenties and thirties; I think there are some 21-year-olds who are seniors continuing on for a master’s, but that’s the closest in age I’ve heard about) at a young age, but over two years of experience. And I’ll also point out that he has been living in <em>graduate</em> housing rather than undergraduate housing (he was given the option by MIT to live in either of those or even family housing if at least one parent would be with him) and we (our son and we parents) felt that the older student population would be better for him on all counts given his age (more mature to deal with a younger resident, less likely to be dealing with issues of first moving away and controlling drinking and other such stuff, a wider experience to international students as MIT undergraduate has around 10% international students where his graduate dorm has closer to 60%, closer educational background for discussing academics and being in classes together and such, etc.). When he turns 18, he might apply for a GRT position to live in an undergraduate dorm right across campus. For 14-year-olds who live in undergraduate dorms, that is another issue, though I know of at least one case at MIT where it was successful (this particular student was introduced to us by MIT admissions when our son was 11 and the kid felt our son would already do well being at MIT but felt whether our son transferred to MIT for undergraduate school or waited for graduate school to come to MIT would make no difference in his life but that whatever he did, he should be living on his own at 14 - this took us by surprise and seemed nutty to us then, but the kid might have had a point though I suspect our son would have been happy living on his own or with us as a teen up through 18), so it’s not like I judge students (or their parents) who go that route either, so long as parents do <em>stay in touch</em> - at U of Alabama, there is a tragic case of a 15-year-old honors student who became drug addicted and the football team and campus security guard and mascot girl toy before stealing money from her own parents’ house for drugs and the parents had trusted the university, as the university said they would watch over her, to watch over her and since they threw the gal off campus and never even notified the parents, the parents sued the U, unsuccessfully; I don’t believe it is wise for parents to just leave it to a school to watch over their under 18 in age children, if even children of any age. I had a high school classmate who had a heart attack in his apartment and age 30 and was found dead DAYS later due to not having anyone he checked in with daily just to say hello and feel anyone living on their own (even with an apartment “roommate” if that roommate doesn’t tend to notice the comings and goings of others in the apartment/room) should have someone (girlfriend, parent, cousin, whoever) that they make contact with daily.</p>

<p>In sum , I am just trying to share information about children who have gone various routes and what has happened so others have a better base of knowledge to make their own decisions (or in some case, just judgments as some people will judge even when they have never had to make such decisions in their own families). If you take issue with that, please just skip my posts. Otherwise, feel free to respond, but please do so the same way you would if we were face to face at a party.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the insightful posts, LazyBum. I enjoyed reading them.</p>

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<p>Age 14 is very young to be alone at college. Boarding schools have rules governing behavior, study times ,etc, because most children that age need these when away from home. I am very happy for you that your son is a bright, acheiving student at MIT at a young age. However, colleges are not designed developmentally for 14 year olds. </p>

<p>It is a huge risk socially to put such a young child in this environment, and there often is absolutely no reason to do this, versus the gains that the child can make with a normal progression through age-appropriate schools. Maybe they will or won’t commit suicide, but it can be very lonely to not be ready for much that goes on at college, which often even is challenging for 18 year olds. </p>

<p>This all just seems so obvious. You say you have done a lot of research about this, and I would like to see the studies that have been done that have a large enough sample size to be statistically significant. I am not referring to students who may go to local community colleges or universities at age 16 years old and live at home.</p>

<p>If there is no such large study, then again we are on our own with our opinions about this. I personally think that any parent who would send a child of 14 years old to a (large) university, particularly one as competitve as an Ivy, is crazy and misguided in terms of the child’s social risk. There is absolutely no need to do this. There are plenty of ways to supplement bright children’s education that does not involve the child being put at social risk, and being labelled at the college as the 14 year-old freak who’s at Harvard or MIT or Yale or wherever. </p>

<p>Let the kid be a kid with an appropriate adolescent peer group and family support. Many of these very bright kids have poor social skills and pushing them this hard has no purpose. It may make the parent seem smarter or brighter at cocktail parties, but I personally think it shows very little sense as a parent for the vast majority (hopefully not that many) whose pushy parents insist on college at 14 years old. It’s wrong in my opinion, and I would say that you really won’t even know the results of your experiment with your child for another 10-15 years, when he reflects upon spendng his childhood alone at MIT.</p>

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<p>Each child is different. No large scale study will be of real help for a specific child. </p>

<p>I do not know about the 14 year old featured in the article, but there is no evidence that Lazybum pushed his or her child.</p>

<p>In grad school, my H’s group was joined by a 17-year old. He must have begun attending college as a 13 or 14 year old. He did have poor social skills, though only compared with 23-25 year olds. Intellectually, he was in his element. He went on to be a researcher in a prestigious lab and was well liked by all his colleagues and as happy as a clam. He was not in the least maladjusted, socially awkward or psychologically damaged.</p>

<p>My own hunch is that Lazybum’s 14-year old benefitted from being with graduate students. They have done their partying in college, they have cultivated good study habits, they do not feel threatened by a 14-year old whizkid the way college freshmen might. Instead, they are more likely to feel big brotherly. Although my S did not go off to college at 14, he took AP classes in middle school and college classes in 9th grade. The college students were far more tolerant of his presence in class than the high schoolers.
The MIT setup was thus ideal for Lazybum’s child. I do not know how well he would have fared in a regular college dormitory.</p>