'Young Sheldon' Took a Big Step Toward Catching Up to 'The Big Bang Theory'

While much of Young Sheldon’s seventh and final season has been dedicated to setting up Georgie (Montana Jordan) and Mandy’s (Emily Osment) spinoff or Connie’s (Annie Potts) financial and legal problems, “A Fancy Article and a Scholarship for a Baby” made a major step toward meeting up with the timeline of The Big Bang Theory.

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In the episode, Sheldon made the decision to attend grad school at Caltech, a choice that shaped the rest of his life. And it all came down to the weather.

After a physics paper Sheldon co-authored was published in a prestigious research journal, top-tier grad schools came to Texas to recruit him.

Together, the family narrowed the choices down to Caltech, Stanford, Harvard, MIT and Princeton. And Sheldon was even considering staying at East Texas Tech to be close to home. (“Why would you want to be close to us?” Missy, played by Raegan Revord, deadpanned.)

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Sheldon was really struggling with his options. “This is a difficult decision,” he said.

“Which is why we’re all here to help you make it,” Mary assured him. It was really sweet.

Where does Sheldon go to college?

He narrowed it down to Caltech and MIT, but they were truly equally good options. Equidistant to home and equally prestigious. Steven Hawking was at Caltech, but a recent Nobel Prize winner was at MIT. He went to his advisors Dr. Sturgis (Wallace Shawn) and Dr. Linkletter (Ed Begley Jr.), who had been tasked with trying to keep him at ETT but did the right thing and told him to go get the best education he could, at whichever school he was most drawn to. But Sturgis recommended Caltech and Linkletter advised MIT, so they were ultimately of no help.

No, the decision came down to Sheldon. And we of course know what he decided: MIT.

Whaaat?!

Just kidding! He and George (Lance Barber) went to MIT for a tour, and as soon as they stepped out of Logan Airport into a brutal Boston blizzard, they took one look at each other and said “Caltech.”

Sheldon is a Texas boy, after all. He can’t take the cold.

After this, there are only five more episodes of Young Sheldon, including the two-part series finale on May 16. Next week, Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer will guest star as Connie’s probation officer.

Young Sheldon airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. It’s available to stream on Paramount+.

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