Poseur

This is an interesting thread.

I don't want to flatter myself by implying that I have the ability to judge intelligence, so keep in mind that this is only opinion:

One of the smartest people in my class, in my opinion, is coincidentally ranked number one (weighted -- there are lots of 4.0s.) He's an accomplished debater (I think third in the state in one competition) and has a few other extracurriculars (as far as I know, no leadership positions.) He did not make National Honor Society. He rarely does homework at home and he often cheats on tests (e.g. finding out the questions beforehand in classes like Calc [BC as a junior, one of ~10] and AP Chem, actually copying in World History, etc.) According to him, he's worked harder for debate than he's ever worked for any school subject. He projects an image of not trying at all, but I'm under the impression that he slightly exaggerates his lack of effort: when something needs to be done, he does it. He got a 35 on the ACT and a 2320 on his second try on the SAT (there are about four people in the class who have scored higher, so far.) He's Indian. He listens to rap and uses the n-word. He has strong opinions. I classify him as one of the smartest in the class because of his writing and speaking abilities as well as the critical thinking skills that are either the result or the cause of his involvement in debate. These alone would not be enough to put him at the top: he is also very good at math, science, and the rest of his subjects.

Another is ranked about sixth or seventh in the class, also with a 4.0 but a few more unweighted classes. He is VERY talented academically. If our GPAs were percentage-based, he would be the highest by far. In every subject, he always has a high 'A,' sometimes finishing quarters with above 100%. He is involved in a few math and science-related extracurriculars, has been in SGA since middle school, and is Vice-President of the Executive Board for our school's SGA (Exec Board is the school-wide board as opposed to the class boards.) He got a 2290 on his first attempt at the SAT: 700 CR, 790 M, 800 W, and retook it yesterday (his current score is the sixth or seventh highest in the class.) He does not consider himself exceptionally intelligent but just "good at school" (although he admits that he's "amazing at math.") Although I agree that academic success != intelligence, I think that it takes an enormous amount of intelligence to succeed to the extent that he does. He tries pretty hard, putting more effort into assignments than is necessary to get an 'A' (unlike me and the first person described: we [he to a greater extent than I] do the bare minimum) but most people, with all the trying in the world, could not do AS WELL as he. Yes, some of academia is no more than memorization. But is memorization not a facet of intelligence? His ability to retain information in every subject in conjunction with his innate ability to understand subject matter is what guarantees him such high grades and what makes me consider him so smart. He is also Indian. He's humble and pretty shy. And adorable. I'm kinda biased because he's my boyfriend and I'm in love with him.

This is really hard because I can't narrow it down to one or two. There's a third kid, but he doesn't require much explanation because he's very similar to the person above (and they're, like, best friends.) He got a 2360 on the SAT (third in our class) and like the person above, he puts more effort than most people into schoolwork and gets exceptionally high grades. I don't know where he is in terms of ranking; he takes more unweighted classes than the rest of us in the top of the class, as he's in Band and Latin. He's an exceptional writer. He's involved in a few extracurriculars. He is very quiet and modest and many people don't know how incredibly smart and academically-talented he is (whereas the two people above are reputed as smart.)

One girl got a 2400 on the SAT. She is well-rounded: she's in band, wins a lot of math awards, and does well in every subject. She cheats on tests. I don't think she tries very hard. She's ranked about fourth because Band is an unweighted class. Her courseload is the most advanced in terms of taking higher-level classes than are typically offered to her class (she's one of the three-grades-ahead math students, the only junior who took AP French, the only junior who took AP Physics, etc.) I don't know why she's not higher on my list, because I do admire her and consider her very smart -- I guess nothing about her really stands out to me to the extent that some of the qualities of the first three do. She probably looks the best on paper, though. She's my friend but some people consider her arrogant, and in some situations I can see where they're coming from.

There are about three more people I can think of who belong on this list (again, I can't narrow it down or put them in any sort of order), but I'll stop here. This was fun.