Homeschooled with MIT courses at 5, accepted to MIT at 15 • Hacker News Board

Re: Homeschooled with MIT courses at 5, accepted to MIT at 15

#41

Post by agentultra » Wed, Nov 18, 2015, 2:39 PM UTC

rtl49 wrote: post #22

“I will never forget the feeling of walking into the lobby of Building 7, looking up, and then touching the pillars to see if they were real. I couldn’t believe I was at MIT. My life and my ambitions moved to another level at that moment.” I think this impressive achievement is more a testament to the role that aspirations acquired during childhood play in determining a person's success than it is a reflection of thi…

> These stories attract the attention of some of us because we wish we had been raised similarly.

We wish we had been but we didn't live in the right time or place for an upbringing like this. I remember stealing my dad's college textbooks on mechanics and applied mathematics and sneaking them off to school; taking out Byte and Compute issues from the library when they were available... just starving for more all the time. Astronomy club. Chess club. In high school I went to night school with my friends' mom at the university in the big city when I wasn't working to help pay the rent. You just couldn't get the breadth and ease of access to information you can today. It was slow and laborious back then.

But a world like this? Today? Amazing. You don't even have to leave your house. He is lucky. I'm 33 now and I'd kill to be able to study mathematics full time and be a professor some day. It just wasn't in the cards. Parents, circumstances, life and all of that.

Yes... we'll envy stories like this. More of us could have been this hungry. We just couldn't get there.

Re: Homeschooled with MIT courses at 5, accepted to MIT at 15

#42

Post by rtl49 » Wed, Nov 18, 2015, 2:39 PM UTC

russnewcomer wrote: post #30

I applaud this family, and am glad for Ahaan's sake that he isn't just shipping himself off to college, but is going to still have his support structure. I was homeschooled, along with my two sisters, my entire educational career until college. We all started taking college classes early, my older sister correspondence at 14, my twin and I correspondence at 15. All of us took classes at local colleges before starting…

>My point in typing up this story is not to say that I am or was awesome.

Are you sure? Being a smart fellow, you must know that your experience is not evidence that this young man was not "pushed" too much and that he will "be fine."

That said, my suspicion is that Rungta's early achievement is not cause for concern about his social development. Conducting research, for instance, is an intensely collaborative experience that he will probably have, and would provide ample opportunity for interacting with people of many ages. He probably will be fine.

Re: Homeschooled with MIT courses at 5, accepted to MIT at 15

#43

Post by thisone » Wed, Nov 18, 2015, 2:39 PM UTC

hackerboos wrote: post #37

collyw wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I am pretty glad that I had a "normal" childhood.

When I was 5 years old I had trouble mixing up the letters b and d. Given an MIT course at that age I probably would have ignored it in favor of playing outside.

I still mix my small B and small D, and my left and right.

Five year old me would've loved a higher level of education though. School was incredibly boring.

Re: Homeschooled with MIT courses at 5, accepted to MIT at 15

#44

Post by rogeryu » Wed, Nov 18, 2015, 2:41 PM UTC

jasode wrote: post #3

dagw wrote: post #2

It would be interested to check in with him at 35 to see where he ended up compared to other 'normal' 35 year old MIT grads. Basically does pushing your kid like that from such and early age lead to any significant long term advantages.

>pushing your kid like that I dunno about this... we're not intimate with his family so it seems a little unfair to characterize his parents as "pushing him". For all we know, the opposite may have happened and his parents were "holding him back" and trying to prevent a precocious teen from rushing into MIT at age 14 instead of 15. As far as the article's text reveals, it says his parents were responsive and not push…

> As far as the article's text reveals, it says his parents were responsive and not pushy: "Rungta is grateful to his parents and to MIT for being responsive to his needs every step of the way."

Sure, he will never say bad things about his parents, especially not in the media. He's from India! As I see it parents (in general) can bend things so that children do not want anything else than what their parents want. This is not to blame the parents - they probably don't know better.

From this story I can't tell what is the case. His parents are maybe the best ever, that not only want best for their kid, but actually let him find out what that is.

Re: Homeschooled with MIT courses at 5, accepted to MIT at 15

#45

Post by sklogic » Wed, Nov 18, 2015, 2:42 PM UTC

NameNickHN wrote: post #36

ktzar wrote: post #32

Some people force maturing, when maturing comes on its own... And by doing so they loose childhood, which never comes back.

Some people mature earlier than others without being foced. For some the ideal childhood is playing outside, playng games or playing sports. For others it's technology and science.

Exactly. Tinkering with things is not any different from any other games children play.

Re: Homeschooled with MIT courses at 5, accepted to MIT at 15

#46

Post by Chrossler » Wed, Nov 18, 2015, 2:42 PM UTC

We are unable to judge anything about this kid. The article is written by the school and has a happy fairy tale feel to it, as a school article should. It is inspiring and interesting and gives you a thirst for intelligence. I hope the kid kills it and doesn't end up like phaedrus... I'm sure he'll do awesome

Re: Homeschooled with MIT courses at 5, accepted to MIT at 15

#47

Post by mrdrozdov » Wed, Nov 18, 2015, 2:42 PM UTC

rtl49 wrote: post #22

“I will never forget the feeling of walking into the lobby of Building 7, looking up, and then touching the pillars to see if they were real. I couldn’t believe I was at MIT. My life and my ambitions moved to another level at that moment.” I think this impressive achievement is more a testament to the role that aspirations acquired during childhood play in determining a person's success than it is a reflection of thi…

I'm content with my upbringing, but I think it's worth speculating about alternatives from a personal perspective since at one point we may raise our own children. For all we know, this person night have better social skills, personal development, etc. than those of us who had a "normal" upbringing. Normal should be defined by results rather than popularity. Don't you agree?

Re: Homeschooled with MIT courses at 5, accepted to MIT at 15

#48

Post by nibnib » Wed, Nov 18, 2015, 2:42 PM UTC

NameNickHN wrote: post #40

mkj wrote: post #34

"two-year-old son — already an avid reader" sounds somewhat unusual?

There are people who have a hard time learning to read and some who never manage it despite making every effort. Why is it so hard to believe that there are people at the other end of the spectrum who are able to learn to read as an infant?

This isn't normally distributed. Would you find someone learning to feed at 18 as surprising as someone learning at a week old? Reading at this age is certainly unusual.

Re: Homeschooled with MIT courses at 5, accepted to MIT at 15

#49

Post by eddotman » Wed, Nov 18, 2015, 2:42 PM UTC

I've hung out with Ahaan at school several times -- some people in the comments here are speculating that going to university this young might make it hard to adjust (socially), but honestly I assumed he was like ~20 (i.e. just like any other college-age dude). I had no clue he had such a neat backstory of how he got to MIT!

Re: Homeschooled with MIT courses at 5, accepted to MIT at 15

#50

Post by rtl49 » Wed, Nov 18, 2015, 2:44 PM UTC

agentultra wrote: post #41

rtl49 wrote: post #22

“I will never forget the feeling of walking into the lobby of Building 7, looking up, and then touching the pillars to see if they were real. I couldn’t believe I was at MIT. My life and my ambitions moved to another level at that moment.” I think this impressive achievement is more a testament to the role that aspirations acquired during childhood play in determining a person's success than it is a reflection of thi…

> These stories attract the attention of some of us because we wish we had been raised similarly. We wish we had been but we didn't live in the right time or place for an upbringing like this. I remember stealing my dad's college textbooks on mechanics and applied mathematics and sneaking them off to school; taking out Byte and Compute issues from the library when they were available... just starving for more all the…

It isn't cause for despair. In the grand scheme of things, none of us is so important and the desire to "achieve" more than we have is, in some sense, a wish to bless ourselves.

There's nothing to prevent you from studying those things today, within the constraints of your spare time. If you find the study intrinsically gratifying, I see no reason you should enjoy it any less because it probably won't result in a professorship.