Joe Petraro-Hyppolite, 13, has been accepted to NYU’s master’s program in sports management after beating cancer and graduating college a decade ahead of his peers.
The East Rockaway, Long Island prodigy said his IQ clocks in at 168, surpassing the estimated 160 of Albert Einstein. “Whenever I tell people, it’s like, ‘Oh, Young Sheldon, Doogie Howser,'” he said.
Petraro-Hyppolite plans to begin classes in Manhattan next fall and will likely become the youngest graduate student in the university’s history, according to school officials and his mother. He is expected to wrap up his undergraduate degree at Louisiana State University in May.
His path to the master’s program began with a near-perfect 1590 SAT score at age 10, followed by high school graduation the next year. Now he finds himself sitting in college classrooms where classmates do double-takes. “They shot like a double glance, like, ‘Wait, what?'” he said of the reactions.
The teenager’s academic gifts came alongside serious health battles. He was diagnosed with leukemia in September 2021 and also grappled with undiagnosed Tourette’s syndrome, a neurological disorder that placed him in special education classes before his abilities were fully recognized.
Anne Petraro-Hyppolite, his mother, said the NYU acceptance marks another surreal milestone in a life filled with them. “When he graduated high school so young, it was surreal, but this is … everything he does is surreal,” she said. “He just loves to learn. He is like a sponge.”
The boy genius himself pushes back against the idea that his intellect makes everything effortless. “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.
His NYU program will focus on sports management with additional coursework in kinesiology and biology. “I am also excited, because new doors are opening,” he said. “My master’s is going to be sports management but other than [that] it’s also kinesiology and biology.”
The average age of U.S. Graduate students is 33, more than double Petraro-Hyppolite’s age, according to Council of Graduate Schools data. The previous record for youngest NYU student belonged to Chiang Ching-liang of Taiwan, who entered the undergraduate program at 13 in 2017, the Taipei Times reported. No younger master’s candidate has been publicly reported.
A university representative said Friday he was working to confirm whether Petraro-Hyppolite will officially hold the title of NYU’s youngest-ever grad student.
Petraro-Hyppolite is set to begin his graduate studies in New York City next fall.