About this Column COLLEEN STONE is a producer at MaineToday and guest columnist for our blog in print — a "plog" — that combines comments people make on MaineToday.com with her thoughts about issues. Because many people post to online anonymously, or through the use of monikers, Stone may have to limit her source attributions to first name or screen name. In general, the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram prohibits the use of anonymous sources in its stories. We are making an exception for this unique edited column that links the online world to the print world. If you would like to suggest a story, let us know your idea or question. To top of story

Intelligence-wise, you can run circles around many adults. But age-wise, you're still a kid, no matter what your IQ number says.

Sacopee Valley High valedictorian Lauren Lazarus bumped up against that reality after she received a full scholarship to the University of Maine but was denied housing on the Orono campus. Lauren is exceptional - she's graduating at 14, but the university isn't making an exception on housing. College dorms are no place for any 14-year-old, according to Dean of Students Robert Dana.

Though the college doesn't have a set minimum age for dorm residents, the youngest they've allowed is 17.

Lauren has since decided to attend the University of New Hampshire, which will allow her to live on campus, but the issue isn't dead. Her mother, Joanne deKay, has threatened to file a complaint against UMaine for age discrimination.

She's not the only one who had something to say about the matter. More than 70 people, responding to a Portland Press Herald story about the issue on MaineToday.com, had a lot to say about how young is too young for dorm life.

A user named Arthur Fink decried UMaine's blanket denial of housing to younger students, saying one size doesn't fit all:

"It sounds like 'conventional wisdom' is being applied to the case of an unconventional young woman - and it just doesn't fit. The university would be well within its rights to ask the parents to sign a waiver, noting that the school is unable to provide what it considers appropriate 'supervision' for such a young student."

Lauren is undeniably bright and ready for college classes. And she's not alone. An 8-year-old is even taking classes at UMaine right now. (And yours truly is feeling even more inadequate than before.) But does being ready for lectures on macroeconomics mean one is ready for campus life? A lot of you don't think so.

A user named JC, who entered college at 16, spoke from experience: "I lived in a dorm and still felt out of place in the college environment. The classes will not be an issue, but a lot of life hinges on social interactions. Sometimes more so than intelligence or experience."

Anyone who's lived in a dorm will tell you the experience can be rough; there are only so many ways to configure milk crates, for one thing. But the hardest part is the social part: finding a nice way to tell your neighbor to turn down the bootlegged 1994 Dave Matthews Band show, getting along with your roommate (who may or may not have a strange obsession with "The Phantom of the Opera") and just making friends.

Imagine navigating that world when you're at least four years younger than most of your neighbors. (One of you actually expressed dismay that you might get such a young roommate.)

Some of you said that the question isn't necessarily one of whether a 14-year-old is mature enough to live in a dorm, but one of whether they're ready to handle the older students - and what they'll be exposed to as a result of being surrounded by them. Sex, alcohol, drugs and just plain old idiocy are a fact of dorm life at a lot of colleges, no matter how good a school's academic reputation.

Yet others countered that the presence of such things in dorms was a problem for colleges to solve, not for a potential young resident to avoid. Like Kathi, who said, "I do not think that just because alcohol may be found in the dorms that that should be a reason for a college not to permit a younger student to live in the dorms.

"Instead, the colleges (especially public colleges, which taxpayers are supporting) need to do their jobs."

In an ideal college world, underage drinking would never occur in dorms and everyone would do yoga in the common area before retiring to their rooms at 10 p.m. But let's face it: For that ideal to become reality, you'd have to station a monitor in every dorm room - not to mention a lot of yoga instructors. Talk about expensive.

A user named Linda pointed out that there are many laws and rules governing how old someone must be to do certain things. Why should the privilege of living on a college campus be different?

"While UMO's decision was not a legal mandate such as the laws I mentioned, it should be respected as reasonable. They didn't say she couldn't attend school, only that she is too young to live on campus. It doesn't matter how mature a 14 year old is for her age, she's still too young for dorm life."

It's an interesting point: Should prodigies get drivers' licenses earlier? How about a waiver to vote at 15?

Finally, more than a few of you touched on another issue: Why is this an issue at all? Shouldn't 14-year-olds, be focused on, well, being 14?

Said Joan, "No matter how mature a child is, 14 just seems too young to me to handle the pressures of college. And, it takes college from being a wonderful social experience to more of a chore that you just need to get through."

I'm no prodigy, but that makes sense to me.