Very smart child is finding his classes at Cornell "kind of easy," thankyouverymuch

Feeling like today is going to be tough going with that long weekend hangover? Here is a child to serve as motivation/make us all feel inadequate. 

His name is Jeremy Shuler, he is 12 years old and newly enrolled at Cornell University, which is — we hardly need mention — an Ivy League institution. He's finding classes "kind of easy so far," or so he told the Associated Press in an interview. He knows that "they'll be harder pretty soon," though. Sure.

Shuler is a boy genius who, after just 15 months in this world, had mastered the alphabet. When he was just shy of 2 years old, he could read in both English and Korean. At 6, he was doing calculus and according to the AP, he is now the youngest freshman Cornell has ever admitted. 

He will be studying at the university's engineering school; its dean, Lance Collins, told the AP that Shuler will probably go on to "solve some problem we haven't even conceived of." That sounds about right.

While Shuler was intellectually advanced enough to attend college at age 10, his "bowl-cut hair, cherubic face and frequent happy laughter" belie his young age, according to the AP. His parents have been more concerned about his social and emotional preparedness than whether or not he can handle a collegiate course load, because obviously that will be no sweat for the wunderkind. 

"We were concerned about socializing him with other kids," his mother, Harrey Shuler, told AP, explaining that the shrieking hordes on the playground used to really freak out her child. She said he fared better at Math Circle, where one of his buddies apparently wrote Minecraft for Dummies. 

"He needed someone with similar interests," Shuler's mother said. Presumably, he'll find those like-minded people at Cornell — in any case, Shuler isn't too worried about it.

"I was nervous at first, but I'm a lot more excited than nervous now," he told AP. "As Mommy said, all the kids in math camp were older than me, so I'm used to having older friends."

"As long as they like math," he added.