<p>How smart is the smartest student that you personally know at Harvard?</p>
<p>Intel competition winner, co-authored a math book, probably has finished all college-level math since he took only grad-level math courses in his freshman year. And it’s really humbling because I’m sure there are people even more unbelievably amazing than him. <em>sigh</em></p>
<p>He is 5 smart</p>
<p>Smarter than the average bear, of course!</p>
<p>How are we supposed to quantify this?</p>
<p>^Wow-factor, I’m assuming.</p>
<p>It’s really hard to tell. People don’t talk much about why they got in, so that kind of stifles the discussion, I’ve found. My neighbour who takes Math 55 and took Physics 16 at the same time as an independent physics research seminar is pretty intense.</p>
<p>Several of the smartest ones I knew personally were from Exeter. My Harvard class included the people who were first and second in that year’s Exeter class, as well as the person who was first among the Classics diploma graduates. All three of these people were/are unbelievably smart to a degree that made other H undergrads say “wow” when we saw what they were working on.</p>
<p>I’d say it’s a toss-up between Eric Larson and Philip Streich.</p>
<p>About .368 Newtons. And then there’s an artist who’s probably about .217 Pollacks, give or take.</p>
<p>I guess it’s about to become Evan O’Dorney, who appears to be the smartest 18-year-old on the planet:</p>
<p>[Danville’s</a> Evan O’Dorney wins Intel Science Talent Search - San Jose Mercury News](<a href=“Danville’s Evan O’Dorney wins Intel Science Talent Search – The Mercury News”>Danville’s Evan O’Dorney wins Intel Science Talent Search – The Mercury News)</p>
<p>rogue genius > square genius</p>
<p>which is why evan loses</p>