Ravi Jain | 'Prodigies' at Penn

Tall, Skinny, Mocha |The role of race in accelerating through school

By Ravi Jain 09/15/15 12:23am

At Penn, an often overlooked group of students are the younger population: most skipped a year or more in grade school, many started school early and some came from a different school system in which the coursework was more advanced.

By interviewing these students similar to myself, I was expecting to uncover issues related to mental health and dealing with high expectations. After all, there are plenty of media out there that sensationalize the stories of so-called “geniuses” who enter or even graduate college at a very young age, and equally as much research in the field of psychology done on their uncharacteristic development and learning environments.

College junior Adam* is a transfer who described to me his experience being three years younger than the typical student in the class of 2017. “I don’t talk about my age much with my peers, so often it comes as a surprise to people who would have expected someone younger to be more immature or to be less capable ... I never lie about [my age], but I do try to avoid discussing it in conversation.”

Engineering freshman Wenting Sun and College freshman Brandon Gonzalez have slightly different perspectives on the topic. Having had positive experiences surrounding conversations about their age, they feel comfortable with being a year younger than most freshmen. Gonzalez did admit some challenges — “In a sense, I feel like a kid sometimes ... I’m just beginning to figure out what it means to be an adult and all the responsibilities that come with it.”

It turns out that most students I talked with spoke to the advantages of having “extra” time to figure out what they want to do with their lives, especially as compared to their peers. If college is to be considered a major stage of life, then we are ahead of the game and understand the advantages that come along with it. However, age can be an especially pertinent issue in the college environment where drinking is commonplace and the ability to do so legally is highly anticipated. Both Adam and I, as well as fellow Daily Pennsylvanian staffer and College sophomore Ilana Wurman, recognize the role that not turning 21 during college plays in our overall experience.

Though I originally set out to describe the experiences of younger students without regard to their race, I ended up noticing recurring patterns with regard to the racial identities of the students included in this article. Six out of seven (myself included) identify as partially or completely Asian, and so I asked everyone what role they believe their racial identity played in their acceleration.

College senior Michelle*, who identifies as Chinese-American, agreed with my hypothesis that coming from an Asian immigrant background might have meant that she was more likely to have been encouraged to skip a grade. “I think my parents’ motivation for wanting me to skip grades when I was younger definitely played into traditionally Chinese values — excelling academically, setting myself up to be a doctor as quickly as possible.” College junior Claudia Dally, who identifies as half black and and half Indian-American, claims that her advancing through school had more to do with her being a first-generation American than her parents’ racial identities.

The rest of the interviewees ended up disagreeing with Michelle, Claudia and me. “I know there’s some stereotype of the overbearing Chinese parent pushing their kid, but I think it was actually my [Caucasian Jewish] dad who was always pushing me to go forward academically,” Wurman said. Gonzalez, who identifies as Hispanic, and Adam, who identifies as Indian-American, both claim that their racial identities have not played much of a part in the way they feel about their age and education. Finally, Sun’s situation was one of circumstance, in which after moving to the United States from China, her academic preparedness allowed her to skip the sixth grade.

Since I can only speak from my experience, I still believe that immigrant parents are more likely to encourage their children’s academic achievement. However, it is becoming more clear that while parenting styles are as diverse as the meaning of “Asian” itself, it is not uncommon to see a large number of Asian Americans who are ahead of where they are “supposed” to be. The generation status and race of a student are important factors that help explain their experience, but they don’t encompass everything.

Given the increased attention mental health has received in the past few years, it was interesting to see that the issue didn’t surface in any of the interviews. Looks like the kids are alright.

RAVI JAIN is a College junior from Syosset, NY, studying economics. His email address is jainravi@sas.upenn.edu. “Tall, Skinny, Mocha” appears every other Tuesday.

*Individual’s name was changed upon request for privacy.

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