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Pregnant housewife finally sits college admittance exam

A pregnant 31-year-old housewife sat the national college entrance examination at a school in Kaohsiung yesterday.

The woman, surnamed Tseng, said she was previously a student at Taipei's Soochow Uni-versity but did not graduate. Now a full-time housewife, Tseng, who married a military officer less than a year ago, said she was determined to sit the college entrance exam this year, despite being "a little bit too old," in anticipation of giving her child a better future.

She said her preferred major is social studies and that she would like to attend a college in downtown Kaohsiung so that she can more easily take care of her family while studying.

Tseng is not the oldest person ever to sit the national college entrance exam, which is usually taken by people aged around 18.

In 2001, a 53-year-old man surnamed Chen passed the exam with flying colors to be admitted to the National Taiwan University College of Medicine, becoming the oldest freshman in the school's history.

Chen oriented himself at his new school in the company of his son, who was a fifth-year medical student at the same university.

The elder Chen was expected to study at the NTU medical school for seven years before doing his internship at public-run medical centers for a further four years. By the time he successfully completes the program and is ready to serve as a licensed doctor, he will be 64 years old, one year younger than the age at which ordinary public functionaries are eligible to retire.

Also in 2001, a 13-year-old prodigy from Tainan passed the national exam to get into his top choice -- the Electrical Engineering Department of National Tai-wan University.

Thirteen-year-old Lin Chien-yi (林建邑), who graduated from the National Tainan First Senior High School as the youngest-ever graduate of the school, became the youngest university freshman in the 48-year history of the highly competitive joint university entrance examinations.
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