Robert Stock

A lot of people are still wondering how Agoura junior Robert Stock was able to skip his senior year of high school and enroll early at USC. Basically, Stock had completed all but one of his core classes at Agoura, except English, had at least 3.5 GPA in each of his last four semesters, a 1,410 SAT score (not including the new writing section), and ranked in the top 15 percent of his graduating class.

Originally, Stock had been considering Stanford and USC. But in order to enroll early, he needed to stay close to home so Stanford was out. USC offers a unique program called the Resident Honors Program which allows about 30 exceptional high school students to enroll at the school a year early.

According to his father, Gregg, Stock does not yet have a high school diploma. That will be up to the folks at Agoura High.

The decision may have seemed a bit rushed as Stock basically rolled out of bed on Wednesday, grabbed a few days worth of clothes and some sheets and enrolled in his first classes at USC. But this has been in the works for about a month. The family didn't want to plan on it though, because so many things had to fall into place in such a short time. Hence, the Wednesday morning wake-up call and dash to class.

I spoke with Stock Friday night as he was leading his parents on a tour of the campus and he sounded like he'd been there for a few months already. He lives in the same dorm as about 6-7 other baseball players, eats with the football team every night and is making friends fast.

Not many 16 year olds not named Doogie could pull off the adjustment to college life so young. But Stock has always been ahead of his contemporaries. And when you wonder about his maturity, considerr this answer:

Asked why he didn't just stay in high school and enter the MLB draft this year, Stock said, ``Say I'm a high draft pick in June. I would've had to think about it. This just erases the temptation.''

How many 16-year-olds do you know thinking that strategically? Smart kid.