Young teen set to go to CalTech
She earned a 4.0 average in all the math, physics, biology, astronomy and chemistry classes she has taken as a part-time student at USC Aiken. She even tutored classmates in some of the intricacies of calculus and other subjects and won an academic award as the top chemistry student one year.
So as Rachel Moore explored some of the nation's top schools to further her education, why did just one college seriously consider her for enrollment?
Well, there's one factor: Rachel is still just 15 years old.
"During biology lab, I was studying for my learner's permit while waiting for bacteria to turn pink or whatever," she said.
As it happens, Rachel is heading to the California Institute of Technology, more commonly known as CalTech and widely regarded as one of the finest universities in the world.
The daughter of Bill and Simmie Moore, Rachel was home-schooled for several years, as was her younger brother Lawrence, 13. She started taking classes at USCA at 12, and Lawrence joined her a year ago. They still work with their parents and do independent reading at home.
Rachel will basically start over at Caltech; the university doesn't accept transfer credits from practically any other college. Still, her experience at USCA has been enormously beneficial. When her dad approached admissions director Andrew Hendrix three years ago, he and other officials were concerned about Rachel's age and her ability to handle college work.
But they were impressed with her test scores, including those on the prestigious Talent Identification Program (TIP) coordinated by Duke University. Rachel also demonstrated an outgoing personality and a maturity about educational opportunities well beyond her years.
"She has done remarkably well," said Hendrix earlier this week. "We thought Rachel could handle it and she has worked hard. She certainly has succeeded greatly and has proven that our decision was right."
It's probably helped that since starting at USCA, Rachel has grown roughly seven inches to around 5-7 and if anything, is even more cheerfully gregarious. She swims competitively for the Aiken-Augusta Swim League and played violin for the Aiken Youth Orchestra. Rachel is casually confident she can handle the inconceivably demanding coursework at Caltech, although she admits with a grin that she'll probably freak out the day before classes start. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, she will indeed be the youngest student on campus.
"Being a kid doesn't bother me," Rachel said. "The people there are really nice and open. I'm more worried about the swimming."
Yep, she's going to join the swim team. It's not Division I or even remotely hypercompetitive, but it's still college. Swimming is a winter sport, so in the fall Rachel is going to try cross-country.
By the time both kids reached 12, their parents knew they had outgrown what Bill Moore could give them in math and science. Rachel said she had great professors at USCA, especially enjoying the chemistry classes. She took an especially-rigorous calculus-based physics class and was one of just two students choosing to sign up for the next level course the following semester.
"Math is just fun," Rachel said. "When I was younger, my parents would buy lots of puzzles and books that had a lot of mentally stimulating activities. I guess it all kind of trained my brain."
She has had no middle or high school experiences, but is OK with that, because she needed to be challenged academically. Yet throughout her years at USCA, Rachel really didn't think of herself as a college student. She was simply too young, rolling her eyes when she got campus emails about parties and other events, as well as student life information clearly targeting people 18-22.
So she and her dad attended a pre-frosh weekend at Caltech in April, and Rachel describes it as one of the best times of her life. Caltech has a community-based residential approach -- "like the Hogwarts" -- for its dorms, and she's looking forward to that.
"I met so many other students and the upperclassmen were really nice to us," Rachel said. "One guy I met wrote a calculator application for the iPhone and it sold pretty well. All the students were exceptional."
Caltech will force her to grow up, she said with another smile. Rachel has no idea about her major, and at this point, the university doesn't encourage such a declaration. She'll take seminars that provide introductions to various fields.
"They have majors there like molecular biology," Rachel said. "Do I know what that is? No. Does it sound really cool? Yes, it does."
Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com."