If a 12-year old can do it so can we!

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Who knows,
The MCAT verbal asks some humanitarian, social, political and Q's that would be hard to really ponder and analyze without having grown up watching politics and reading newspapers over a number of years. Maybe that's why his verbal score was so much worse than the rest.

.....then again anyone who graduates Suma Cum Laude or whatever it is and got a 1500 on his SAT when he was 8 should be able to manage.
 
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acrobat said:
I was struggling to beat contra with the 30 lives cheat code at age 12.

MCAT was probably a little over my head.
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come on at age 12 you had to have beaten contra. By 12 I had moved on to Goldeneye for 64. I still remember that cheat code though: up up down down left right left right b a select start.

I miss that game. Still have my original Nintendo though.
 
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solitude said:
come on at age 12 you had to have beaten contra. By 12 I had moved on to Goldeneye for 64. I still remember that cheat code though: up up down down left right left right b a select start.

I miss that game. Still have my original Nintendo though.
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uh oh....don't get me started on Goldeneye....
 
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solitude said:
come on at age 12 you had to have beaten contra. By 12 I had moved on to Goldeneye for 64. I still remember that cheat code though: up up down down left right left right b a select start.

I miss that game. Still have my original Nintendo though.
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emulators rock.

Started playing on my PC, then on my laptop during class, then to my n-gage, now it's on my PSP. Nothing beats the classics. 🙂

Just finished Zelda again for the who knows how many times. 😀
 
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I think it's odd that parents would allow this...so what if he's a genius? There's no need to go to grad school at 12. I'm all for letting smarties skip grades and all but this is ridiculous...kids should have a childhood and play sports or explore talents and extracurriculars other than academics. It would not have been the end of the world for him to just skip a few grades, rather than almost all elem/midd/high school grades. I too was bored throughout most of middle and high school (like alot of people) and I'm no genius- but I'm really glad for all the normal kid stuff/socialization I got being around peers my own age. I bet this kid has some pushy parents.
 
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emgirl said:
I think it's odd that parents would allow this...so what if he's a genius? There's no need to go to grad school at 12. I'm all for letting smarties skip grades and all but this is ridiculous...kids should have a childhood and play sports or explore talents and extracurriculars other than academics. It would not have been the end of the world for him to just skip a few grades, rather than almost all elem/midd/high school grades. I too was bored throughout most of middle and high school (like alot of people) and I'm no genius- but I'm really glad for all the normal kid stuff/socialization I got being around peers my own age. I bet this kid has some pushy parents.
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THIS KID IS SMARTER THAN YOU
 
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emgirl said:
I think it's odd that parents would allow this...so what if he's a genius? There's no need to go to grad school at 12. I'm all for letting smarties skip grades and all but this is ridiculous...kids should have a childhood and play sports or explore talents and extracurriculars other than academics. It would not have been the end of the world for him to just skip a few grades, rather than almost all elem/midd/high school grades. I too was bored throughout most of middle and high school (like alot of people) and I'm no genius- but I'm really glad for all the normal kid stuff/socialization I got being around peers my own age. I bet this kid has some pushy parents.
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DON'T BE A HATER
 
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I totally disagree ... just think if he were to continue at the pace of someone his age. That means that right now he'd be in, what, 10th grade? Just imagine how UN-challenged he would be. Is he supposed to just "dumb" himself down for the sake of following the traditional/normal/expected path of development? I think that talent and genius of this magnitude can't quite be forced or cultivated by parents, but it's a God-given gift and he was clearly born with it. I mean seriously, no matter how pushy his mother could have been there is NO way to teach a 6-yr old how to actually understand calculus or make musical compositions.

I can't get over the fact that he graduated college summa cum laude ... at age 12! Goodness.
 
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INside sources tell me that this kid, despite his grades and MCAT, was rejected from every single program he applied to (> 30 schools) except one.

In fact, the ONLY reason he got accepted to Pritzker is because the MD/PhD program director was somethign of a child prodigy himself. Most of the MD/PhD committee voted to reject him, but at Pritzker, the director can singlehandedly vote somebody in if he wishes.
 
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MacGyver said:
INside sources tell me that this kid, despite his grades and MCAT, was rejected from every single program he applied to (> 30 schools) except one.

In fact, the ONLY reason he got accepted to Pritzker is because the MD/PhD program director was somethign of a child prodigy himself. Most of the MD/PhD committee voted to reject him, but at Pritzker, the director can singlehandedly vote somebody in if he wishes.
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And yet the irony is that Pritzker is one of the top 20 schools or has been in the past when this guy applied and known for having Nobel Laurettes and ground breaking research. Not too shabby.

I normally am against child prodigies doing this sort of thing too, but since he's not going to do clinical stuff until he's in his late teens and early 20's I can't complain too much. I'd only be upset at the idea of a 14 year old kid as my doctor. I think by the time he is done with residency he'll be in his mid 20's anyhow, so it cant be too bad. I mean let's see so if he was 12 when he started and the program he is in is 7 years I'm assuming, then that means he'll be 19 when he finishes med school. So he'll be 23-26 when he's done with residency. That can't be too bad. So at least he'll be an adult when that happens.

But if he was like that Indian child prodigy who is actually the youngest med school graduate I'd be a little freaked out. In the case of the indian boy, his parents forced him into medicine too. that's sad. At least this kid did it out of his own will which I admire.
 
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Hearing those types of stories are nice but at the same time it makes me jealous. i am a re-app this app cycle. I improved my application but am very nervous about this cycle.
 
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Just a question....how many prodigies have actually made significant accomplishments? I know artistic prodigies (Mozart, the artist formerly known as prince, Michael Jackson) have advanced music in their own way...

but in the field of medicine or science? Are there any examples? Fermi, Tesla, Einstein, Schroedinger....didn't they all seem to follow a reasonable timeline?
 
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Foolins said:
Just a question....how many prodigies have actually made significant accomplishments? I know artistic prodigies (Mozart, the artist formerly known as prince, Michael Jackson) have advanced music in their own way...

but in the field of medicine or science? Are there any examples? Fermi, Tesla, Einstein, Schroedinger....didn't they all seem to follow a reasonable timeline?
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I would venture to say not many because many geniuses find themselves soooo knowledgable in different avenues that they find it hard to focus on one thing.

I knew a guy like that who was a total genius. He was teaching SAT and MCAT prep courses. Scored a 15 on the MCAT verbal in 40 minutes. Scored 174/180 on his LSAT. God only knows what he scored on the SAT or ACT or GRE. He taught at TPR. He was also very talented in music and arts. But he didn't want to do anything like law or medicine that held him down. I find a lot of these people want to be more things in the artistic or creative venue such as writers or philosophers who can use abstract thinking to bring about their ideas. Another girl I knew was like that too. She was extremely brilliant. Got a 30 on her MCAT with minimal studying. She was a competitive player in 3 sports, talented in playing 3 instruments, involved in like 2 jobs at the same time and managed to pull a 3.8 GPA and 30 on her MCAT. She was also talented as an artist and writer. But she couldn't see herself focusing on the sciences and medicine because she felt bored with it. She actually decided to try to pursue an acting career last I heard. But I don't know what has happened since then.
 
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gujuDoc said:
I would venture to say not many because many geniuses find themselves soooo knowledgable in different avenues that they find it hard to focus on one thing.

I knew a guy like that who was a total genius. He was teaching SAT and MCAT prep courses. Scored a 15 on the MCAT verbal in 40 minutes. Scored 174/180 on his LSAT. God only knows what he scored on the SAT or ACT or GRE. He taught at TPR. He was also very talented in music and arts. But he didn't want to do anything like law or medicine that held him down. I find a lot of these people want to be more things in the artistic or creative venue such as writers or philosophers who can use abstract thinking to bring about their ideas. Another girl I knew was like that too. She was extremely brilliant. Got a 30 on her MCAT with minimal studying. She was a competitive player in 3 sports, talented in playing 3 instruments, involved in like 2 jobs at the same time and managed to pull a 3.8 GPA and 30 on her MCAT. She was also talented as an artist and writer. But she couldn't see herself focusing on the sciences and medicine because she felt bored with it. She actually decided to try to pursue an acting career last I heard. But I don't know what has happened since then.
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No offense, but there are a fair number of people who get a 30 on their MCAT's with minimal studying (not that I'm one), and I certainly don't think this is the mark of a "child prodigy". 40 with minimal studying, maybe.
 
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solitude said:
No offense, but there are a fair number of people who get a 30 on their MCAT's with minimal studying (not that I'm one), and I certainly don't think this is the mark of a "child prodigy". 40 with minimal studying, maybe.
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I'm not denying that but what amazes me is she was able to be that way even in school with all her classes. she would maintain time to play 3 sports regularly and 3 instruments could write like a professional author and do a multitude of other things that most average premeds couldn't do.
 
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gujuDoc said:
I'm not denying that but what amazes me is she was able to be that way even in school with all her classes. she would maintain time to play 3 sports regularly and 3 instruments could write like a professional author and do a multitude of other things that most average premeds couldn't do.
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Yeah that's definitely really impressive. But I would argue that that is more of a time management thing and exceptional musical and writing ability, rather than innate genius.
 
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solitude said:
Yeah that's definitely really impressive. But I would argue that that is more of a time management thing and exceptional musical and writing ability, rather than innate genius.
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Ok I guess I'll take your point. but the first case of the guy who used to be at TPR was a true genius. He could tell you about some of the most abstract things known to mankind out of the middle of nowhere and just blew away a lot of people's minds and he was one of those people who didn't even have the courses or background necessary to take various standardized tests well other then the SAT and he still would pass them with 97th+ percentile scores.
 
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gujuDoc said:
Ok I guess I'll take your point. but the first case of the guy who used to be at TPR was a true genius. He could tell you about some of the most abstract things known to mankind out of the middle of nowhere and just blew away a lot of people's minds and he was one of those people who didn't even have the courses or background necessary to take various standardized tests well other then the SAT and he still would pass them with 97th+ percentile scores.
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Yeah that's definitely impressive.
 
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There are few people in my life that I might possibly consider geniuses. None of them are going into med. Two are in PhD programs. The others Im not sure.
 
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MEG@COOL said:
There are few people in my life that I might possibly consider geniuses. None of them are going into med. Two are in PhD programs. The others Im not sure.
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Yeah as I said before, those who are true and pure geniuses and not just people who work hard for the most part are people who get bored with things like medicine very easily because they like more abstract or creative thinking things such as the arts.

There are few I consider true geniuses like the guy from TPR that I'm talking about. And those few are as I have described above.
 
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gujuDoc said:
I knew a guy like that who was a total genius. He was teaching SAT and MCAT prep courses. Scored a 15 on the MCAT verbal in 40 minutes. Scored 174/180 on his LSAT.
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I remember reading about one gentleman who had an astronomical IQ annnnnnnnd what did he do? He worked as a custodian.

Gave him lots of time to think, I suppose.

Reminds me of what Morgan Freeman said in Bruce Almighty about people constantly underestimating the value of manual labor.
 
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Oculus Sinistra said:
I remember reading about one gentleman who had an astronomical IQ annnnnnnnd what did he do? He worked as a custodian.

Gave him lots of time to think, I suppose.

Reminds me of what Morgan Freeman said in Bruce Almighty about people constantly underestimating the value of manual labor.
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Hehehe... When I think of custodians and astromical IQ's I think of old Good Will Hunting. 😀
 
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spicedmanna said:
Hehehe... When I think of custodians and astromical IQ's I think of old Good Will Hunting. 😀
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God you beat me to it. I was going to say the same thing.

Actualy at Wakeforest SOM's Dept of Anatomy there is a guy who actually had a similar story to Good will hunting.

This guy who interviewed there a few years back told me that there was a custodian who worked in the gross anat labs and would go in and study the parts when no one was there. One day he ws challenged by someone on the faculty that if he passed a test they'd pay for his education. He ended up passing and got the education and now he helps TA the labs.
 
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