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

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

#181

Post by javajosh »

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's hardly too late to go back to (grad) school at 33.

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

#182

Post by Futurebot »

Vraxx wrote: post #153
droithomme wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> had they been provided a similarly advantageous upbringing He's a minority immigrant that fled poverty and homeschooled himself. Please clarify in what ways this was an advantageous upbringing over say an american native raised in the suburbs by a wealthy family who attends the best public schools, few if any of whom enter MIT at 15.

Well, I think for one is the support of his parents. I don't think "advantages" necessarily have to be monetary ones. Certainly in this case his advantages included his parents and the opportunities that OCW provided. This is not to say that the kid did not work hard either as that is obviously false. Consider a similar situation where a five year old wants to take college courses through an online program in an amer…

"Having parents", "having supportive parents", "having parents with resources (that can come in multiple forms like time, knowledge, connections, and money) that they are willing and able to use on you", and "having a place that you can live in potentially rent-free whether or you're going to college, working, or need to return to if you lose your job" are things that some don't consider advantages, even though they should. Those things are springboards and safety nets that not everyone has access to.

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

#183

Post by sannee »

hemantv wrote: post #131
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…

The grass always seems green on another side. There is a lot of benefit to the singularity of purpose at the same time there are a lot of side effects. To give you one example, homeschooled kid lacks good social skills, which are more important to success in life than mere intelligence or knowledge.

I wonder how does one learn social skills at a place where socializing is explicitly forbidden for about 85% of the time.

Also, you get to interact with only about 20 other random people of the same age with the same skill set (by definition). For 10 or so years. Very realistic, totally happens in real life.

I mean, schools are terribly inefficient at teaching skills/knowledge, but they are clearly even more terrible at teaching social skills.

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

#184

Post by hedgehog »

chris_va wrote: post #179

I went to college early (14, graduated 18). I've spoken with a lot of similar folks over the years, and the biggest takeaway for me was that everyone's experience and needs were different. Some people were pushed by their parents, but mostly it was people who were bored with the normal experience and found an out. Out of that set, maybe about half regret it, and wished they had slowed down and enjoyed high school/chi…

My observations are similar, the kids have to want to do the work and it's hard enough that parental support is essential. It's too hard otherwise. The University of Washington has a program that brings in 12ish early entrants each year. The program's process seems to be repeatable and although the staff have a strong liberal arts bent they produce students in all fields including at least two YC founders.

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

#185

Post by caseysoftware »

chris_va wrote: post #179

I went to college early (14, graduated 18). I've spoken with a lot of similar folks over the years, and the biggest takeaway for me was that everyone's experience and needs were different. Some people were pushed by their parents, but mostly it was people who were bored with the normal experience and found an out. Out of that set, maybe about half regret it, and wished they had slowed down and enjoyed high school/chi…

I started early but was dual-enrolled during high school. It was kind of the best of both worlds and limited some of the trouble/boredom I had.

Anyway, supportive (or desperate) parents are a key aspect.

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

#186

Post by Omnipresent »

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #157
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #138

Children can do a lot more than they're given credit for. My 4-year-old demanded music lessons when his older brother was playing cello. He started on both cello and piano. Entering kindergarden, in music class the teacher had a keyboard, asked the children who could play. A little girl banged out chopsticks. Another little boy picked out twinkle,twinkle,little star. My son Andrew raised his hand, and played some Bee…

Fun fact: terrible handwriting is correlated with high dopamine levels in the brain, which is correlated with increased brain activity (~ intelligence).

Any link for additional reading on that fun fact?

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

#188

Post by oberstein »

CrimsnBlade wrote: post #118

>Some people think I’m gifted, but I don’t think so Taking physics and chemistry classes at 5 years old? Call me crazy, but I think that can certainly be considered gifted by most standards.

Just another instance of dunning-kruger. When he's older and had more interactions with lower IQ people, he may come to terms with his gifts...

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

#189

Post by g_delgado14 »

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…

Computer games can stimulate curiosity so labelling computer games and other child-related things as "hedonistic" might imply that they contain zero inherent value, which I think is a serious oversimplification.

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

#190

Post by amarpatel »

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #157
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #138

Children can do a lot more than they're given credit for. My 4-year-old demanded music lessons when his older brother was playing cello. He started on both cello and piano. Entering kindergarden, in music class the teacher had a keyboard, asked the children who could play. A little girl banged out chopsticks. Another little boy picked out twinkle,twinkle,little star. My son Andrew raised his hand, and played some Bee…

Fun fact: terrible handwriting is correlated with high dopamine levels in the brain, which is correlated with increased brain activity (~ intelligence).

starts writing poorly on purpose
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