Ahmed Ismail (Photo: Bruno Schlumberger, Ottawa Citizen)

By Ryan Davies

Ahmed Ismail is not like any other first-year student at Carleton.

For the last few years, the teen has been taking courses online from Stanford University — mathematics and physics courses, mostly, as pre-cursors to the honours math and physics program he’s enrolled in at Carleton.

Ismail is also unlike any other freshman because of his age. He’s only 15 years old. He took Stanford courses because the rest of his high school courses simply weren’t challenging enough.

"I looked at the courses I had been taking in high school,” Ismail says. “There really wasn’t much more in science. All of my courses were senior except gym.”

Rather than waiting to finish high school, Ismail and his family began looking for a university. And for a lot of reasons, Carleton was the obvious choice.

"Carleton was the one university that was so flexible and took him the way he was,” says his mother, Sarwat, noting that the university is granting him credit for his Stanford courses, making him the youngest transfer student in the university’s history. “I felt very comfortable with him going there,” she adds.

That comfort might stem from the fact that a very strong family connection exists on campus. His mother studied biology for two years at Carleton before moving on to pursue a medical degree. The boy’s uncle acquired bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering and his grandfather was a professor in the physics department in the 1970s. Plus, his grandmother worked in the department of continuing education for many years until her retirement in 1995.

"The atmosphere there is just wonderful,” says his mother. His grandmother, Sikander, agrees. “I’m sure he will have a very good time there.”

How well can a 15 year-old fit in on campus? Ismail’s not worried — a lot of people think he’s older, he says, noting that he’s big for his age. But he is concerned about getting to campus from his home in Nepean.