Redmond teen already holds three UW degrees

While the average University of Washington student graduates with one major, about 200 credits and a 3.13 grade-point average, senior Erin Earl took the college approach a little differently.

Earl, who graduated from the UW yesterday, received three degrees, completed two majors and one minor, and finished with 340 credits and a GPA of about 3.8.

In addition, she taught computer-science classes throughout her senior year and volunteers at a newspaper for the homeless.

And she's only 18 years old.

"There's a lot of classes that I really wish I could have taken that I didn't have room for in my schedule, but graduating feels pretty good," Earl said. "I'm very tired."

A UW student since she was 14, Earl is one of 11,534 students getting their degrees this spring. Thousands of them marched into Husky Stadium yesterday and half-listened to inspiration and advice from the faculty and from author Sherman Alexie. The black-clad undergraduate- and graduate-degree students waved up to the crowd, searching for their families, on a day that was years in the making.

Earl, who is from Redmond, was in the seventh grade when she applied for the university's Early Entrance Program, which allows exceptional elementary and middle-school students to enter the UW. The students get four years of high-school education crammed into one year, then start college courses.

Earl's degrees are in computer science, music theory, and applied music in piano, which she's played since age 7.

"We didn't expect that she would graduate from college before the age of 19," said Richard Earl, Erin's father. Even though Erin has been reading since she was 3, "she seemed pretty ordinary to us at the time," he said.

"It's really been a good experience," Erin Earl said. "And the reason why I'm so tired is because I like it so much and I do a lot, and I get burned out."

Burning herself out has included working throughout the night at times and then sleeping for two days, her roommate, Devon Livingston-Rosanoff, 20, says.

As Earl worked, taught and studied for her classes, her parents worried.

"I think she grew up faster than I hoped," said her mother, Min-chih Earl. "We felt nervous because we didn't know how she was going to cope with it. We were always wondering if it was too fast."

But Erin Earl says it was never a problem. "For the most part, I really look forward to taking all my classes, and all the research, and the (teaching). It doesn't feel like such a hardship. I really enjoy a lot of what I'm doing."

Her activities have included volunteering at Real Change, a publication that focuses on Seattle's homeless.

She also received two Mary Gates Research Training Grants for a computer-science project she worked on for two years with UW professor Richard Ladner.

"I've been here 32 years and I've had quite a few exceptional students over the years," Ladner said. "I really enjoy those opportunities when they come along, when you get somebody that special. She was definitely one of them," he said of Earl.

Besides the grants, Earl has received various scholarships and awards, including the Dean's Medal of the Arts. Those, along with her teaching-assistant position, have paid for her last two years of college.

Earl will live in her off-campus apartment until August, when she leaves for Indiana University to study piano performance.

In the meantime, she is waiting to hear if she will be named a Rhodes or Marshall Scholar and study at Oxford University in England for two more years. Either way, Earl says, she wants to study for a doctorate.

"I just want to keep going to school until I can get involved with (piano) competition or teaching," Earl said.

In between all this work, Earl says she finds time to play. She talks to her boyfriend of a year and a half, Alan Worsley, 18, every day. He was in the Early Entrance Program with Earl and graduated yesterday with a degree in molecular cell biology.

"We make time," Earl said of their busy schedules. "We watch movies and we go rollerblading around Green Lake. We go bowling sometimes ... We play pool sometimes."

People close to Earl agree she is a fun friend.

"We go out to dinner, we'll rent movies. We get together with our friends, do normal things," Livingston-Rosanoff, another graduate of the program, said.

"She's very kind, and that kindness infuses everything she does, even her humor. I've never heard her put down another student," said her mentor, professor Kathleen Noble. "A lot of bright people can be extremely arrogant. I have never seen a hint of arrogance in Erin."

Earl is excited to leave, but her parents already miss her.

"It's kind of sad because there's a loss," Min-chih Earl said. "We weren't a part of that training process, of her growing up. But looking back, it was a great thing for her. She's accomplished so many things beyond our imagination. She turned out to be a great person. She has a lot of self-confidence and she's not afraid of trying anything."

Regine Labossiere: 206-464-2216 or rlabossiere@seattletimes.com