‘Young Sheldon’ happy for 13-year-old boy set to graduate from college
“Young Sheldon” star Iain Armitage has a real-life counterpart — Elliott Tanner, a Minnesota 13-year-old who is about to graduate from college with a major in physics.
“I have an incredible passion for physics,” said Elliott, who is set to graduate from the University of Minnesota in May with a bachelor’s degree and whose minor is math.
“It’s been one of my favorite things to do.”
Elliott is one of College of Science and Engineering’s youngest students ever, WCCO-TV reported. With a 3.78 GPA, he is participating in undergraduate research and tutoring classmates, the outlet said. He’s planning to pursue a PhD program in the fall, studying high energy theoretical physics.
Elliott, a fan of the CBS sitcom, visited the cast during filming and met Armitage, who is also 13, and they became fast friends.
“I think the awesome thing about him is he is very, very smart, like possibly even smarter than Sheldon,” Armitage, who plays the childhood precursor to Jim Parson’s adult Sheldon in “The Big Bang Theory,” said.
“Our texts are a weird blend of him telling me about his crazy college experience, me telling him about our crazy set experience but at the same time, exchanging fart jokes and saying, When do you want to meet up on virtual reality? What do you want to do today?” said Armitage. “He’s the type of person you know in 10 years you’ll either be working for him or reading about all of the amazing things he’s done in the news.”
Elliott started doing such amazing things at age 3, which is when he began reading and doing math, said his mother, Michelle Tanner.
He was homeschooled for years, then completed a high school curriculum in just two years, and began taking college classes at age 9.
“People who hear Elliott’s story say he doesn’t get to be a kid, or he grew up too fast,” Michelle said.
“He still very much is a kid and the only difference is he goes to school in a different building.”
He loves his video games, as WCCO noted.
As amazing as Elliott’s achievements to date are, his family is struggling to fund those grand ambitions, which include one day returning to teach physics at the University of Minnesota as a professor.
Elliott’s parents are now tasked with finding ways to pay for his PhD program, which he has already been accepted into.
“We’re just trying to explore all our options, and coming up with dead ends,” Michelle said.
“Trying to apply for any scholarships, fellowships, grants, and we have not been successful.”
