I had the opportunity to go to college at 10 and again at 13. I’m very glad I went instead to a math and science boarding school (IMSA) instead. The networking alone I was able to do there has been incredible for my adult life. Add on the ability to pursue independent research projects at a level equivalent to grad school and I was able to maximize my intellectual interests while still improving my personal skills and growth as a human being, not just an achievement machine.
If I had gone to uni and graduated with a PhD before 18 I know exactly how I would have ended up. With few friends, low career prospects, and extremely low odds of improving that situation.
Fellow IMSA alum here, also underage (skipped 3 grades). I'll cosign most of what atdrummond says here, but shift emphasis: to me and the majority of my friends (many of whom I'm still in regular contact with 30 years later), it was specifically being around other kids like us that was a godsend. The diversity was also broader than at most of our previous schools. The academics were an important part of it (not least to justify the state funding) but the unique value for a lot of us came from the nonacademic parts.
Re the OP, I wonder what's next for him. I know that college was a little weird but manageable as a freshman at 15; a junior at 12 is going to have an even more different experience (and then... grad school at 14?) But if he's motivated and it's not just his parents driving this, he'll come up with something and do fine, I'm sure.
Once, I took Calculus 2 in the summer at a local community college to save some money before attending University. In my class were what I assume to be two brothers. The oldest was probably 12 and the youngest was 8. I thought that was so cool at the time. Community colleges are extremely underrated and I wish I would have known more about available opportunities during High School. It's such a much better environment for focusing on just academics.
I took computer programming classes at my local community college as a freshman in high school. I learned COBOL! It was a great experience. I encourage any parents to persuade their children to take a class or two at the local community college, especially parents of kids like me who were bored-as-fuck in high school and just stared out the window all day.
This is something I was quite jealous of Americans. In Germany you can just go to claasses in university without paying but if you skip school too much you fail your grade no matter how good you are and not attending school at a young age is actually illegal. And then failing school disqualifies you from university.
German school was immensely frustrating to me. I'd lose grade for giving answers too early because the math level was so incredibly low.
At the same time I recognize now that in the grand scheme of things the average German high school is better than the average American one and that we had a lot things biology and chemistry that they don't seem to do until college
The college has a story of their own that gives a little more detail: he was there 3 years, and got 5 degrees: all associate of arts, in history, social sciences, social behavior and self-development, arts and human expression, and science and mathematics.
I assume part of the trick here is that there's substantial overlap in the requirements for each degree: all of those but history are actually interdisciplinary studies degrees, each with a different "emphasis."
Not to put down a 9-to-12-year-old taking community college classes, obviously that's impressive in its own right. It's just that there's probably a little bit of a gimmick involved.
> Idk, the cynic in me wonders what he actually had to do. Because for a lot of degrees the answer is basically nothing.
I'm trying to remember any college course I took out of the three degrees I have (and extra college courses outside of that) that didn't require a lot of work. I'm not sure where you are coming up with this idea that it's not a lot of work and that it's okay to downplay someone's drive and abilities. Maybe it'd be more useful for you to do some internal reflection instead of dumping this garbage out on everyone here.
That’s literally a point I made in reverse. It’s too much work. For a good, real degree. This is not the story of a boy genius thriving on raw intelligence. I suspect this is a story of his parents manufacturing a story by figuring out how to get these degrees with the minimal possible effort.
Nobody gets 5 degrees in unrelated things out of personal interest. Especially not at 12. Normal interested people may take additional classes in other areas, but you don’t get 5 degrees unless you optimize for getting 5 degrees. Again, purely based on time.
The kid also had to be homeschool for normal school stuff the entire time. I say because I got annoyed and dug up additional info.
Something about the situation doesn't add up. The kid hasn't had time to do five "a lot of work" degrees worth of classwork; something's got to give. This is a 12-year old, not a 22-year old.
Appears to be a feeder community college so reasonably challenging courses. There's probably a fair bit of overlap between courses for the associate's degrees, and he probably just likes studying a ton.
They're associate's degrees from Fullerton, a community college.
> It feels manufactured.
It sounds more "enabled" to me. I'm jealous. I wish I had been able to take community college classes with a little more depth instead of boring junior high.
I'm not familiar with American community colleges, but the more cost-effective forms of higher education tend to focus more on exams than classes. The education is based more on demonstrating what you have learned than on highly structured study.
If I got the details right, he completed 10 years of studies in 3 years. That's impressive, especially for someone so young, but not unreasonable. Back when I was an undergrad in Finland, we had an informal definition for a high achieving student: 100 old credit units in a year, or 2.5x the nominal pace, with good grades. I knew a few people who did that at least once, and there was a newspaper story of someone who had apparently done it 7 years in a row.
When I was just out of school a couple years my boss quit and the company I worked for decided it would be good for me to manage a team of 5 developers. At the time I thought I did an OK job, but in retrospect I realize that there was no way for me to be good at managing people in their 30’s 40’s and 50’s. What did I know about being married, having a spouse, having kids, having to take care of sick people, having a home to maintain, etc. I knew nothing. That’s where I feel this kid is now. Lots of accomplishments on paper. Now go live and get experience to put it to use.
Because for a lot of degrees the answer is basically nothing.
Not in any meaningful, reality-based sense. If the place is legitimately accredited, there are always some significant requirements well beyond the description of "basically nothing".
> "Associates degree in History, Associates degrees in Science, Associate degrees in Social Science, Science and Mathematics, arts and human expressions, social behavior and self-development."
I seriously can't tell what the five degrees are from that list. And most seem junk anyway.
Most impressive is the fact he was born at 27 weeks!
while very impressive i would never trade going through the college experience with people my age for any advanced degree or study. that’s worth a lot more to me that the diploma
I am sure it helped when looking for a job, no? You sometimes see this a lot where someone says their colleges degree was useless, but it was still helpful for getting that much needed foot in the door.
What should he be doing during the intervening ~6 years though? Just force himself to stop studying? Or study on his own and then be stuck bored to death when he finally goes to university and has to repeat courses?
Yeah, he's going to have a lot of regrets later on socially. But these type of kids would fit in a traditional school anyway so maybe its for the best.
Christian Heinrich Heineken or Heinecken (February 6, 1721 – June 27, 1725), also known as "the infant scholar of Lübeck", was a German child prodigy who lived only to the age of four.
It looks like he picked up 4 associate degrees from Interdisciplinary Studies [0] and then a separate History Associate in Arts Degree. (Unless there's another Associates degree in History that I'm missing).
And he did this in the space of 3 years.
Each associate degree requires 18 units (credits). I'm guessing that there's some overlap, so he might not have needed a full 90 units to pick up all 5 degrees.
That means he would've needed to take at most 10 courses per year.
Does anyone want to figure out the minimum possible units required? ;)
Just curious how many units did he complete to have 5 of these degrees? I'd like to know the breakdown of classes he took etc to achieve this. Quite impressive for a 12 year old.
I certainly was in the camp that late in highschool I took some classes at the local junior college and I really wish I had just taken more classes there that could have carried over to my 4 year college.
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If I had gone to uni and graduated with a PhD before 18 I know exactly how I would have ended up. With few friends, low career prospects, and extremely low odds of improving that situation.
Re the OP, I wonder what's next for him. I know that college was a little weird but manageable as a freshman at 15; a junior at 12 is going to have an even more different experience (and then... grad school at 14?) But if he's motivated and it's not just his parents driving this, he'll come up with something and do fine, I'm sure.
Really opened my eyes.
German school was immensely frustrating to me. I'd lose grade for giving answers too early because the math level was so incredibly low.
At the same time I recognize now that in the grand scheme of things the average German high school is better than the average American one and that we had a lot things biology and chemistry that they don't seem to do until college
5 degrees should not be possible imo. Not because you can’t master 5 subjects but because you shouldn’t have time to do 5 classes worth of work.
It feels manufactured. Talking about the kid doing archery and going to 23 countries makes me feel this even more.
I assume part of the trick here is that there's substantial overlap in the requirements for each degree: all of those but history are actually interdisciplinary studies degrees, each with a different "emphasis."
Not to put down a 9-to-12-year-old taking community college classes, obviously that's impressive in its own right. It's just that there's probably a little bit of a gimmick involved.
It's all padding.
No one has the time to do any of that with any level of competency!
I'm trying to remember any college course I took out of the three degrees I have (and extra college courses outside of that) that didn't require a lot of work. I'm not sure where you are coming up with this idea that it's not a lot of work and that it's okay to downplay someone's drive and abilities. Maybe it'd be more useful for you to do some internal reflection instead of dumping this garbage out on everyone here.
Nobody gets 5 degrees in unrelated things out of personal interest. Especially not at 12. Normal interested people may take additional classes in other areas, but you don’t get 5 degrees unless you optimize for getting 5 degrees. Again, purely based on time.
The kid also had to be homeschool for normal school stuff the entire time. I say because I got annoyed and dug up additional info.
They're associate's degrees from Fullerton, a community college.
> It feels manufactured.
It sounds more "enabled" to me. I'm jealous. I wish I had been able to take community college classes with a little more depth instead of boring junior high.
If I got the details right, he completed 10 years of studies in 3 years. That's impressive, especially for someone so young, but not unreasonable. Back when I was an undergrad in Finland, we had an informal definition for a high achieving student: 100 old credit units in a year, or 2.5x the nominal pace, with good grades. I knew a few people who did that at least once, and there was a newspaper story of someone who had apparently done it 7 years in a row.
This is an extreme analogy but there is a huge difference between reading about war and fighting in one
Not in any meaningful, reality-based sense. If the place is legitimately accredited, there are always some significant requirements well beyond the description of "basically nothing".
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I seriously can't tell what the five degrees are from that list. And most seem junk anyway.
Most impressive is the fact he was born at 27 weeks!
Dead Comment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Heinrich_Heineken
Christian Heinrich Heineken or Heinecken (February 6, 1721 – June 27, 1725), also known as "the infant scholar of Lübeck", was a German child prodigy who lived only to the age of four.
And he did this in the space of 3 years.
Each associate degree requires 18 units (credits). I'm guessing that there's some overlap, so he might not have needed a full 90 units to pick up all 5 degrees.
That means he would've needed to take at most 10 courses per year.
Does anyone want to figure out the minimum possible units required? ;)
[0] https://catalog.nocccd.edu/fullerton-college/degrees-certifi... [1] https://catalog.nocccd.edu/fullerton-college/degrees-certifi...
I certainly was in the camp that late in highschool I took some classes at the local junior college and I really wish I had just taken more classes there that could have carried over to my 4 year college.