Perfect or near-perfect (99th percentile) SAT scorers - what do they end up doing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bill Clinton score around 1040 and George W 1200. Obama had an ACT of around 30.

The scale and scale and percentiles were very different back then! 1200 sat then is the same percentile as 1400-1420 now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:perfect scores went to harvard law with me. and becane governors and Presidents.

I guarantee you no President got perfect scores.

You don't know that. And Eliot Spitzer came close. Perfect LSATs in wikipedia unless it's neen edited out.

Evidently he wasn't smart enough to stay away from escort services.

[Anonymous]

My cousin got a 1600 in the early 90s. He went to conservatory to study music instead of traditional college and still works in the music industry on the West Coast. He’s a delightful, really open, interesting guy. One of those people you can just sort of see the intelligence bubbling up but he’s not obnoxious about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing lots of PhD's, STEM, Wall Street financiers, graduates of T14 law schools. And perhaps a few successful authors and creative artists here and there.

Do you know anyone who aced the SAT? What did they end up doing?

I was a NMSF (roughly correlates with 99th percentile scores), and know many others, including my brother, my husband, my closest friends, and their husbands. We are all in our 40s.

me -- journalist and author who "leaned out" when I had kids and still don't work much but have spiky accomplishments (my book did pretty well and is taught in colleges now)
husband -- two degrees from T5 university and now working for a non profit making a (just) upper middle class salary but is called on as a expert from time to time, ie "thought leader"
one good friend -- serial entrepreneur who became a multi millionaire when one of her companies sold. doesn't work right now, but will dip into consulting when it's interesting to her
her husband -- also a multimillionare from a tech company sale, cofounded another one in a field that feels worth and works a lot
other good friend -- works as a lawyer in France after gettting law degrees in both the US and France. Worked in BigLaw for 5 years and then put that money into real estate in Brooklyn and doesn't have to work
another good friend -- has many degrees, including anthropology and poetry, and was a Rhodes scholar, works in a random job, exceptional at everything she does
my brother -- graduated from college and never worked

Not sure what the common threads are. all value freedom tremendously -- freedom to think about whatever we want to, and also using money to buy freedom. Intellectually curious for it's own sake, and sometimes it connects to the real world with an outcome, sometimes it doesn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious, and don't mean to be snarky, but are those folks with perfect 1600 just have that analytical brain and subsequent thought process to ace the SAT?

Therefore, how are you socially ? Awkward? Social anxiety? Introverted? Work best when you're alone ?

No?

Not sure why being smart and quick thinking on your feet would cause social anxiety or introversion?

EQ is a range but your assumptions are odd

PP was just noting that most of us went to school with some nerdy kids, and those are the ones that we expected to do well on the SATs (and they usually did). It's a stereotype, but they are nerds for being socially awkward, etc. We have all seen it. That is why we are always so impressed with an athlete or charismatic kids that gets a near perfect score. They are an anomaly.

We had three 1600s in the late 1990s in our school (not all the same grade but all while I was a student there). I would say they all are pretty socially normal. It’s worth noting only one of them was a straight A student—the others were good students but got a mix of As and Bs in AP level classes… maybe this is because it was the late 1990s when there was less “prepping” and these kids were just good test takers since day one?

I'm calling BS on your story. You just made this up.

[Anonymous]

Army

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing lots of PhD's, STEM, Wall Street financiers, graduates of T14 law schools. And perhaps a few successful authors and creative artists here and there.

Do you know anyone who aced the SAT? What did they end up doing?

Don't know them personally, but two people that got 1590 (I believe) are Lady Gaga and Ben Affleck. The guitarist from Linkin Park went to Cal Tech so I imagine he crushed the SATs, too.

[Anonymous]

I got a 1600 in 1999. I'm now a SAHM married to a Biglaw partner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing lots of PhD's, STEM, Wall Street financiers, graduates of T14 law schools. And perhaps a few successful authors and creative artists here and there.

Do you know anyone who aced the SAT? What did they end up doing?

1500+ SAT back in the 1980s. Went to selective college. Worked on wall street. went to T5 law school. Worked at white shoe firm. Didn't make partner, bailed out for in-house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious, and don't mean to be snarky, but are those folks with perfect 1600 just have that analytical brain and subsequent thought process to ace the SAT?

Therefore, how are you socially ? Awkward? Social anxiety? Introverted? Work best when you're alone ?

No?

Not sure why being smart and quick thinking on your feet would cause social anxiety or introversion?

EQ is a range but your assumptions are odd

PP was just noting that most of us went to school with some nerdy kids, and those are the ones that we expected to do well on the SATs (and they usually did). It's a stereotype, but they are nerds for being socially awkward, etc. We have all seen it. That is why we are always so impressed with an athlete or charismatic kids that gets a near perfect score. They are an anomaly.

We had three 1600s in the late 1990s in our school (not all the same grade but all while I was a student there). I would say they all are pretty socially normal. It’s worth noting only one of them was a straight A student—the others were good students but got a mix of As and Bs in AP level classes… maybe this is because it was the late 1990s when there was less “prepping” and these kids were just good test takers since day one?

I'm calling BS on your story. You just made this up.

I'm not making this up. These kids were definitely smart and in the honors and AP classes, but they weren't (other than one) straight A students and none were totally socially awkward weirdos--they were normal, bright, UMC kids who happened to both be great test takers and had a good day. Why would that be hard to believe?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing lots of PhD's, STEM, Wall Street financiers, graduates of T14 law schools. And perhaps a few successful authors and creative artists here and there.

Do you know anyone who aced the SAT? What did they end up doing?

Don't know them personally, but two people that got 1590 (I believe) are Lady Gaga and Ben Affleck. The guitarist from Linkin Park went to Cal Tech so I imagine he crushed the SATs, too.

Linkin Park? I grew up with some of them...None of them went to Caltech. Brad Delson and Dave Farrell went to UCLA and Mike Shinoda went to art school. Robert Bourdon went to Community College and Chester Bennington didn't go to college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing lots of PhD's, STEM, Wall Street financiers, graduates of T14 law schools. And perhaps a few successful authors and creative artists here and there.

Do you know anyone who aced the SAT? What did they end up doing?

Don't know them personally, but two people that got 1590 (I believe) are Lady Gaga and Ben Affleck. The guitarist from Linkin Park went to Cal Tech so I imagine he crushed the SATs, too.

Linkin Park? I grew up with some of them...None of them went to Caltech. Brad Delson and Dave Farrell went to UCLA and Mike Shinoda went to art school. Robert Bourdon went to Community College and Chester Bennington didn't go to college.

I know The Offspring lead singer has a PhD in some STEM field...the group Boston has a bunch of MIT grads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I got a 1600 in 1999. I'm now a SAHM married to a Biglaw partner.

Nice. What do you do all day?

[Anonymous]

brother. Pediatrician. Cal undergrad. UofChicago med. Chla residency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing lots of PhD's, STEM, Wall Street financiers, graduates of T14 law schools. And perhaps a few successful authors and creative artists here and there.

Do you know anyone who aced the SAT? What did they end up doing?

Don't know them personally, but two people that got 1590 (I believe) are Lady Gaga and Ben Affleck. The guitarist from Linkin Park went to Cal Tech so I imagine he crushed the SATs, too.

Affleck is older than I am so that was before the curve adjustment so if he really got a 1590, that’s impressive. My memory is that back then there were only a couple 1600s per year, or fewer.