Most 16-12 months-olds spend the summer damage working, going to camp, or hanging out with their pals. Not so for Haley Taylor Schlitz, who are 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 regulation school and attending a six-day program with the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington for incoming law students. Schlitz turned into the standard to all five regulation colleges she carried out to and has decided to wait for 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 of. We stuck up with Schlitz this week to speak about her regulation school plans, what inspired her to are trying 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, that is crucial too. SMU isn’t reasonably-priced—totally 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 regulation college at 17? Most law students are 21 and older. It starts 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 home-school me due to the fact they didn’t just like the manner I changed into being taught. I was just being prepared to skip the stop-of-the-yr check to get to the following grade. I wasn’t being taught to analyze. I wasn’t within the gifted and gifted software due to the fact 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 home-schooled me after they determined that I become gifted. I become domestic-schooled up till I changed into 13 years antique. I skipped pretty a few grades. Then I graduated high college 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 regulation schools, and I‘m going to law college. 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 I desired to be a medical doctor. Then I looked lower back at my very own story and found out the inequities there are inside the schooling gadget, 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, that I wasn’t even able to get in. Where I went, there were a group of boys who have been now not of color who have been capable of getting in at the identical age I wasn’t capable of getting in. It sparked a hearth in me and made me need to combat for equality. My parents stated, “Well, you could be a legal professional.” How turned into the LSAT for you? It was fun. I did the whole software online, and I enjoyed it. I like standardized assessments pretty a piece. And the LSAT is a laugh as it’s almost like a puzzle or a mind sport. It turned into honestly cool. When I took it, it’s 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 seems when you show up in university training, or to 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 they don’t. The only time I got sort of bizarre seems is after I turned into 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 knows 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 while you show up next fall? I recently went to three law school activities. When people discovered out, I became sixteen they were simply amazed, glaringly. Then they asked me how I came. Every unmarried 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 inquire from me a few questions. Then it’s over. They’re my pals and our paintings 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 for? It’s the educational policy like 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 into. It sounds cool. What are you most looking ahead to approximately law school? Probably the classes. I love studying, and I’m sincerely excited to learn greater about the regulation and our society. SHARE ON FACEBOOK