U-Va.'s One-Year Wonder

David Banh of Annandale took more than 60 credits at U-Va. within a year. (By Andrew Shurtleff -- The Daily Progress Via Associated Press)

His parents pushed him. He liked learning new things rather than repeating what he already knew. He had a sort of low-key competition with a smart girl at his school. His uncle helped tutor him. "It was nice to be a year ahead" in math, he said. "It made me feel special when I was little."

By eighth grade, he said, most of the motivation came from himself, not his parents. By his second year in high school, he was taking three AP classes.

"I sort of got a little addicted to it," he said. At TJ, he was taking more AP classes than any other sophomore that year, so, he figured, why not do it again next year? "I took six the year after that and figured I may as well take a bunch of exams the next year as well."

Meanwhile, he had mastered bridge -- yes, the card game -- competed in tournaments all over and ran the school club, which doubled in size.

"I loosened my schedule up senior year a lot," he said, meaning he took fewer classes.

What? Why?

"So I could maximize the amount of time I had to attempt five or six AP exams outside of the ones I was taking."

His mom said she is proud but sometimes worried about the track he was on. "He didn't have time to do a lot of stuff," she said. "He [would] just go home, do homework, take another extra homework and do it. He ate dinner for 15 minutes or ate dinner still looking at a book.

"I said, 'No, I do not want this.' But I guess it's helped him [in] that he believes he can do things. That's the most important to me."

Banh went to U-Va. with the equivalent of 72 college credits. It takes 120 to graduate, and the school requires that at least half come from U-Va. classes.

The typical course load is 15 credits a semester.

His first semester, he took 23 credits and found he had more time than he did in high school to spend with friends, playing games (video games or board games, he clarified, not drinking games). Or just hanging out.

"I don't feel like I missed out," he said. "Most of college was euphoria."

He had some low points, especially late in April when the workload for his 37 credits seemed crushing, and his grades started to slip. (To some Bs.)

The best part was when he finished his last exam and knew he'd done it: No matter what, he had a college degree. "If bad things happened, I could go out and make some decent living for myself."

The most important thing he learned in class, in math, was to construct a logical, coherent argument. And the most important thing he learned in college, he said, "is to value the people you spend time with, your friends."

Now he's a grad student. His research project, with fifth-year doctoral candidate Lorena Bociu, is on the stabilization of pressure in an acoustic chamber -- as if to reduce the noise in a music chamber or lower the pressure in an aircraft cabin -- and involves using mathematical equations to -- well, you get the idea.

He expects to finish his master's degree this academic year -- why wouldn't he?

Then a doctorate in math is possible (especially if he feels that he wants to stay in college).

More likely he'll go to law school.

At night, while working.

He wants to be a patent attorney. Growing up with parents who arrived in the United States with very little and now work at the post office and in real estate, money was not a problem exactly, but . . . he'd like to have a career that ensures he doesn't have to think about money anymore.

He's not super competitive, he said. But sometimes it's good to have someone, or something, to compete with.

"Everyone," he said, "needs a little more motivation."