As great as it is that she can learn so much online at such a young age, I try to picture what my life would be like if my entire college experience was through a computer screen. I did a lot of growing up and reflection at UT-Austin, and met my best friends at the dorm, my wife at a coop we both lived in, and my business partner when we were both student programmers at the university. I didn't finish until I was 24 and I constantly think about all of those memories. In one of my philosophy classes (Human Nature, 10 years ago), the professor brought up the "Experience Box" thought experiment pretty regularly. Essentially, if you could replace all of your experiences with a digital equivalent, would you?
Yes, but her formal education is acceptably 'over'. She can go out and do things without worrying about degrees. (or she can get a grad degree, whatever). Many choices are open to her that you simply didn't have.
"She can go out and do things without worrying about degrees."
Her work life is set, but it still does nothing for personal growth. You usually need both to be successful. I wish I would have learned this earlier in my life. I went to a commuter school and did not get the full college experience.
Is college the best setting for personal growth?
What would be some alternatives?
Travel?
The peace core?
The military?
A start-up?
I wonder if Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, etc, feel they missed out on some personal growth because they dropped out of college?
Getting a degree at 16 does not preclude her from growing emotionally and intellectually into her 20s, the institution, or goal post, will just have a different name on it that what you and I had in mind (undergrad degree).
My point was that it was not something to "worry" about or get "over with". Similarly, I could eat really quickly and be free to do other things without worrying about eating, or I could just eat slowly. The options afterwards are the same.
It's like with seeds. Plant them 10 feet under the ground as Chairman Mao demanded, and they must struggle to germinate and grow, becoming even stronger and healthier because of the challenge. This is the strength that massive debt of Ivy League out of state tuition would bring our young comrade.
Ivy League students get massive financial aid if they cannot pay out of pocket. No massive debt.
Out of state tuition in The UW system is much more expensive.
I was enlisted in the military for 4 years. I made a lot of good friends, traveled overseas, read a lot of Stoic philosophy, and did a lot of growing up, and I wouldn't give one bit of that experience up for the world.
You'll probably never experience military life, and probably neither will she. Does that make your life any less of an experience? No.
Finishing a degree online may not have given her the college experience you had, but that doesn't make the experiences that she did have any less meaningful or fulfilling, especially for a young teenage girl.
The non-academic experience at college is the secret to why we pay so much for it. It also tends to piss of people who are extremely interested in learning and nothing else. They wonder what's the point of all this B.S. that's not knowledge.
Well, we're all humans, and we humans have certain needs, like study, love, friends, adventure, etc, and the need to share similar life experiences with many other humans, like with everyone who also went to college.
This is why I think talk of a higher education bubble is too general. I am certain many colleges are overpriced but, by no means will colleges ever go away, or even be extremely different. We are not talking tulips here.
I hope tuition prices come way down, but the college experience is here to stay. Heck, if you're desperate for great employees who could have their pick of jobs, you tend to turn your company into "college". Just think of Google or for that matter Microsoft, or most big tech companies and their "campuses."
It took three years, with an associate's degree, for a 'super genius' to get her bachelor's degree?
Tell me they didn't milk her for tuition for duplicate courses.
Did the article mention what her bachelor's degree is in?
[EDIT]
Heard majored in history and minored in political science, which falls under social sciences.
The article also mentioned she has passed an online law school admission test and plans to get a JD entirely online.
It did not mention LSATs and I also believe entirely online JD programs do not require LSATs.
I actually watched on Ally McBeal episode ("The Playing Field" - season 1) on Netflix an hour ago reminding me of this scenario...
A 10-year old boy genius becomes a lawyer, and during negotiations against Ally, cries and sulks under the table when not getting his way.
So, I am pretty tickled by this article. I don't understand why the child would not pursue a higher caliber academic institution. Perhaps she is not that smart.
I was handling college level biology texts just fine in eigth grade. I handled the chemistry required at that level as well. (private school, someone had donated intro bio and chem texts to their library.)
A high school age person getting a college degree does not surprise me. I don't think this is unusual at all. Many kids are far more capable than we give them credit for. As for the social aspects, I would tend to agree with you.
I will probably be downvoted for this, but I am a bit more impressed with a high school age person getting a college degree in biology or chemistry or engineering or math, not history and political science from a state school (no offense Wazzu alumns).
A science degree requires an amount of logic and application in additional to memorization and writing skills to pass. History and political science can be handled largely through latter two skills.
Not to say you can't learn reasoning in history classes or memorize your way through a biology degree. It think the professors have more impact on your degree of learning than the actual subject material. (And of course, your own desire to learn)
You are right, she is missing out on the social aspects of a top school. This poor girl will never know what it's like to wake up groggy next to a pool table in the basement of a frat building, wondering which of the 30 guys that gang banged her the night before while she was high on E and ketamine is the father of the child she later aborts.
"My parents felt that it would not be a good idea to send me to campus at such a young age," Heard said. "I appreciate their decision, mainly because online studying has given me quite a bit of flexibility in my study schedule."
Yes, and all of the 16 and 17 year olds who got into college with my freshman class got in way over their heads socially and emotionally. If I were to have a daughter who finished High School early, or found some way to dispense with it entirely, then I'd have her do some sort of research or work until she reached age-parity before going away from home.
Are you sure you identified all of the 16 and 17 year olds?
When my wife was a 15 year old college student, people assumed she was quite a bit older. She was intellectually, emotionally, and socially ready for college at that age. Those students who are ready in all three ways are often overlooked. Other students are ready intellectually but missing the social or emotional aspects, and they're the ones you're more likely to notice.
If you or I have a daughter who finishes high school early, college might not be the best option, or it might. You have to evaluate it on a case-by-case basis.
Are you sure you identified all of the 16 and 17 year olds?
No, but of all the young women I knew well, I first found out that they had made it into college a year or two early, then much later found out the kind of shenanigans they were up to. I also had a girlfriend in graduate school who had many stories of similar young women at her alma mater. Granted, it's much too small a sample size to be scientific, but it was a striking realization for me.
When my wife was a 15 year old college student, people assumed she was quite a bit older. She was intellectually, emotionally, and socially ready for college at that age. Those students who are ready in all three ways are often overlooked.
This is a good point. A student who is savvy and mature might want to keep their age a secret, and they would be missed by an observer.
On the other hand, I am more and more convinced that performance in substantive work is one of the few good indicators of emotional maturity.
I attended a concurrent high school and college program during my last two years of high school. We lived together in a dormitory of only high school students. The entering class was typically about 230 people, aged 14-16 (but mostly 16), and about 160 of them would make it through two years to graduate. Of the other 70, many "failed" (for us that meant any D or F or more than 2 C's in a semester or a semester GPA less than 3.0). Many others were caught with drugs (including alcohol but not including caffeine or ritalin) or wandering around outside after curfew or engaged in sex acts. Some of these acts would be ignored by the administration if the student had a 4.0 or was doing worthwhile research, but even when the administration ignored them the students were frequently withdrawn by their conservative parents.
The administration liked to tell parents of prospective students that "No student has ever died here." This was true, but only due to their unwritten policy of expelling students who reacted to their new environment by becoming extremely depressed. I did not learn of this policy until we heard (at a wing meeting) that a student who had left the program a couple months prior had recently taken his own life.
Among the students who do not complete the program, many of them are still able to make use of the head start it provides. They often simply transfer to another university or continue attending the same university and never bother graduating from high school. Among students who do complete the program, there are still many for whom it was too much, and they will live with whatever non-physical damage they sustained for the rest of their lives.
It was probably the most stressful thing I have ever done, and I wouldn't give it up for anything. The friends I made there are some of the most amazing people I have ever known, and if I were 2 years behind my current track I would still be a year away from graduation.
I started college at 15 while being dual-enrolled both at a high school and college 2 years ago. Unlike anonymoushn's experience, I went to a commuter community college, so I didn't live on campus or really participate in any campus events, as sparse as they were.
I do feel that I've missed the high school and college experience to a degree, since I've spent my last two years at high school attending classes with older people of relatively mediocre talent with little interaction with others. I lost touch with most of my friends from high school that I kept up with since middle school, since we really only saw each other in school.
I will echo anonymoushn's experience that it was a pretty stressful time for me, being pretty isolated and alone and forced to do a lot of things alone. There were some periods where I got the lowest I have ever have into the pits and depths of depression, mainly from being so alone and feeling a little hopeless. It didn't help that I was working insane hours during my only free time during the summer between my junior and senior years of high school and had no time for any fun or relaxation at all.
I do appreciate the fact that I had 2 years of college paid for by the state fully, and that I got a leg up in life that way. I also spent a lot of that 2 years listening to a lot of music and learning a lot about myself. There was definitely a lot of wasted time and things I regret from that period. I almost failed out my first semester at the community college from procrastinating so much and being thrown into such a new and strange environment with no support. My academic record went on a big nose-dive during this period and I really regret that, it hasn't helped me any during my college admission period.
It was pretty bittersweet, and I feel the effect that it has had on my life since I'll have to continue at the same college for another year to finish an associates degree in computer science (another downside to starting college alone with no support and as the first in your family to go to college -- a lot of __really__ important things like planning out your classes and academic roadmap don't really occur to you until it's a little late), and have little choice but to attend another cheap state commuter college for the last 2 years of the Bachelor degree.
Another upside is that I was exposed to the concept of taking responsibility for my own personal growth and development mentally, physically, and emotionally/socially in my own hands. I realized around the 3rd semester of my time here, I got into panic mode realizing I had 1 semester left of high school. I felt like it went much too fast and that I missed too much, but refused to just wallow in despair like before. I've gone ahead and taken the initiative to try to learn about things that interest me and skills that I both enjoy and can market, take care of my body by learning how to eat better, exercise regularly, sleep on a sane schedule (a problem that slaughtered my productivity and academic record), and to be more bold and confident amongst groups of people, especially to girls.
It's been a bitter pill to take, but I think I've grown a lot as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experience_machine