Oh, and the persons of my acquaintance who started uni earliest began college coursework at age nine. Youngest out there may be even younger. So 11 is practically ancient!
. Seriously, there is also nothing that says college has to be done in four years either. Take five or six or more years and explore multiple topics. Double or triple major, if you can't decide. (Of course, this assumes that this is financially feasible.). A PG teen is still a kid. Some of them may know what their life's work is already, but many are just as at sea as the next kid, and will need the time to figure themselves out.
YES!! This. SO much.
DD14 has only the most vague of ideas, really-- she's just
too interested in too many things. This causes her a great deal of anxiety because most of her friends seem to be the types who are less even/global in ability, and therefore have a far better idea what "their thing" is going to turn out to be.
We have encouraged a major in Math/stats or another STEM field that will translate well into a
wide variety of things that she has had sustained interest in-- but not because she isn't interested in the humanities or good at them, but because her odds of finding a deeper pool of similar, cognitively able people is higher in those fields like physics, math, and chemistry than it is in history, elementary education, or psychology.
Like Geofizz, we're about "don't close doors" and not about "choose! choose!" around here.
DD hasn't
seen enough of life and the world around her to be able to make an informed decision, and she knows this. I think that makes her
wiser than some of her 18yo peers who think that they have, truthfully.
