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I'm a high school math teacher and I've been working with a profoundly gifted student. His case is highly unusual, and I wonder whether it is possible for him to enter a math grad program without obtaining a bachelor's first. Here are the details.

  1. This is a student for whom undergraduate mathematics would simply not be interesting or challenging. He is entirely self taught, and is currently studying algebraic geometry. I've tested his expertise (I have a master's in math and have watched him spontaneously work problems in AG and other areas).

  2. This is a student who has an emotional disability and for whom the traditional high school setting has been a great challenge. Although it is sometimes hard for him to leave his house and be in a classroom, his motivation with respect to math is completely constant.

It occurs to me that a graduate program would suit him both in terms of difficulty and in terms of being more flexible with respect to class attendance. Is this remotely feasible?

Dave K
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    I (strongly) advise reaching out to particular graduate programs. I don't think any general advice will be terribly useful, and it might be profoundly wrong. – lulu Feb 15 '18 at 20:44
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    Your question is quite off-topic here, really. Essentially no one has any experience dealing with geniuses… so asking for advice on a site like this is not exactly a great idea, anyways. – Mariano Suárez-Álvarez Feb 15 '18 at 20:53
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    Maybe this question is more suitable for Academia.SE or MathEducator.SE. – M. Winter Feb 15 '18 at 20:55
  • It's possible it's unclear if this is advisable. It might be that this student will be better off by first going to a strong undergrad program (say, Harvard) for a couple of years. Also, does this HS student already have papers published and if so, where? (Many applicants to PhD programs had REU experience which resulted in one or more research papers.) Keep in mind that being accepted to a PhD program, say, in Nebraska, is not the same as being accepted to a PhD program, say, in Princeton. You may want to maximize not only chances of acceptance but also the strength of the PhD program. – Moishe Kohan Feb 15 '18 at 21:07
  • One is reminded of the story of Ramanujan who worked with Hardy and others without a formal bachelor's degree and was awarded one later "for research" – David Quinn Feb 15 '18 at 21:17
  • If you're in the U.S., I recommend directly contacting people who have experience with top math students --- HS teachers at schools with recent IMO students, USAMO organizers, someone at Art of Problem Solving, etc. Also, talk to one or more math department faculty at the nearest university, even if you have to drive a couple of hours (but make sure you've talked to them over the phone or email before making the trip). I can think of several suitable people, but I don't think I should be listing names here, and besides, the people I'm thinking about are not hard to discover. – Dave L. Renfro Feb 15 '18 at 22:06

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