Cornell University to welcome 12-year-old whiz this fall

Jeremy Shuler is like any other 12-year-old … Except the fact that this fall, he’ll be part of the incoming cohort of freshman at Cornell University.

Hailing from the state of Texas, Jeremy will be majoring in applied and engineering physics and minoring in mathematics.

The young genius may even be the youngest student in history to attend the university, a Cornell historian told the Washington Post.

From as young as 15 months old, Jeremy already showed signs of higher-than-average intelligence, with a passion for numbers and letters.

When asked how he feels about going off to university, Jeremy said he was both excited and nervous – excited to learn, but nervous that he’ll get lost finding his way around the large campus.

“I think I’ll really enjoy being at Cornell. I’ve been preparing for college for a long time,” he said.

The son of two aerospace engineers, Jeremy was picking up pre-calculus and reading Lord of the Rings by the time he was five years old.

When he was old enough to be sent to kindergarten, Jeremy’s parents didn’t think teachers would be able to keep up, so they opted for homeschooling, which was overseen by his mother Harrey full-time.

“Early on we realized Jeremy wasn’t really ordinary. We briefly considered sending him to a charter school or a school for the gifted and talented, but in the end there wasn’t much of a choice because he was way too advanced to be enrolled in any traditional schools.

“So I quit my career to dedicate my time to teaching Jeremy myself. I have been homeschooling him ever since,” she said.

Jeremy’s father, Andy, added: “We gave up Wikipedia. We would just ask Jeremy, ‘What is the capital of Chad?’ and he would tell us. He’s much smarter than either of us, for sure.”

By the time Jeremy was 11, he had sat for the SATs and aced each paper he took, but didn’t have a high school diploma, so his parents enrolled him in the Texas Tech University Independent School District (TTUISD), a flexible online education program that allows K-12 students to earn credits at their own pace.

But university is a completely different ball game – however, Cornell Engineering Dean Lance Collins said the school believed that Jeremy was ready, reported Texas Tech University’s official newspaper Texas Tech Today.

“He is a very advanced student for his age who already has demonstrated an incredible ability to learn at the collegiate level.

“While this is highly unusual, we feel that with the strong support of his parents – who will be moving here to provide him a place to live and study – and his unusual talents and thirst for knowledge, he will be able to thrive as an engineering student and take advantage of all that Cornell has to offer,” said Collins.

Image via Texas Tech Today 

Liked this? Then you’ll love these…

12-year-old Sacramento student ready to start college

How things work: Five ways engineering can benefit your child’s education