<p>On another thread, The GFG raised the question of peer perceptions of who should get into Ivies versus the success of those who get in. This reminded me of a similar peer perception issue: Most Likely to Succeed. When her classmates voted my daughter MLTS a couple of years ago, I told her that an interesting news article would be to go back many years at her high school and see how accurate predictions had been. She is only a sophomore in college now and so in her case, it is way too early to tell. How about those of you who have been out 20, 30, or 40 years? Did your class accurately predict the successful person?
(At my high school, the teachers picked one boy and one girl. The boy has been very successful in the international "big world" sense and the girl has been very successful as a citizen of our home town. Teacher review may be more accurate than peer review?)</p>
<p>huh? I don’t remember who they were. It certainly wasn’t me, although I think I’m pretty successful!</p>
<p>I guess them that were chosen know who they are…</p>
<p>Karen, Good point. Actually, the only reason I remember who they were in mine is because my daughter dug out my high school yearbook yesterday to get pictures of my past for a project for her English class(gasp), and I thumbed through it…</p>
<p>We had a male and female vote.</p>
<p>The male (and valedictorian of my class - class of 2001) was the center of a very bizarre event about our junior year. He was living with about 8 other guys in a big house near the campus of our homestate flagship public (he had been accepted to Harvard but chose to stay to close to home because with all his scholarships he was getting paid to go to school). He had basically been “the dad” of the group - all the bills were in his name, he collected all the money for rent and stuff and basically took care of all the financial stuff. About February or March, his roommates realized that none of them had seen him in about 4 weeks. His parents hadn’t heard from him either. Turns out, he hadn’t paid any of their bills for the last 4 months, had taken all the money his roommates had given him for the bills and skipped town. It was later found out that he was heavily into cocaine and had some massive gambling debts and left town to get out of those for a while. About 4 months after he left he called his parents to tell them he was okay, but it was still another 4 months before he came home. His parents got him into a treatment center and I havent’ heard anything about him since.</p>
<p>I have no idea what the female winner is doing.</p>
<p>ours was a rhodes scholar…</p>
<p>Fond memory: no contests, but peers in my Mom’s yearbook wrote about her, “She’s going upstairs, three steps at a time.” Yep, they nailed that one. She was also 5 feet tall and a 16-year-old senior, but I choose to think of it as a great compliment.</p>
<p>I attended the same h.s. but by then it was racially integrated. Still, I would NEVER trust teacher opinion at my all-girls public high school in Baltimore. My black classmates from Honors were all told to apply only to Morgan State Teachers College which is Historically Black. The one who didn’t listen dodged the GC and went to Radcliffe (then Harvard), took on a top state government position in California.</p>
<p>My D boycotted her own h.s. graduation because a teacher nominated her “Most Improved Student” and she was embarrassed.</p>
<p>Our MLTS seems to have fallen off the face of the Earth. He didn’t attend either of the HS reunions.</p>
<p>Both our male and female became physicians, but that’s all I know.</p>
<p>Rural NJ HS. Female doctor. Male aero engineer (Cal Tech) and owner of a race horse that finished second in the Kentucky Derby.</p>
<p>From the class of 1980 GASP!!!</p>
<p>Our woman became a special ed teacher, is happily married to a college soccer coach and has two great kids. So yes, according to my definition she is a success! </p>
<p>Our guy got in on the ground floor with Cisco systems and last I heard was sitting pretty financially. So, in that way he has succeeded. I don’t know so much about his personal life though so I don’t know about his success there.</p>
<p>We didn’t have a MLTS, but our valedictorian is chair of a department at St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and our salutatorian is a lawyer. Both went to private colleges that are highly ranked but not on the level of HYPS. We only had one Natl Merit finalist (neither of the two above) in the whole school so, obviously, the PSAT was not a very important indicator of “success” in my generation.</p>
<p>We didn’t have a MLTS or valedictorian, but the smartest person in our class went on to receive an M.D./Ph.D. from Harvard (after doing her undergrad there) and is now a cancer researcher. She’s also married with two children.</p>
<p>The girl recognized by the faculty became an attorney and a judge; I do not recall who the students voted MLTS or which boy the teachers chose.</p>
<p>I hated high school; all the drama, “popular kids”, etc. junk. That said, I was crushed when I was voted “Most Studious” (how dull is THAT)…really wanted that MLTS thing! Hahaha!</p>
<p>MLTS is married to a pig farmer (not that there’s anything wrong w/ pig farmers, mind you) and still lives in our little hometown in the midwest. She quit school, although I think she eventually got her degree. She’s happy and has a nice family, so yes, she succeeded.</p>
<p>At the last reunion I went to (20? maybe–I passed on the 30th last year), friends said that H and I (we didn’t really start dating until college, but he graduated with me) had won the “most successful” straw poll! Now, it doesn’t matter; but on those 10th and 15th class reunions, I went mainly to thumb my nose at all those people whose “groups” I desperately wanted to fit in to back in high school!!! Of course, once there, I had a great time and didn’t thumb, pick, or otherwise handle my nose at all!!!</p>
<p>Our most likely male was my lifestyle idol for many years. He attended an ivy league (this from a school in Michigan that sent maybe one kid East every year), got an MBA from a prestigious school then threw it all over to become a chef. Studied in France and was widely interviewed. </p>
<p>Well, for about 20 years I used him as an example of “follow your dreams” blah, blah, blah. Then I lost track of him.</p>
<p>Recently in a moment of idle googling I looked him up. It seems he had gone back finance, made a killing on Wall Street and was indicted for insider trading. The article said he was serving 5 years at a minimum security prison! I hope he’s working in the kitchen.</p>
<p>Our female most likely got a full ride to Michigan but dropped out sophomore year and married her high school boyfriend, a classic neanderthal, never to be heard from again.</p>
<p>wow, momrath. That’s quite a story about the Wall Street guy!</p>
<p>I don’t have a clue whether or not my high school most likely to succeed did, in fact, “succeed.” My college male & female MLTS (hey, it was a small college, and we announced voting during our senior party at the fraternity house that happened to host the party that year …) earned Mechanical/Electrical Engineering dual degrees, got Harvard MBAs, got married, got involved in a start up, made a ton of money off the initial stock offering, and last I heard were “retired” in a gorgeous home somewhere in the hills of California.</p>
<p>Yesterday, I happened to hear a commercial for a new CD that was produced by a guy I graduated high school with. I knew he had a career as a folk performer of some kind, but I don’t know much about that genre. I hadn’t “heard” of him, so assumed he was a minor player. I figured he must have turned to producing to pay the bills. I mentioned it to my daughter, who is really into independent music. She looked him up & was mightily impressed. It turns out he is a very well respected producer who collaborated with a well known artist on a recent major film release. He also has a new CD out that D tells me is very well reviewed. I would consider him to be a definite “success” — but he wasn’t in line to be our MLTS!!</p>
<p>Then again … Madonna graduated from my high school a couple years before me. Another who wasn’t considered MLTS.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, it was 42 years ago, I think our female MLtS is a college prof at a small midwestern college and our male MLtS publishes a community newspaper.</p>
<p>Most likely to succeed is out. My daughter’s school has some interesting awards - two I like are the male and female versions of “most likely to be on American Idol” which just appeared last year - before that it was most likely to bee seen on Broadway - and “best name,” which is often won by kids born outside of the U.S. who have names our kids think sound “cool” but is sometimes won by local kids whose parents were creative baby namers.</p>
<p>My own class of MLtS did all right - He is a lawyer. She is a biologist. Not famous but perfectly reasonably successful.</p>
<p>MLTS a few decades ago… Female, went to Harvard, graduated but married a rabbi and became a stay-at-home mom. I was told her parents were very disappointed in her.</p>