Terence Tao did pretty well. 760 math SAT at 8, IMO medalist at 10, Masters degree at 16, PhD from Princeton at 21. Full professor at UCLA at 24. Fields Medal, MacArthur Fellow, Royal Medal, Breakthrough Prize,etc.
He is widely regarded as one of the greatest living mathematicians and has been referred to as the “Mozart of mathematics.”
I didn’t see SATor LSAT scores for the Kansas kid but probably off the charts. Was he national merit scholar?
I’ll take my mother’s relative over these choices any day. A boy who was whisked off to the UofChicago at the tender age of 15 to study physics, which was two years later than the various advisors thought … advisable. At about age 9 or 10, officials in his rural school district told his mother, “We really don’t have much left for him, and if you don’t get him out of here he’s going to get bored and find trouble,” which is exactly what happened.
He obtained his PhD at Chicago at age 21 and went on to become one of the youngest tenured professors in the very long and storied history of Harvard University, which he left long ago to head up the physics department of a major research powerhouse, where he’s been since.
He did this coming from Bumble **** Nowhere USA and absolutely no access to a quality preparatory education, support, influence or benefit of the doubt of any kind whatsoever. I’m a lawyer, so I mean no disrespect here, but I’m going with a guy who’s spent his life working with other truly brilliant people trying to answer the big with a capital “B” questions of existence over anybody in law or banking. Please. There are people who are smart and who work their fingers to the bone and can’t come anywhere near the zip code of where people like this guy operate while taking a nap.
And perhaps (I’ve never met her after all) unlike our young legal beagle prodigy here, you’d never know any of this about this guy if you met him because he would spend all of the time peppering you with questions about you and your life with sincere interest.
I wouldn’t be surprised if not. This reads like the breathless “accepted to 135 colleges and $5 million in scholarships!” story we see every year in some local paper, and we know the reality of those. At a higher level of achievement, yes, but it reads like local reporter hyperbole - just accepted “Harvard” with no clarification, etc.
I poked around a bit to see if I could find those scores publicized after he took the tests. I couldn’t find anything, and that seems to be a conspicuous omission given the family’s love of publicity for publicity’s sake.
There was one odd and unsubstantiated post on reddit where a member started a post to say that his LSAT scores were “slightly lower than Harvard medians.” That is such a meaningless statement, even if true. The LSATs are only out of 180 and Harvard’s average is probably 172-174ish…most people are “slightly lower!”
@cquin85 I think that there are truly brilliant people who are making significant contributions to the world in the areas of the arts and humanities and other non-STEM fields. But I completely agree that those contributions do not include litigating traffic tickets!
If you love litigating traffic tickets, perhaps that’s what you would excel at!
Stated slightly more profoundly, the people whom I have met over the years that are real achievers (not necessarily in a monetary sense) are the ones who love what they do with a passion.
This is old, but out of 74k 7th graders that took the ACT, 5 scored in the 34-36 range.
I admire the parents who have kids who are off the charts and strive to help them be kids. Braxton might well have been better off at a top boarding school.
I too doubt that Duke TIP singled Braxton out as a one in a generation person.
Even the story about debate is suspicious. At the upper echelons debate is a highly structured and competitive activity. Results are documented.I searched and could only find one story. He and his partner won first place at a local high school tournament. They went 4/1.
After he finished Harvard Extension, Harvard changed the rules and now requires a high school diploma to enroll.
Back in 2019 Above The Law ran an article on him. He did apply to top law schools and as of the time the article ran he was waitlisted at Cornell Law. He said he really wanted to go to Columbia.
I wish him all the best, but I see no evidence he is a one in a generation kind of mind.
I have been fortunate to know a number of extraordinarily smart folks. Some have amazing careers. Some not.
Started with my father, who was a brilliant theoretical physicist. He was reading the NY Times at age 3 and grew up in a poor family – his parents were immigrants. I don’t think anyone thought to accelerate him in school. His peers were some of the best and brightest in physics. Feynman used to come to our house when I was young and played the bongo drums, though I don’t really remember him. But, I think I know four other Nobel prize winners from my father’s colleagues.
I know someone who got his Math PhD at Harvard at age 19. Very smart. Good career but not amazing. Always a bit brash – sometimes a bit of braggadocio. We had over for dinner another person who was homeschooled by his father, who apparently just drove around North America with him and would stop in at various universities. Joined the MIT faculty at age 20. Remarkable talent. Very modest. Oh, for CC points of reference: this person never attended an Ivy League school. Both clearly prodigies, but I’d say one is having more impact than the other.
At the end of the day, I think internal psychological drive and good choice of problem areas really matter a lot in terms of extraordinary success. Maybe also a good support system as a young adult.
I guess then i was wrong and there is more hyperbole and promotional framing than actual substance. PSAT, SAT, LSAT, IQ scores and acceptance (even if not enrolling) to top undergrad or law schools and news from national debate and mock trial circuit aren’t there to support the claims of academic brilliance. That being said, those are overrated when it comes to practical success.
As far as Harvard Extension, any student eligible to do dozen plus AP, IB, dual credit with invested parents and a supportive school can do it so even though it shows, above average academic capability and good work ethics, it doesn’t show extraordinary brilliance.
However, bigger lesson here is value of an unconventional route and of good marketing to launch a judicial and possibly political or media career. I’m sure soon we’ll read a book, hear a podcast or watch a movie about this story. On top of that, it is a mega confidence boost and a social advantage as well, everyone loves a child prodigy, not many of us understand technicalities.
That shouldn’t be a surprise in any way, because kids can be extremely bright in one dimension, such as say math or language, but rarely are bright across all dimensions.
Instead I would expect that there would be a good set of 7th graders that score 32+ in one of the tests and something like a 15 in the remaining ones.
Not everyone loves a child prodigy. Peers generally hate it, which may lead to major social and relationship problems, including bullying in school, if these young people only know how to interact with adults.
I’m very skeptical of the idea that this is an ideal launching pad for a judicial/political/media career. Especially if you have to try and appeal to “normal” voters that you simply don’t understand.
You are right about peers. However, prodigies (real or perceived) are well liked and favored by adults, and peers do feel pity and respect once they become adults.
That’s fair. But I’m sticking with the guy who was doing work on particle physics at Fermilab at the age of 19. That doesn’t mean I don’t value the contributions of the prodigious artist or social scientist. I do. But I think people who do what my (somewhat distant) relative does are truly rare birds and what they do is, IMO, simply more difficult and harder to achieve by comparison. So when I see someone doing it at a very early age, I can’t help but say to myself, “Now that’s a prodigy.” And certainly so as compared to a wonder kind operating in the areas of law or commerce. The physicist wins that one in my mind every time.
Agree with this 100%. judicial probably requires the most “smarts” of those three, but judgment, perspective, emotional IQ and open mindedness are critical as well. The other tap into other dimensions of intelligence that tend to get much better with age.
Frankly, I’m not sure I want a child prodigy with a lot of political power.