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11-Year-Old Enrolls as a Freshman at Texas University

FORT WORTH Texas—Like most college freshmen, Carson Huey-You is hoping to get good grades, make new friends and not get lost on campus. But unlike most freshmen, Carson is just 11 years old.

The 4-foot-7, 75-pound child prodigy became the youngest student ever to attend Texas Christian University in Fort Worth when classes started last week. Carson is majoring in physics and hopes one day to be a quantum physicist.

Carson said he got some attention when he first walked into his classes.

“People definitely noticed,” he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “There was definitely some whispering in the back of the class.”

But being the center of attention isn’t a new thing for Carson.

He was 5 in the eighth grade. He graduated in May from a private Grapevine high school as co-valedictorian. He scored 1770 on his SAT.

“It was actually fun graduating,” said Carson, who lives in Southlake, about 20 miles northeast of Fort Worth.

His mother, Claretta Huey-You, said that Carson was reading by age 2 and that numbers and math came easily to him. Carson also plays classical music on the piano and can speak Mandarin Chinese.

Huey-You and her son looked at many colleges but chose TCU because it was a good fit and has a strong physics program, she said.

Each morning, after dropping off her younger son, 7-year-old Cannan, at school, Huey-You and Carson go to TCU, where she helps him get around campus. She also helps him carry his backpack, which is often too heavy for him.

C. Magnus L. Rittby, senior associate dean for administration and graduate programs in the College of Science & Engineering, said the school put together a group of faculty and representatives from other areas of campus life to work out any issues.

Rittby said one was making sure Carson would “fit” and be comfortable in school labs.

“We are trying to help make a good place for him here,” Rittby said.

When not studying, Carson likes to play “Minecraft,” a video game in which players can create items and buildings from scratch. He’s also a big “Star Wars” fan.

But there is one area he doesn’t quite excel in.

“I’m not really an athletic kind of guy other than checkers and chess,” he told the newspaper with a grin.

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