how is it possible for people to get their master's or PHD before they even turn 20?
Do they just study at home and pass exams at a university to get their degree?
>>8531912
Nope, they're usually just a meme. Universities just give them this shit in hopes that they stick around the university for the rest of their life.
>>8531912
It's a combination of being brilliant and having parents who recognize that you're brilliant and shove textbooks up your ass from age 4 and put you in accelerated programs so you finish high school at 13
>>8532009
Passed my PhD at 18 here.
This post is pretty much it.
Without the strong authoritative parental "guidance" I received when I was younger I would have probably become a homeless piano teacher.
>>8532009
Must be very odd to grow up like that. Probably results in autists.
>>8531919
>>8532003
How dim are you exactly? Most of the child prodigies that make it that far are a result of >>8532009. Talent needs work to hone the talent to the point where you fast track through the usual institutions. Of course, it is the outstanding talent that allows them to progress through the fast track as well, so it goes hand in hand.
>>8531912
Privilege.
>>8531912
Be born in an upper middle to upper class family and take college courses earlier than anyone else in your age group.
Most of these kids aren't brilliant, they are slightly above average and seem brilliant because they took college courses earlier and thus seem to know more. Media hypes it up because a slightly above average kid takes calculus II/III and Linear Algebra earlier, but aren't actually smarter.
Only kids from wealth tend to do this and there is absolutely nothing impressive about them. Sometimes they have parents that have PhD and these parents teach their kids earlier as well.
>>8532009
This.
Most parents, even well meaning ones, do not raise their kids with being a mathematician in mind.
If they did, each kid would have been in uni by 14 instead of 18.
people who get to study math at community college, so bye the time they hit college they've done most of undergrad. kids of uni professors in stem can just ask their parents when they get stuck on a problem
some people may get coached by retired math professors/teachers in the same way that magnus carlsson was tutored by old grandmasters everyday
if you read the biographies of famous scientists like feynman, gell-mann you find they all were learning advanced material way beyond there years
>>8532027
Prove it fag
>>8531912
you attend a very expensive private school and your parents give annual donations
>>8531912
They just lied about their age.
Surprisingly, it is always either Asian or people from eastern europe or Africans. Surprisingly, it is always in countries where it is difficult to have official documents proving their date of birth, etc.
>>8532027
how is your relationship with your parents?