and in what class
I found this to be an interesting question, so I will go ahead and contribute to this post.
I have only been in college (community college) for two months now while taking a summer class, so I have not had that much time to observe many people. I will tell you about a couple of people though. There is this one guy in my class who is an outlier because he’s in his 30s. He’s quite eccentric, visibly eccentric actually. He dresses up as if he’s in a metal band. He is sort of weird in the way that he approaches people for a conversation. He is, however, a very good student from what I have seen. Our term paper is due next week; he finished it and handed it in nearly a few weeks ago, earning praise for his writing from the professor (according to the professor, it was amazing). Another classmate of mine is obsessed with politics and is a republican. She can tell you so much about politics and loves to analyze modern day politics and the joke that is the presidential election of 2016. Her grades are amazing in politics and government classes. As for the other classes, they’re not the best. She doesn’t necessarily fit the role of the perfect liberal arts student, but she would absolutely thrive in a college that focused on specializing within your chosen area of study. Perhaps England’s university system would greatly benefit her. Of course I will encounter more interesting, smart, and hardworking people as I go on with my career. You will as well, friend! Good luck with your education and your journey through life.
I’ll respond, although I’m not sure what you’re looking to hear.
I think the most hardworking student I’ve had class with was a Statistics major. We took a symbolic logic class together at UC Berkeley. He got perfect scores on all the exams and problem sets, and had something like a 108% in the class. He was obviously talented, but he had a shocking level of drive. He mentioned that the people he shared an apartment with were too loud, so he preferred to stay on campus all day to study, returning home only to sleep.
I’m not kidding - he stayed in classrooms on campus until 10 PM at times, making use of the chalkboards to practice logic and statistics problems. He’d fill up numerous chalkboards with his statistics work - the guy was like a machine. Incredibly dedicated, incredibly hardworking.
In high school, a tiny Asian girl enrolled one fall. She was at least two years younger than the rest of my class. Her dad was teaching at UT-Austin for a couple of years. She was so bright!! She was in my chemistry class.
Years later, I happened to turn on Nova one night, and lo and behold, there she was, talking about string theory! I got hold of her and learned that she had done her graduate work under Stephen Hawking.
Then there was the teenager I met at a piano performance workshop at UT one summer. She went to Johns Hopkins and was the youngest person to get a Rhodes scholarship.
My high school boyfriend went on to study at MIT and get his astrophysics PhD at UT.
I wish I could say some of their intelligence rubbed off on me!
At Community College, I became friends with a guy who is from Ghana, and he’s only been in the US for 4 years. At 24 years old, he is a LVN (licensed vocational nurse), a pastor, a full time student, and works 3 jobs. He has a 4.0 and wants to go to medical school. We were in Bio, Chem, and Calc together, and I have no idea how he finds the energy for all of that. He’s always happy and smiling, and he never shows that he’s tired. It blows my mind how he finds time for everything.
Some people just have the drive. He is just truly taking advantage of his educational opportunities and loving it. He’s never afraid to ask for help, I have spent a good amount of time helping him with assignments. He wants to do well, so he does. He’s applying this Fall as a Chem major.
I know a math major (who is also studying both Spanish and Chinese, not sure if official minors or what) who is not only incredibly intelligent (in every class I’ve had with him, he’s clearly been one of the top students, if not THE top student), but also very very nice. Like one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.
I think he recently decided he wants to teach. He’ll be great at it. Has the intelligence, the patience, and the kindness.