An Idaho teen started taking college classes at 12. Now he’s getting his degree at 17
Elijah Baisden strums one of the two guitars in his room. He likes to play country music, he said, but it’s been a while. A textbook lays open on the floor and a calculator and pages of homework sit on his desk. In the hallway leading to his room is a lacrosse stick, a sport Elijah has grown to love and excel at over the years.
At 17, Elijah enjoys many of the activities teenage boys often do. He smiles as he talks about prom. He loves playing sports. He’s close with his family.
But unlike most other kids his age, he’s not attending high school or eagerly awaiting a college acceptance. Elijah is a student at the College of Idaho, and at the end of this school year, he will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry.
Elijah is likely the youngest graduate from the College of Idaho in the school’s recent history, said Joe Hughes, the director of marketing and communications. The school hasn’t kept great statistics over the years on the age of its graduates, he said, but as far as anyone on campus can recall — including those who have been at the college for more than 30 years — he is the youngest.
His journey began in Montana, where he was homeschooled and began to take college classes when he was 12.
He said sometimes, it was hard to be the youngest student in class. But he feels like he’s matured over the years. He’s no longer that 12-year-old student walking nervously into a college class full of adults.
“Now it just kind of seems normal,” he said.
Homeschooling opens possibilities
Elijah was homeschooled for much of his life. John Baisden, Elijah’s dad, had been following families who homeschooled their kids, and was inspired by their accomplishments.
So he broached the idea with his wife.
“I just talked to Kara, (and said), ‘Gosh we can do something different with our kids,” John said. “I mean, our kids are just so bright. And Elijah, I just felt like he’s just not being motivated or not being challenged.”
His wife wasn’t on board — at first. She’d always figured her kids would go to school and she would work. She never wanted to be a teacher and had no background in education.
But she agreed to try it.
Elijah’s parents pulled him out of school in kindergarten to start homeschooling.
His mom became part of a homeschooling community in Montana, got a curriculum and jumped into the process. His dad helped support the kids in math, a subject he loves.
Kara Baisden said homeschooling gave the family more freedom and time to pursue other interests outside of school. The kids would learn in the morning and early afternoon four days a week. The rest of the day, they could do extracurricular activities and spend time with friends. On Fridays, the family had that time to go on adventures, whether that was skiing or another outdoor activity.
It also allowed her to find what each of her kids was passionate about, and to help foster those “gifts.” Elijah is the oldest of seven kids. The youngest is 3. One of his siblings loves sports. Another is passionate about writing.
Kara Baisden credits homeschooling for playing a big part in why her family is so close.
“I would not change it for a thing now,” she said, tearing up. “I love my kids so much. It is the best relationship builder for my family. … It’s going to be so hard for them to leave, because we’re so close and my kids are so close. … They’re best friends.”
12-year-old goes to college
When Elijah was 10, he took the ISAT, Idaho’s standardized test. He scored at the highest level, his parents said. Then, he took a college placement test, and scored in the 97th percentile for reading and writing and the 92nd percentile for math. He started his first college class when he was 12 at Flathead Valley Community College in Montana.
Some professors were concerned they would need to change the way they taught “mature content” because Elijah was so young. But the decision was made that if students were able to learn at that level, they could also “process more mature content,” and Elijah could leave class if he ever felt uncomfortable, his dad said in an email.
“They just at first were worried about having a young — like, super young — student on campus,” Kara Baisden said.
“I was a little bit worried, too,” Elijah said. “I was a little 12-year-old walking around with … a bunch of older people.”
But he ended up loving it. The first class he took was in math, and the academics finally challenged him. One of the first people he talked with was a man in his 60s who returned to school. The two talked about rock collections, Elijah said.
That man later wrote Elijah a letter to tell the boy how inspired he was by him. He wrote that Elijah gave him the courage to finish his degree.
“He said, ‘If this kid can do it, I can do it,’” Kara Baisden said.
Moving to Idaho and experiencing high school
At the same time though, Elijah started to hear people his age talking about high school “and how cool it was.” He was curious to know what that experience was like.
As Elijah started to run out classes to take at the community college, his family moved to Meridian. There, he’d have access to four-year colleges.
When he got to Idaho, he decided to go to high school for a year. He was a freshman at Mountain View High School and took dual credit classes. But after that first year, he felt like he’d gotten that itch out of his system.
“I had the whole friend experience and everything at high school. And I was like, dang, I am so bored,” he said.
So he went back to college.
He started at the College of Idaho in fall of 2019, made it through a year of remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and is now poised to graduate this month. He majored in chemistry and has three minors: professional foundations, math and political economy.
Caleb Tormey, Elijah’s advisor at the College of Idaho, said when Elijah started at the school, the differences between his age and that of the other students was more striking and noticeable, but over the years he has “blossomed.”
“His academic accomplishments are great and wonderful and should be lauded, but I think the most fun I’ve had and the most enjoyable part has been watching him grow into a young adult,” Tormey said.
He’s one of the more engaged students, puts a lot of time into his school work and interests, and always comes in to ask questions — even those that aren’t related to class, Tormey said. He wants to get things right for the right reasons, he said, to really understand what he is learning.
His age still comes up sometimes, and people are often surprised by how young he is. On April Fool’s Day, his classmates were sure he was joking when he said he was 17. They made him show them his driver’s license to prove it.
He’s not the first Idaho student to graduate at a young age. In 1982, a 12-year-old reportedly graduated from Boise State University, according to UPI. More recently, a 17-year-old graduated from Boise State in 2005, with a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering, according to the Associated Press.
‘Work hard, play hard’ with lacrosse, prom
Even though Elijah wasn’t in school with kids his age, he still stayed involved with his classmates.
He started playing lacrosse in sixth grade and his team took state the second year he played. He played for a year when his family moved to Meridian and then continued playing in Middleton, where his family now lives, after the pandemic.
And he’s still able to have other high school experiences. He went to prom with a group of friends and has attended several other dances. He also took a seminary class, where he met other people his age.
He said he feels like he’s gotten a well-rounded experience. He focuses on his work, but he also is able to pursue his other passions. His parents said their children always have the option to go to school, and they never force them to take college classes before they are ready. They don’t want to send them out into a world they aren’t prepared for.
“Our family motto is work hard, play hard,” Kara Baisden said. “And they do work hard. But we play a lot.”
Elijah moves to Texas
This summer, Elijah will start at Texas A&M University to get his MBA and a master’s in biomedical engineering. The university doesn’t track the age of those admitted, spokesperson Lesley Henton said, so she couldn’t confirm whether Elijah is the youngest student to enroll.
After he graduates, Elijah wants to help bridge the gap between the medical field and the business world. Most of all, he wants to make a difference in the world, he said.
This will be his first time away from home — but he expects a lot of visits from his family. He said he was nervous at first, and he still is, a little. But he’s excited for the adventure. When he visited Texas A&M, he got the sense that was where he belonged, he said.
“And when you get lonely, we’ll bring the crazy family down and say hi, and remind me why you’re down there,” his dad said with a laugh.
Elijah said he’s grateful for the experiences he had growing up — and those he will have moving forward.
“I remember the first day I walked into a college class and it was like, I feel so young,” he said. “It’s surreal to be graduating.”
