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19-year-old 'genius' to graduate college early, plans to be astronaut

ATLANTA, Georgia — In May, Ronald McCullough Jr. will graduate college at the same age most students are still early underclassmen.

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But doing things ahead of schedule is not unusual for the 19-year-old, whose genius-level intelligence allowed him to skip second grade and graduate from Maynard Jackson High School at 15, according to a news release.

McCullough enrolled in Clark Atlanta University at 16, and will soon graduate with honors with a bachelor’s degree in biology.

Yet, he said, he doesn’t consider himself a genius.

“I was placed in a setting for my love of learning to manifest,” McCullough said in a release. “Much was expected of me and there was little room for disappointment.”

Postgraduate engineering programs, including those at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and the University of Hawaii have tried to recruit the “future astronaut,” the release said.

McCullough, whose mother graduated from the former Clark College, plans to enroll in the biological/agricultural engineering program at A&T.