Joe Petraro-Hyppolite, a 13-year-old boy from Long Island, New York, is set to begin a master’s programme at New York University next year.
Petraro-Hyppolite, who has an Intelligence Quotient (IQ) of 168, is currently completing his undergraduate degree and is expected to graduate in May 2027.
He has achieved several academic milestones at an unusually young age, including scoring 1,590 on the SAT at 10 and obtaining his high school diploma at 11.
The teenager said he had been accepted into an NYU master’s programme in sports management, with his studies also involving kinesiology and biology.
“My master’s is going to be sports management but other than it’s also kinesiology and biology,” Petraro-Hyppolite said.
Speaking about the next stage of his education, he said he was excited despite feeling nervous.
“Yeah, I mean, who wouldn’t be? But then again, I am also excited, because new doors are opening,” he added.
Petraro-Hyppolite has also attended Louisiana state University and currently studies alongside students much older than him.
He said some students are surprised when they discover his age.
His mother, Anne Petraro-Hyppolite, said her son’s academic progress was particularly significant because he had previously been placed in special education classes after being diagnosed with Tourette syndrome.
“It’s just surreal. When he graduated high school so young, it was surreal, but this is … everything he does is surreal. He just loves to learn. He is like a sponge,” she said.
Despite his academic achievements, Petraro-Hyppolite said his abilities did not mean that everything came naturally to him.
“It’s not like I was shot out the womb knowing everything I know. I have to learn it once or twice. Then I’ll know,” he said.
The teenager also spends some of his free time volunteering, including helping residents at a nursing home in the Five Towns area of Long Island.
Petraro-Hyppolite said he eventually hopes to pursue a career in palaeontology.
If he completes the master’s programme as planned, he would graduate at about the same time he becomes legally eligible to drive.
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