Our recent experience suggests that admissions committees (often of faculty) could care less about student age-- if you don't mention it, they may not really even notice. What that means, of course, is that your child has to truly be that elite among a group of peers who are actually 3-5y older than themselves, though if that is so, then their age generally isn't a deterrent to admission (again, in our experience). Yes.
On the other hand, ad-coms and admissions staff may well raise the issue with a student under 16-17 at matriculation-- and you'll want to search here and be prepared by inquiring rather specifically about any particular forms, extra steps required to satisfy the institution, etc. It turns out that because universities are not able to act in loco parentis, and students this young are very definitely NOT emancipated minors just by virtue of obtaining high school diplomas... this is a bit of a grey or fuzzy area.
Some schools have no real procedure for dealing with it during admissions, and others do.
Last edited by HowlerKarma; 04/12/14 12:52 PM.
