Anonymous wrote: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?

Both my kids at ivy/+ have many peers who started Freshman year at 17, and turned 18 between October and January of Freshman year, so they were still 16 when they were writing applications. Out of a freshman hall of 25 kids, 4 were that age. Only one had turned 19 prior to start. The rest were the typical 18-going-to be 19 sometime during freshman year or just after. For international students, starting at 17 is common, but it also occurs among domestic students. It is not a detriment to be 17 at the start of freshman year. For my other kid, 4 out of her 6 close friends started college at 17 and turned 18 during the first year. Mine thought themselves "young" turning 18 a couple of months before freshman year started, and NOVA moms claimed they would be considered too young by elites. Baloney. Colleges do not care, as long as they have the requisite course preparation. In the US that means the kid should have completed 4 years of high school with all of the main courses, unless there are significant extenuating circumstances such that the student ran out of all course options possible due to being extremely advanced.

Anonymous wrote: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.

The humbleness of DCUM posters never ceases to amaze me.

OMG none of you can read. He won’t be 16 in college, he’ll be 17. Turning 18!! Totally normal.

As long as they're 16 it's fine. One of my kids started just as he was turning 17 (I think he moved in the day before his 17th birthday) and the other turned 17 in late November of her freshman fall semester. The only issue is that at bars and clubs it's "18 to party, 21 to drink" so there were only certain bars they could get into at age 17. Luckily neither one is a big drinker so it was a non-issue.

In terms of admissions we never addressed age beyond providing birth dates where requested and none of the colleges asked about it.

That’s on the younger end but not all that unusual. I’m a late August birthday and turned 17 just after I arrived. Only awkward as a senior RA who was still underage but took drinks away from drunk guests.

Anonymous wrote:My DD will enter college aged 17 and turn 18 in the Dec. But I think that's actually a huge difference to starting at 16.

He won’t be. IP says he’s 16 when he applies (HS senior) and 17 when starting freshman year of college.

I think OP mentioning 16 threw folks off if they read that as the age when starting college, but that’s not the case. I had many friends (and myself) who turned 17 halfway through senior year of HS or later. Plenty of kids are 17 when they start at college.

Kid will be fine.

My DD will enter college aged 17 and turn 18 in the Dec. But I think that's actually a huge difference to starting at 16.

Carnegie Mellon

^just saw OP said maturity not an issue, only concerned about whether age will be a negative on the application. Answer to that is no, not at all.

Anonymous wrote: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.

Similar for me, my birthday is in November so I turned 18 in Nov of freshman year of college. And I was in the middle of the age range of my graduating class at my NWDC private HS. One friend didn’t turn 17 until late May of our senior year, so they were 17 for all of the college freshman year. They did fine.

But if a kid skews a little toward the socially immature side, taking a gap year might be a good thing. Better to do that with college acceptance in hand and then defer, though. Much easier to apply as a senior than after you’ve left HS.

No not an issue at all

Anonymous wrote: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.

I agree with this. One of my best friends in college skipped a grade early on in life, didn’t turn 21 till May of his senior year. We still made sure he could go out with us to bars.

Another grad school friend was the same, her birthday was in March. Had zero effect on her undergrad experience, she said.

Anonymous wrote: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.

1. In this case, age wont matter.

2. In the case of the bolded above, LOL.

Huh, I wonder if that was an issue for me 30 years ago? I turned 17 during my senior year AP testing. Turned 21 right before my college graduation ceremony.

I had basically started school early (skipped K), so I had been with the same cohort since 1st grade.

The only times being younger became apparent were the big times like getting a license and turning 21 (which wasn’t really all that difficult, actually-we didn’t go to bars much) To me, these things were just an annoyance

17 freshman year at HYP … no one cares