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'Mind boggling' 15-yr old admitted to Harvard, MIT, Caltech

From the NY Post , about Stuyvesant whiz kid
Cheese-eating Heady Wagecucks
  05/13/10
The kid make his choice
Cheese-eating Heady Wagecucks
  05/13/10
It's nice to see one of these genius kids going to HYP. Too...
Fear-inspiring trailer park
  05/14/10
I wonder
Cheese-eating Heady Wagecucks
  05/14/10
they'd probably be better off building homes in Cambodia for...
stubborn ruby ladyboy
  05/14/10
Credited post.
marvelous crackhouse
  05/20/10
Would not have been my choice.
excitant jet lay
  06/26/10
This kid will be a virgin for life, will never have friends,...
odious heaven
  05/20/10
that description fits the OP.
Misunderstood parlour double fault
  05/21/10
He already has a girlfriend, and thinks Harvard is cooler th...
Vivacious self-centered sanctuary
  05/25/10
impressive as hell. hope he does something awesome like cur...
Razzle-dazzle lemon stage
  06/25/10
chess
Trip drab gas station dingle berry
  05/22/10


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Date: May 13th, 2010 9:44 AM
Author: Cheese-eating Heady Wagecucks
Subject: From the NY Post , about Stuyvesant whiz kid

Zachary Young's acceptance letters to Harvard, MIT and Caltech arrived early at his Upper East Side apartment last month.

Two years early.

Not even having finished his sophomore year at the city's elite, public Stuyvesant HS, the 15-year-old wunderkind has already secured seats for himself at three of the country's brainiest colleges.

For a while, it was a mailbox flurry of good news.

"I was pretty shocked. I hadn't really pictured myself getting a letter," the brainiac said of his first acceptance -- from Caltech.

But it was the MIT green-light that shot him over the moon.

"That was much more exciting," he gushed. "I had my mom, my sisters and my girlfriend, and they all screamed."

Young says he still hasn't decided which university to attend.

"I'm still totally not sure," he admits. "I flip-flop like every day."

Young's aptitude was obvious from preschool, although he also once read an "Idiot's Guide to World War II" -- when he was in third grade.

His passion for math began at age 2, when he finished a puzzle -- and then did it upside down to make it more challenging.

"He's very intense and driven," said his mom, Lisa Young, who works in the office at the Anderson School for the intellectually gifted on the Upper West Side. "My only reservation is that I wish he could know that he's only going to be a kid once. He'll have plenty of time to be a grown-up."

But Young is impatient, especially with those folks who just don't get math.

"A lot of people have the misconception that it's plugging and chugging," he said. "That's not real math. Real math is basically proving things and solving problems."

Young has already taken every math and science class Stuyvesant has to offer.

"I wasn't sure what classes I'd be able to take next year," said Zach, who attended the private Ethical Culture Fieldston School through fifth grade before switching to the Anderson School in sixth. "I really just applied to college to give myself options."

Zach is a two-time national chess champion who doesn't watch TV or listen to music.

"If I have a choice between math and almost anything else, I choose math," he said.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/hs_kid_gets_into_harvard_and_mit_ZqLY8RPivQzlP8CCtdbKcL

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1310600&forum_id=1#14979936)



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Date: May 13th, 2010 9:52 AM
Author: Cheese-eating Heady Wagecucks
Subject: The kid make his choice

15-Year-Old Whiz Kid To Join Harvard

Zachary A. Young is finishing his sophomore year at Stuyvesant High School in New York, but unlike most high school sophomores, Young will be coming to Harvard in the fall as a member of the Class of 2014. He's 15.

Having already exhausted all the math and science courses at his school, Young, a fast-talking math enthusiast, thought he'd give himself some options. So he applied for college—as anyone in his situation would, we suppose—and was accepted to Harvard, MIT, and Caltech.

After visiting MIT and Harvard during MIT's prefrosh weekend, Young decided that he liked us more.

"I was generally much more impressed by Harvard's student body than by MIT's," he said.

In particular, Young enjoyed sitting in on the Math 55b: "Honors Real and Complex Analysis" class while he was visiting, and it'll definitely be a course he will consider taking in the fall, he said.

In his free time, Young said he likes doing math. He challenges himself with proofs and problems from previous math contests. He also has a girlfriend who is a high school sophomore as well, and he said she approved of his decision to go to college at such an early age.

Young said he'll miss the math contests the most when he transitions to college life in the fall, but he won't miss the busy work.

"I'm fed up with high school and how boring and repetitive it can be," Young said. "I'm very excited to try something new...I actually could feel like I'm at home here."

(Harvard Crimson)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1310600&forum_id=1#14979953)



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Date: May 14th, 2010 5:39 PM
Author: Fear-inspiring trailer park

It's nice to see one of these genius kids going to HYP. Too many of them end up finishing high school super early and moving on to the local state school. In most cases, they'd have been better not skipping years and going off to HYP at 17/18.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1310600&forum_id=1#14992235)



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Date: May 14th, 2010 8:53 PM
Author: Cheese-eating Heady Wagecucks
Subject: I wonder

if it might be better for some of these kids to defer matriculation for a year provided there were appropriate and challenging gap year opportunities

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1310600&forum_id=1#14993510)



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Date: May 14th, 2010 10:35 PM
Author: stubborn ruby ladyboy

they'd probably be better off building homes in Cambodia for a year or something.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1310600&forum_id=1#14994412)



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Date: May 20th, 2010 9:13 AM
Author: marvelous crackhouse

Credited post.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1310600&forum_id=1#15037370)



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Date: June 26th, 2010 7:53 PM
Author: excitant jet lay

Would not have been my choice.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1310600&forum_id=1#15350979)



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Date: May 20th, 2010 2:59 PM
Author: odious heaven

This kid will be a virgin for life, will never have friends, will never be cultured and will be a poor working in a lab for the rest of his life.

He will die a very lonely sole.

I feel bad for people like this...

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1310600&forum_id=1#15039036)



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Date: May 21st, 2010 5:02 AM
Author: Misunderstood parlour double fault

that description fits the OP.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1310600&forum_id=1#15044195)



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Date: May 25th, 2010 10:33 PM
Author: Vivacious self-centered sanctuary

He already has a girlfriend, and thinks Harvard is cooler than MIT.

Kid has a future.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1310600&forum_id=1#15084886)



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Date: June 25th, 2010 10:16 PM
Author: Razzle-dazzle lemon stage

impressive as hell. hope he does something awesome like cure some disease rather than solve some bullshit math theorem or do shit like that freak in a wheelchair who talks like a robot

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1310600&forum_id=1#15343647)



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Date: May 22nd, 2010 3:21 AM
Author: Trip drab gas station dingle berry
Subject: chess

fyi- his published uscf rating is only 1980. Very impressive for a 15 year old but not in the top 5% of active tournament players in the US.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1310600&forum_id=1#15051900)