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TCU College Freshman Is Just 11 Years Old

FORT WORTH (CBS 11 NEWS) -  He doesn't live on campus.  He can't even drive there.  But an 11-year-old is among the new class of undergrads at Texas Christian University - adjusting to college life, finding the right buildings, settling in for those easy core classes.

"I'm taking calculus, physics, history and religion.  Those are my four classes," Carson Huey-You told CBS 11 News.

Carson is taking a full load of college courses this semester -- and studying to become a quantum physicist. He is the youngest student the university has ever had.

"It's fun because it's basically just like high school, but in a big campus…with a lot more people," says Carson of his college experience.

Carson was co-valedictorian of his senior class, scored a 1770 on his SAT, speaks Mandarin Chinese and plays the piano, according to the campus newspaper.

His mom, Claretta, says her son had intense focus as an infant.  By the age of one, he could read.  By five, he was doing pre-algebra.  Calculus, he says, relaxes him.

"Whenever you are like 'Oh, that makes sense now,' just kind of after going at it, going at it, it's just kind of like that one moment of thought," Carson explains.

Though he's much younger than his classmates, his professors say when Carson is in the classroom, he's just another student.

"He's definitely very talented and also he's very serious about his work and he really enjoys it.  And that's the best that a professor can hope for his students, right?" says associate math professor Qiao Zhang.

If he graduates as his parents expect, in four to five years, Carson will have a college diploma before or at the same time he gets his driver's license.

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