Most 16-12 12-month-olds spend the summer damage work, going to camp, or hanging out with their pals. Not so for Haley Taylor Schlitz, who is heading in the right direction to graduate with both an accomplice’s and bachelor’s degree in May. She’ll spend the upcoming summer preparing to begin law school and attending a six-day program with the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington for incoming law students. Schlitz turned into the standard for all five regulation colleges she attended and decided to wait for the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. (The different law faculties were at Howard University, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Southern University, and Texas Southern University.)
SMU could not say whether or not she’s the youngest ever to sign up at the Dallas campus, although admissions officers stated she’s the youngest they recognize. We sat up with Schlitz this week to speak about her law school plans, what inspired her to find a J.D., and what she thinks her new classmates will make of a teenager in their midst. Her solutions have been edited for length and readability. Why did you pick Southern Methodist University? Was there whatever particularly that stood out? A lot of factors went into it. I’m sixteen, so I want to stay at home. My dad and mom recommended getting a condominium, but I wanted to stay at home. That became big. I’ll shuttle every day. I even have elegance.
SMU also supplied me with the most critical scholarship, which is crucial, too. SMU isn’t reasonably priced—well worth it, however isn’t cheap. It’s a top 50 regulation faculty. It’s the quality law school I got into. How is it feasible that you’ll start college at 17? Most law students are 21 and older. It started manner returned in my standard years. I went to public college till fifth grade. At the cease of the year, my dad and mom pulled me out and started to homeschool me because they didn’t like the way I changed into being taught. I was just being prepared to skip the stop-of-the-year check to get to the following grade. I wasn’t being taught to analyze. I wasn’t within the gifted and talented software because they said I wasn’t allowed to be—that I couldn’t take the test.
My dad and mom got me privately examined, after which they home-schooled me after they determined that I was gifted. I was domestic-schooled till I was 13 years old. I skipped a few grades. Then I graduated from high school at thirteen and went to the network university from thirteen to 14, so I ought to get my middle accomplished. Then I got time-honored into several exceptional universities, and I went to Texas Woman’s University from 14 to sixteen. And now I’m here at sixteen, and I applied to several outstanding law schools, and I‘m going to law school. When did you understand you desired to be a lawyer? My mother’s a health practitioner, in order you could imagine I wanted to be a physician till I became 12 or thirteen.
I started at [Tarrant County College] with the idea that I desired to be a medical doctor. Then I looked back at my own story and found out the inequities inside the schooling system, specifically in the talented and proficient application with girls and women of color. That’s something I felt enthusiastic about due to my personal story, which I wasn’t even able to get in. Where I went, there was a group of boys who have been now not of color who were capable of getting in at the same age I wasn’t capable of getting in. It sparked a heart in me and made me need to combat inequality. My parents stated, “Well, you could be a legal professional.” How did the LSAT go for you? It was fun.
I did the whole software online, and I enjoyed it. I like standardized assessments pretty much. And the LSAT is a laugh, as it’s almost like a puzzle or a mind sport. It turned out to be honestly cool. When I took it, it was like they were asking me to resolve riddles. I didn’t simply see it as a take a look at, in keeping with se, however, more like a sport. It changed into awesome. Do you get bizarre when you show up in university training or take the LSAT, for instance? That’s exactly what you will assume. And anywhere I cross, I sense like that’s precisely how all people must examine me. But people have to suppose I’m older than I am due to the fact that they don’t. The only time I got bizarre seems to be after I turned thirteen and went to [Tarrant County College], due to the fact
I guess it becomes, in reality, apparent I’m a child. But after I go to [Texas Woman’s University], nobody will know I am so young. When I visit tour SMU or different colleges, no person ever seems at me like that. And I usually expect humans to mention, “Wait for a 2d, how antique are you?” And nobody ever asks that. How do you suspect your professors and classmates at SMU will react when you show up next fall? I recently went to three law school activities. When people found out I had become sixteen, they were simply amazed, glaringly. Then they asked me how I came. Every time a person figures out my age, it modifications the dynamic a chunk. It’s no longer awful, but it’s new attention.
But I like the eye. Everybody is usually surprised at my age, and they ask me a few questions. Then it’s over. They’re my pals and we paint together. But it’s not like I get handled otherwise, in a terrible manner, like, “Oh, you’re a kid. I’m not paying attention to you.” Any other ideas of what you need to apply your law degree to? It’s the educational policy we talked about. I’m also actually inquisitive about highbrow assets. It hits such a lot of things. That’s every other thing I’m searching for. It sounds cool. What are you most looking forward to approximately law school? Probably the classes. I love studying, and I’m sincerely excited to learn more about the regulation and our society. SHARE ON FACEBOOK