COLUMBUS, Ohio — When Vincent Caplin walks in the doors at Capital University for his first day of his junior year in the fall of 2021, he won’t even be of legal driving age.
This month, Caplin will graduate from Columbus State Community College with an associate’s degree and a 4.0 GPA. He’ll also graduate from Bexley High School later this month as a freshman with a 4.91 GPA (due to college and AP course credit).
Oh, yeah…he’s only 15 years old.
“I think it’s pretty cool,” said Caplin.
In seventh grade he started in the College Credit Plus Program, which is offered to students in grades 7-12 and provides the opportunity to earn college and high school credits at the same time.
“Everybody knows that COVID has not been the best for a lot of people, but strangely for me there have been some benefits,” Caplin said.
The pandemic allowed him the time for more work and more classes. So much so, he already has 66 college credits to his name for when he starts at Capital University as a junior in the fall. He was also accepted to Ohio State University and Ohio University. Students, he says, don’t have to be a genius, but they need to have the time management skills and maturity to take on the courses.
“I’m sure that other people that are probably smarter than me, could probably make even better use of the College Credit Plus system,” he said.
Showing children, teens and adults the importance of pursuing passion.
Caplin says he will be majoring in biology, but isn’t quite sure yet which career is calling his name.
“I feel like that’s completely fine,” he said. “Because the more classes that I take and the more that I study and learn about what I like, the better idea I’m going to get about what my path will eventually be.”