Where do the genius level kids go these days?

[Anonymous]

Genius does not necessarily equal success. There are many geniuses who eventually toil in coat closets or the local Barnes and Noble. The very best schools are looking for smart, curious, successful human beings, not walking robots or encyclopedia sets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They attend schools that their families can afford.

+1 big state schools, especially in state.

Look at the SAT scores for UMDCP, for example. Yes, I know that it's self selecting since it's T.O., but for the ones who submitted the scores, in the thousands, it's pretty high.

I can't speak for other states, I know some truly brilliant Banneker Key scholars at UMD. Most UMD honors students I know were pretty exceptional. I would guess that is the same at UVA, and W&M. I know a lot of brilliant kids that are ivy rejects or took a full ride. One kid from our high school just graduated from Michigan and is going to Yale Law.

[Anonymous]

My genius kid is in my basement, playing video games and eating candy.

[Anonymous]

Musical geniuses usd to attend Julliard. (Marvin Hamlisch). Not sure that is still happening. I would think too music schools though.

[Anonymous]

MIT
CalTech
Duke
Chicago
Rice
Hopkins

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MIT
CalTech
Duke
Chicago
Rice
Hopkins

My DD’s lunch group kids attend these school. None consider themselves or each other geniuses but all are extremely hardworking and bright.

[Anonymous]

I’d think MIT, Juilliard, CalTech, Curtis, West Point, etc. places where talent and grit are what get you in, no BS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MIT
CalTech
Duke
Chicago
Rice
Hopkins

MIT and CalTech maybe. The rest are ridiculous to include on such a list. Although the whole question is ridiculous. There are plenty of brilliant kids and they go to a lot of different schools depending on personality and what they are looking for. There are very few truly genius kids.

[Anonymous]

Niche / BI made a list of the "hardest working" colleges:

https://www.businessinsider.com/colleges-with-the-hardest-working-students-2015-12

#50 UVA
#25 Harvard
#1 MIT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Niche / BI made a list of the "hardest working" colleges:

https://www.businessinsider.com/colleges-with-the-hardest-working-students-2015-12

#50 UVA
#25 Harvard
#1 MIT

William & Mary was #10, and John Hopkins #11.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a school that most of these extraordinary kids are going to now? It seems the Ivies are mostly athletes, legacies, and URM picks.

Disagree with your premise - the research shows that the legacies/athletes/URM are just as brilliant as those that didn't get in - but there are only so many seats, so the seats go to the brilliant ones who have the above hooks. Regardless, here's my off the cuff answer.

MIT, Stanford, Berkeley.

Which research?

[Anonymous]

The true genius kids start college super early and go to institutions near their homes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The true genius kids start college super early and go to institutions near their homes.

This. My genius friend went to UMBC, and then went to grad school. Now a tech millionaire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm most impressed with MIT. They don't do legacy. They don't do athletic recruits. They don't care if you're rich or famous. You'll notice that none of the offspring of the American elite go to MIT. They require test scores. They don't care much about race. They do strive to have gender balance, but that's a good thing. Anyone going to MIT has earned their spot. It's obviously a STEM school, but they have an outstanding creative writing department. Also great at economics.

As for a more humanities oriented school, that's a tough one. Humanities have been really decimated over the past thirty years. Lack of student interest and faculties that are lost in stupid ideological battles that no one outside academia cares about. Thirty years ago Yale was probably the place to go. But back then the Ivies were generally meritocracies. That's no longer the case. And Yale in particular is very heavy into the DEI stuff. You need to watch what you say at that school. I think these days, Chicago is probably the best for humanities majors.

I agree with all of this. Having worked for years with many certified geniuses (I’m not one, I just happened to work in an area that allowed me to interact with brilliant people (e.g., from the National Labs — Lawrence Berkeley, Los Alamos, etc), and hired lots of college grads, including many from the Ivies, MIT grads stand out to me as the most consistently impressive on the STEM side. Chicago would be my pick for non-STEM. Other than that, the very smartest people I know went to a random assortment of colleges that were usually their in-state public universities or small local private colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a school that most of these extraordinary kids are going to now? It seems the Ivies are mostly athletes, legacies, and URM picks.

Disagree with your premise - the research shows that the legacies/athletes/URM are just as brilliant as those that didn't get in - but there are only so many seats, so the seats go to the brilliant ones who have the above hooks. Regardless, here's my off the cuff answer.

MIT, Stanford, Berkeley.

Which research?

DP: That's what the investigation found--and is in a few of the NYtimes articles on this. These hooked groups (legacies/athletes/URM) who were admitted weren't less brilliant than the students that didn't get in, it's just that there were far more equally brilliant students so the hook is what made the cut. All other things being equal, the hook adds an advantage.