There's a story in today's Chronicle about a 15-year-old "hacking" his way into UC Berkeley after dropping out of middle school, doing home-schooling, and taking classes at community colleges. He starts Cal as a full-time junior in January. But it's pretty clear that Sage Ryan (yes, that's his name) and his stage mother worked the system for publicity, rather than any big academic dreams.
This kid has an IMDB page, photos of him walking the red carpet at a Variety magazine event where he talked about going vegan, and YouTube clips of him on America's Got Talent at age 7.
In between his movie and TV appearances, Ryan's mom created a home-based private school for him, enrolled him at West Los Angeles Community College, lied to get him into a UCLA dorm at age 13, and helped him avoid taking California's high school equivalency exam. They tell the Chron that Ryan had "behavior problems" due to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, so normal school wouldn't work for him. Oh and also his budding acting career.
Here's an except of his UC application essay:
"I would like to take this opportunity to explain why I, at age 14, am applying as a transfer student to the UC. When I was 11 years old, I was doing poorly in the sixth grade. I was missing school due to my work schedule but when I was in class, I was miserable. My mom asked me once if there was anything that I did like about school and I told her that one time in science we studied geology and I had enjoyed that. She, as a progressive educator, enrolled me in a community college geology course. ... I took several on-campus courses and some online classes as well. I was also able to attend UCLA via the cross enrollment program. My favorite thing about college has been being able to choose the courses that interest me."
His mom, a math teacher at a continuation high school in Larkspur, is encouraging her students to also pursue shortcuts: "They have little hope of going to a four-year school unless they take advantage of community college now."
At Cal, Ryan will be studying — you guessed it — theater.
