Will top unis consider a very young applicant?

[shockthemonkey]

I have been approached by a student who is beginning his last year of school at the very tender age of just 15. He will turn 16 later this month, and wants to apply now for autumn 2017 entry.

He will be literally just about to turn or just recently turned 17 when he starts. Will this put off some unis?

He is brilliant and wants to apply to Cambridge, Imperial, and three other top-ranking names for Engineering. It's going to be a huge rush to get his application in, I know, but my question at this point is about his age.

On Cambridge SAQ he will probably tick the box saying if there is no place for him 2017 he is happy to have a deferred offer.

We are in France. He is not terribly excited about doing a year at prépa (specialist pre-university schools). But if he gets a deferred offer from Cambridge he would probably need to do so to fill his gap year.

Thanks for any advice about his age.

Thanks again everyone who has contributed.

Once again, I did ring around but the answers were very guarded. Ranging from "we consider all applicants on a case-by-case basis" (yawn) to "we'll email you back when we have the answer".

I am quite relieved that he has decided to do the gap year as some of your stories did worry me. And Bobochic's brilliant student not getting offers commensurate with her dossier is quite worrying.

Last year UCL required a copy of a guardianship contract for a student who turned 18 just two weeks after arriving.

My friend went to Cambridge at only just turned 17. Long hard course (medicine) got a first and also won all the academic prizes at the end of the course. But, this was at an enormous personal cost. She had anorexia and depression throughout, her parents wanted her to drop out because they were so worried and looking back it would have been much better for her to just wait. She graduated about 15 years ago now and is much better.

This isn't to say this person wouldn't cope but really, what's the hurry anyway.