11-Year-Old TCU Freshman, Carson Huey-You, Is The University's Youngest Student Ever; Child Prodigy Expected To Graduate College At 15
Carson Huey-You is set to slash the median age of incoming freshmen at Texas Christian University (TCU). According to school officials, the 11-year-old is the youngest student they’ve ever had. Together with kids almost twice his age, he will spend the following weeks settling in, pouring over syllabi, and buying textbooks.
“It’s fun because it’s basically just like high school, but in a big campus…with a lot more people,” said Carson, speaking to CBS.
A co-valedictorian of his senior class, Carson reportedly has an SAT score in the 80th percentile, proficiency in Mandarin Chinese and a penchant for piano. This semester, he is taking on a full course load consisting of calculus, physics, religion, and history. His dream is to become a quantum physicist.
The prospective scientist learned read to by the age of one, and was doing pre-algebra at five. He says calculus has a relaxing effect on him.
“Whenever you are like ‘Oh, that makes sense now,’ just kind of after going at it, going at it, it’s just kind of like that one moment of thought,” he told reporters.
His young age aside, Carson has already impressed professors with his enthusiasm and intellectual agility in the classroom. According Qiao Zhang, Associate Professor of Mathematics, the 11-year-old shows great promise.
“He’s definitely very talented and also he’s very serious about his work and he really enjoys it. And that’s the best that a professor can hope for his students, right?” he said.
Carsons enrollment at TCU makes him the latest in a surprisingly long line of preteen college students. Earlier extremes include Michael Kearney, who finished his bachelor at age 10 and gave his first university lectures at 17. Another is Ronan Farrow, son of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow, who earned a degree in biology from Bard College at 15 and a JD from Yale Law School at 21. Now 22, Farrow is a Special Advisor on Humanitarian and NGO Affairs for the Obama administration.