Do colleges consider age for admissions?
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Anonymous
| Our student will be 16 when they apply and 17 when they enter freshman year. Do colleges look at age during admissions? Are there certain colleges that we need to rule out based on age? |
Anonymous
| Yes. Depending how selective it is a quick train to no. My husband went young and has forever regretted it. |
Anonymous
| Socially it is bad. |
Anonymous
| Why would you want to rush to the college experience so quickly? Maybe you should have DC take a gap year. Will need a lot of social maturity to do well in college. |
Anonymous
| Way back in the cave days, I applied early decision to a SLAC as a 16 year old senior. I found out I got in just after my 17th birthday in December. I entered college as a 17 year old and turned 18 a few months into my freshman year. It was totally fine. |
Anonymous
But that is still a year older than OP. For all you know OP’s kid will turn 17 the week before college starts. That is different than turning 18 early in the school year. I think a lot of it depends on the kid’s maturity and personality. Maybe if the kid is very extroverted and socially adept. |
Anonymous
| My child turned 17 a few weeks after starting college. Zero impact. |
Anonymous
School? |
Anonymous
| Why? Did he rush high school in less than 4 years? If so, it’s not favorable at highly selective schools, even tho MIT asks in its app if you graduated HS in less than 4 years. At non highly selective schools, it wont matter. |
Anonymous
Well then I guess we need OP to clarify: OP—what month is your kid turning 17? |
Anonymous
|
I don't think so. Younger than 16 would raise eyebrows, and I think you'd have to explain from a maturity standpoint. They might be more comfortable with a commuter situation, because it poses a problem for dorm living.
But from 16 to 18? No. What DOES pose problems, sometimes, is the older student who hasn't shown much for their gap years. Colleges get worried they won't be able to jump back into academics. I would advise that unless the gap program is top notch, the student includes some classes at the community college, or work in a research lab, or something intellectual. Older than 20 also raises dorm living questions. |
Anonymous
Was he homeschooled? Top college? |
Anonymous
|
He skipped a grade in elementary school and has an early birthday. He will turn 18 in Feb of freshman year.
I also entered freshman year at 17, but I went to a crappy regional school and condensed my courses junior year. I had a negative HS experience, but had no issues acclimating as a freshman. I'm not concerned about maturity and social, DS runs circles around most kids. In fact, my only question was about admissions chances as it relates to age and age only- not transcripts, maturity or social. DS will be targeting top 50 schools and engineering programs. |
Anonymous
| I was a grade skipper who didn’t turn 18 until April of my first year in college. The answer is no, age doesn’t matter, certainly not if it’s just one year behind normal grade-level. |
Anonymous
| So he's turning 18 during his freshman year in college? That will not matter at all from an admissions perspective. Totally normal. And if he is appropriately mature for his age, then he should be fine from a social perspective. Sure, he might get some comments about his age if he chooses to share it. But again, if he confident and mature, then it will not matter one whit. Don't let the hand-wringers on this forum tell you otherwise. |