So I've just been through the college application process and am now considering how best to challenge myself and find intellectual peers next year. All my life I have been held back in school, denied any form of acceleration save a few community college courses (including physics and the full calculus sequence including differential equations) late in high school. These are subjects I taught myself long ago at ages 8-9, so understandably I've been getting straight A's in those courses with no effort. In fact, I have never received less than an A for a course as long as I can remember (dating back through at least kindergarten).

To clarify, I've been homeschooled since third grade. I taught myself to read at an advanced level by the end of first grade (having read and understood such books as A Confederate Yankee in King Arthur's Court and Othello). I had been upheld as a sort of trophy by my teachers (before my parents homeschooled me), having won two consecutive district spelling bees along with various achievements such as a perfect score on my second grade standardized test. Later I confronted my parents, expressing my concerns that my formalized schooling was woefully inadequate given my abilities at the time, but they would not take me seriously. When they finally did acknowledge some inadequacy they refused any remedy on the grounds of "maturity", making a blanket statement based on my age and an excuse to continue the torture.

Ten years this persisted. Now I just wish to undo some of the worst damage caused by my education, particularly the lack of work ethic and study skills caused by no challenge. In that time I took education into my own hands, learning from math, physics, computer science, and philosophy textbooks. Recently I published a research paper as a result of my study of the AdS/CFT correspondence and its relationship with computation, despite having no academic affiliation (including no outside support at all) and facing belittlement. Meanwhile I hide behind a moderately gifted persona in the classroom (at the community college) and dare not shatter this image lest I be taken as even more of an outcast than I already am. I am extremely isolated and have not had even a distant friend (which most would consider an acquaintance) since I was homeschooled.

I wish to start over in life next year by finding appropriate classes and intellectual peers. The former may be obtained if I am permitted to begin with advanced undergraduate math courses and proceed with graduate level courses. The latter is much harder to achieve given the college's relative lack of academic rigor (at least compared to well-known top tier institutions). I don't want to provide too much information since I am easily distinguishable based on certain details; in fact, I may have said too much already. Can you advise me in how I should improve my lot while in college, particularly regarding academic challenge and obtaining a social life (for the first time)?

Thank you,
A voice