Age is just a number: College classes are not just filled with high school graduates, but also high school students

Did you know that there are students at the University of Toledo that aren’t even old enough to drive?

These students enter the college atmosphere and aren’t even old enough to vote.

At UT 84 percent of students are under the age of 25, according to the U.S. Department of Education, and even a smaller percent are under 18.

“My high school experience wasn’t your typical one,” said Ashley Stephens, a fifth-year theatre major.“So unfortunately I did not have a traditional college experience either,” she said.

She is not alone; of the roughly 21,000 students that attend UT, about 4.5 percent are not yet 18 years old.

In fall 2014, 993 students under the age of 18 attended UT classes, according to the Office of Institutional Research.

Students under 18 can enroll at UT as high school graduates or as part time post-secondary students in high school.

Lenell Horton is a high school senior and post-secondary option (PSO) student who began his first college class when his curfew was still 11 p.m.

“At first I thought it was going to be pretty hard,” said Horton, a first-year accounting major. “I was 12 when I started as a freshman at Toledo Early College, so I was a little nervous, but the teachers really gave me the support and told me that I could actually do it.”

Toledo Early College is a Toledo Public School that has enrolled students at UT since 2005. The students are high school-aged, but they take classes on campus.

“It’s a school where we can take up to sixty credit hours at UT, tuition-free, during our four years of high school,” said Dan Masters, a second-year bioengineering major. “[We] enrolled our freshman year, but we don’t start taking classes full-time at UT until our junior or senior year of high school.”

Since Toledo Early College is located on Scott Park Campus, students like Horton who don’t have their driver’s license take a shuttle to Main Campus to get to their classes.

“It’s a little intimidating at first being around 19, 20-year-olds, even older and you’re just over here, 15, and can’t even drive,” Horton said.

According to Masters, no one was able to tell he was a high school student when he attended Toledo Early College, and he didn’t receive any special treatment.

“A lot of times teachers didn’t even know,” Masters said.

Masters graduated from high school in 2013 and said that taking college classes in high school “benefited the college experience,” and helped him form good habits.

“It laid some groundwork,” Masters said. “I was able to take all my basic math classes and stuff that I would need for my major and get some of those out of the way for my degree.”

However, according to Masters, not all his classes were a breeze. Initially, he said it was intimidating and had to learn to work through it.

“You just have to be willing to try hard,” he said.

Masters said he was able to bridge gaps in his knowledge with help from teachers by studying at Carlson Library or using online resources like Kahn Academy.

To some students, there’s no real distinction between college-aged and high school students — only a differing level of work ethic and attitude that separate the two groups.

“You think that all those people in your classes that are older have to be smarter than you and just brilliant,” Horton said, “but when you think about it you’re just as smart as them, you work just as hard as them; there’s no huge difference between being a high school student and being a college student.”

According to Horton, the only difference is how one applies themselves.

“As long as you work hard, you can do it just like the people who are older than you,” Horton said.

To Masters, the age gap only mattered when it came to getting involved on campus. He never signed up for clubs or organizations.

“I made friends in classes, but I didn’t go hang out with people from my classes,” he said.

In high school Masters said he was more involved with his high school clubs and friends. He said he became more involved at UT after he graduated and is now a tutor at the Learning Enhancement Center.

Students like Horton find ways to interact with college students despite an age gap.

“I’m not involved in any activities at UT, but I’m at the rec playing basketball all the time…I’m still kind of interacting with college students at the rec center,” Horton said.

UT students like Anissa Covarrubias and Stephens never let the age gap bother them. They regularly involved themselves in the UT community despite their young age and they have continued to actively participate after they graduated high school.

“I started real college classes at UT when I was only 15,” Stephens said. “The next year I auditioned for a theatre production, got cast, and since then have become a common participant in their work.”

Stephens, after her graduation from high school in 2011, has continued to engage herself in UT’s Department of Theatre and Film. She is now the vice-president of Alpha Psi Omega, the UT theatre honor society.

“By the time I finished high school I had already been taking college classes for four years, the average length of most degree programs,” Stephens said. “So when I began college I was already on the road to graduation and used to the expectations of college courses.”

Anissa Covarrubias, a 2012 high school graduate and now a third-year exercise science major, became involved in clubs at UT while she attended high school.

“I wasn’t as involved at UT until my junior year in high school because that was when my brother attended college here at the university,” Covarrubias said. “He became involved with the Latino Student Union and started to bring me around and I got involved in that way.”

Covarrubias also became involved in Filipino American Association and served as the secretary for LSU last year.

She said that her college experience hasn’t changed much from taking college classes in high school.

“I make the most of my college experience by doing the things I like to do or even because of just getting involved and going outside the box of a regular college student,” Covarrubias said. “Being involved in multicultural [organizations] has definitely shaped me.”

Masters said his time in high school was focused on becoming a good college student, but not about becoming an adult.

“It was a really good experience. It prepared me for college and made the transition easier,” he said.

Although, Masters said that once in college there was a lot more to learn about growing up —some things you can only learn when you’re a real adult. His high school preparation taught him how to be a good student, but not how to pay taxes, or deal with financial aid — “adult” things.

“I support early college education but I’m sure it’s not for everyone,” Stephens said. “In high school they taught me how to pass college classes but I was never taught that you have to find the motivation in yourself to complete your education without parents or teachers expectations.”

According to Covarrubias, college success depends more on maturity and self-motivation rather than how much the student knows.

“I honestly think it is totally up to the student themselves whether they can handle it or not,” she said.

Horton, who plans to graduate high school in 2015 and attend UT full time in the upcoming fall semester, said there is one thing to keep in mind when it comes to young students in college classrooms — they are no different from other, older students.

“We’re all just trying to pass the classes and just learn,” Horton said. “We all have the same goal.”