Life rarely turns out exactly how you planned it. Your goals and aspirations can change wildly over the years. And just because you were bookish and got top marks in school doesn’t mean that this is what the rest of your life is going to be like. There are going to be some surprises along the way.
The r/AskReddit online community recently spilled the tea about what happened to the smartest students in their class after they graduated. Scroll down to read their stories and (un)expected twists! And if you were looking for a sign to check up on how your classmates are doing these days, this is it.
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#1
Graduated top of my class, got a job at Google. Walked off a cliff whilst hiking last summer. Damned tragic, still don't get it.
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#2
Shared a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
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#3
They worked at a McDonalds after high school. Now they are an executive for McDonalds.
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Book smarts, while certainly powerful and impressive, tend to be overhyped. It is far from the only worthwhile attribute that a person can have. Emotional intelligence, the ability to work in a team, confidence, self-discipline, diligence, patience, and even common sense play very important roles throughout our lives, too.
In the narrow sense, an intelligent person is someone who gets good grades, easily understands new information, quickly sees patterns, and has a good memory. In the broad sense, intelligence means that someone is able to apply the knowledge they have to reach the goals they want or need. Knowing lots of trivia and doing well on tests, while certainly something to brag about, is worthless if it’s not applied in a meaningful way.
#4
Died from a brain tumour right after he graduated high school. He was dang smart. Could play the piano upside down too.
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#5
That would be me. I skipped a year late in high school and won the final year maths, physics and chemistry prizes. I was the only one in the year to take double pure maths.I got a good engineering degree, started out working in submarine engineering, then military training simulators. Then I moved to Europe and got a job designing wind turbines, then in solar energy and now in networking.
Right now, I'm sat next to my wife in hospital waiting for our fourth child to be born.
Life's not too bad, all things considered.
#6
They now work for NASA, but only because they're convinced aliens have the answers to their quantum physics homework.
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The MIT Technology Review points out that the most successful people (in terms of wealth) are not the most talented. Rather, they are the luckiest. This idea is supported by research done by Alessandro Pluchino and his colleagues at the University of Catania. The computer model they created found that, in simulations, “the maximum success never coincides with the maximum talent, and vice-versa.”
They explain that luck plays the biggest factor in wealth distribution. “Our simulation clearly shows that such a factor is just pure luck.” They add: “It is evident that the most successful individuals are also the luckiest ones. And the less successful individuals are also the unluckiest ones.”
#7
He went to Yale and joined the ROTC. After he graduated he became an Army Ranger and served in Afghanistan. When he left the army he joined a Seminary and became a priest.
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#8
She makes trinkets on Etsy and does open mic comedy. Definitely an interesting path.
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#9
He became homeless and jumped from a building 6 years ago. After his death, his mom sent me his Quora accounts where he posted thousands of times in three languages. It was wonderful to read, he was very smart but a broken man.Miss you Pierre.
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However, success doesn’t have to correlate with income, assets, and financial prowess at all. It could mean having an active social life, finding time to create and express ourselves, being fit and healthy, or traveling the globe.
An 85-year Harvard study found that by proactively investing in positive relationships, we become more resilient to stress. This leads to us living healthier, happier, and far longer lives. The impact of these relationships is even bigger than exercising or eating well (which are, nonetheless, important, too!).
So, if you reframe success as happiness and longevity, then your main focus shouldn’t be on earning more money, but on deepening your relationships with the people you care about!
#10
High school class of 1962. Our valedictorian died in Vietnam around 1964. I first heard about it around 2012, so the year may be off.
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#11
Killed themselves by jumping in front of a truck after getting a failing grade from a professor that hated her attending Stanford.
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#12
The dude in my class got a full ride to Harvard. Did an internship his first summer at Intel and was killed by a drunk driver a few weeks after arriving in California. F*****g couldn’t believe it when it happened 25 years ago. Still can’t really.
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#13
Valedictorian works for Tesla, salutatorian is now a Buddhist monk in TibetEdit: the monk graduated from MIT as an engineer, went to work in Tibet for some project then never left.
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#14
Graduated high school at 14. Got a degree in aerospace engineering by 18, and works for Boeing last time I checked. He was always a nice kid and got picked on. Glad I was nice to him back then.
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#15
I'm working as method development support for research labs and government contracts. After about 10 years of anxiety and depression I turned out alright.I meditate daily, been married for 8 years, and have a nice little 3/4 acre homestead that keeps me busy.
#16
He got his GED at 16, causing massive gossip at his school, then spent several years working various manual labor jobs and drinking very heavily. He eventually went back to school for philosophy, landed a high paying job at Tesla after college, then discovered he was autistic in his 30’s after another MASSIVE multi-year burn out cycle. Recently he started an AI automation agency, and has never been happier. Source: he’s me.#17
He became a pharmacist, married a model, had a couple kids, bought a big house in our hometown…Then he got caught writing fake scripts for his friends, lost his license, got a divorce, wife took the kids, and I’m told he can be found at the local bar most nights trying to blackout.
Life can take some crazy turns, eh?
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#18
Her parents in West Australia in the 1980’s had very narrow old fashioned ideas on women’s role in society. She was never encouraged to do upper school & go to University. Instead the options were get married & have kids, go into nursing or secretarial school. She had no prospects of marriage at the grand old age of 15 so ended up at secretarial school. Series of very poorly paid office jobs all through her life . Except for a 5 year stint where she worked for fashion designers beading fancy dresses. Another very poorly paid job. Absolutely bloody tragic - she could have done anything. She wasn’t just top of our year - in state testing she was in the top 10% . Her sister married young - much to the parents joy. Of course it was an unmitigated disaster & ended in divorce.
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#19
Guy was school's greatest achiever in studies and was schools top athlete breaking all the records. He went to Cambridge and everything, got a doctorate in physics etc. Ended becoming a priest. Lives in a small village in the North.
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#20
Our Valedictorian planned on going to med school to specialize in vision science because she was inspired by a family member with a degenerative condition with their eyes that left them mostly blind. She wanted to help prevent people going through the difficulties she witness first-hand with her family.She married a Bible thumper she met in church and is now a anti-medicine/anti-science trad wife.
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#21
Dude was 2 years younger than the rest of us, having skipped 2 grades, 1st chair violinist, IB, AP, wicked smart and an all around nice guy despite having all these stressful extracurriculars and advanced classes. Full ride to anywhere kind of smarts.Now he's a sports writer and seems to be happier than ever.
Edit: Damn, getting a lot of people asking if it's a sportswriter they know. Apparently the sportswriter industry is a kid genius magnet.
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#22
He left school at 18 to work for the BBC for a year who then paid for him to go to Cambridge to do an all-expenses paid degree on a decent salary.After about 10 years at the Beeb, he moved to Amazon and became a super senior engineer.
He got cancer when he was around 38 and died within a year. .
#23
He had a full ride scholarship to MIT, but apparently took back his acceptance over the summer to open up an art gallery. Last I heard, it was moderately successful.
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#24
A friend of mine was top of our class and I was second. We both went to the same university and got Masters degrees. We also both work for NGOs now (he in health advocacy, me in environmental conservation). I keep in touch periodically. We’re both pretty content.#25
He became an elementary school teacher. Ten years later, he released a kids book.I definitely thought he'd be president, but I'm glad that people like him are teaching and influencing the next gen.
#26
Smartest guy in my class was also the schools biggest pot dealer. Principle knew what he was doing but was always outsmarted. Became a surgeon.
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#27
Got a full scholarship to study Physics at Caltech, even more impressive because our high school is in India. Went on to do his PhD at Princeton, and is now a professor of Physics at a top US university. Even back in high school, students and teachers were convinced he'd win a Nobel prize someday. And he may well do that.#28
She became a waitress in a pub in her university town. Had a free ride all the way basically and graduated university as well. Choose to live a stress free life waiting tables.
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#29
He literally became a rocket scientist.
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#30
They're now a successful CEO, but we all secretly suspect they're just using their brainpower to dominate in office trivia games.
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#31
Dead by 'accidental overdose' when she was 22.#32
I got voted most likely to become a billionaire when I was in school because I was considered the “smartest” (I am gifted academically but not very intelligent socially so I always considered myself pretty dumb).I ended up graduating top of my class at UC Berkeley and right now I’m finishing up my PhD in Mathematics at a pretty well known university. I don’t plan on ever becoming a billionaire with it though ?, I study math purely because I love it so much that I want to devote my life to it. I got really lucky on some investments during the pandemic and am already retired so I’ll probably just travel around the world whenever I’m done with academia.
#33
He graduated West Point. Did two tours in Iraq. Left as a Major. Now is a Dr. ....and both his sons graduated WP and now Capt. in Army. .#34
They had a nervous breakdown and became psychotic. Edit: not due to d***s, he had aspergers, was the smartest person I’ve ever met, and stress probably contributed a lot to a preexisting condition.
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#35
Tenured math professor. Got his PhD on math at 26, which is stupid young to actually complete the program.One year in undergrad he spent the summer working for the NSA in crypto. A team of six FBI agents came to our college (about 1,400) to do a background check. You know how tense it is to be interviewed by the FBI when you are 19, stoned and trying to not stare at the ceiling tile where you hid your stash.
Uncool, man.
#36
Won a world series robotics competition on p**s all budget at 16.Same year a big American military tech company offered to pay for his schooling full ride up to doctorate level. He turned that down because he didn't want to make weapons.
Got a girl pregnant at 18 moved to a Nordic country to be with her and started working as essentially an engineer redesigning big industrial machines (I think he was working on a qualification.) Got kicked out during COVID.
Applied for the secret service. Was made a *very* good offer, turned it down.
Now he has his own company where he designs and runs escape rooms. They're f*****g amazing escape rooms though.
Boy is a genuine genius and has a brain like a corkscrew. His hobby as a kid was to basically create the Easy India Company or decimate the stock market in MMORPGs.
If he went into finance, or stocks, or crypto, or weapons, or any number of fields he would not only excel he would have made stinking amounts of money by now, and he's still in his 20s. However, he is also fully aware of his own sociopathic tendencies and what amoral s**t he'd do in that environment.
So he decided to bend his genius locking people in little rooms and forcing them to find their way out... but you know in a fun way.
#37
Is the federal judge who issued the search warrant for Mar a Lago. Go Bruce!#38
One's a lawyer in DC, one works for Google, one got a doctorate and now teaches at an HBCU.#39
She was on the dean's list every year in computer science. Aced every test and did better than everyone academically. She works as a secretary for a lawyer now. She genuinely hated programming but her teachers pushed her into computer science because they wanted more women in tech. I still think she could have done better using the degree elsewhere but she also had a really negative mindset and a self defeating attitude.
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#40
Harvard for college, somewhere else for medical school, became a doctor, married another doctor. Maybe had a kid? She's very smart, so she killed her social media accounts a very long time ago.We haven't spoken in 20 years at least, but I still remember her fondly when I think of the s**t show that was adolescence.
Edit: I checked, and it was Johns Hopkins for medical school, and she is some niche variant of cardiologist.
#41
Founder of Shazam. Super nice guy.#42
Our Valedictorian died the day after graduation of a ruptured appendix; he was one of the most talented people I had ever met. RIP John Albert Sierra.#43
Made some home made fireworks and blew up his locker by mistake then went to MIT.
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#44
The guy built an earthquake detection system that gave people a couple of seconds to get ready before the ground started shaking when he was 16, went to study to be a librarian and ended up living in a farm away from society.#45
Taught himself Mandarin. Moved to China for I don’t even know what. Developed a heart condition and had to be flown back to the states for medical. I believe he’s back in China now.Saw him at a party though in college with a blunt and a cigarette in the same hand and a beer in the other. This guy was your typical glasses wearing anti social nerd in high school. Always been a quality human being. I was shocked when I saw him at the party.
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#46
She got accepted in to some Ivy league school, got knocked up during her first semester, came back and went to tech school to become a mediocre pastry chef, and last I heard teaches painting.I think her home life prior to college was very stifling, so when she moved away, she went buck wild.
I always respected her in school, had her pegged as becoming a doctor or lawyer. In general, my high school created a lot of blue collar drones, and some middle management types.
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#47
I used to hang out with honors students in college. It’s hard to quantify who was the smartest. They’re all bright and I felt like an idiot.The one I dated ended up going to Europe and is now a CEO of a science company.
Another one ended up being an award winning professor. His wife, who was also an honors student, is now a school psychologist.
That was an interesting one. She came to me for advice. She was being pressured by one school to attend grad school there. Said she was capable of great things in advancing the field. She told me she wanted to be a school psychologist, and she was getting rude comments. Saying she only wanted to not be a researcher because she wanted to stay with her husband. Her heart was in school psychology and working with kids.
So I gave her the “push” and told her to ignore the haters and follow her heart :)
Glad she took my advice into consideration. They’re both incredibly happy!
#48
The smartest kid in my class was Mark. He started some internet company, face-something. Whatever. He didn't hook up with peak-Jenny McEntyre like I did.#49
He works for our state Supreme Court.As I understand his job, he does a mix of legal research for the judges and trains new clerks.
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#50
Kicked around a little … got full ride to our state uni, first studied engineering stuff, hated it and almost failed out of college, decided he wanted to become an English lit professor, went to grad school for that at the univ. of chicago, but last I heard is a consultant out there for one of the big accounting firms. Got married and had a kid.#51
Just looked her up. She got a PhD in astrophysics, worked for NASA for a while, then completed a 7 year Buddhism retreat and is now a Buddhist teacher that integrates the latest in neuroscience with trauma resilience, nondual meditation, and the Aware Ego Process in her coaching practice.#52
Girl was on her way to medical school and had everything in place to be free of her religious parents(I believe Muslim or some kinda other strict religion) she came out during her speech to the whole school about her gf and to her parents. She got accepted to medical school straight out of hs through special program. I'm sure she's almost a doctor if not one already.#53
PhD in Astrophysics. Working on getting humans to Mars in 2030. We are all so proud of her. She was also Homecoming Queen senior year of high school.#54
He accidentally scattered himself across the countryside f*****g around with homemade explosives.#55
I had a genius classmate, he was talented in every single class from science to arts he just understood it and performed flawlessly. He could rail through a dense textbook and absorb everything like it was a goddamn children's book. He'd read litetature and write mind blowing 1st drafts that were perfectly polished, and full of cunning rhetoric.He went to a top 10 us college for biology graduated top of his class there.... and then started writing.
Now he's working for Stephen colbert to write content for some show!
#56
I hit a kid with a bat in gym class two weeks before graduation. They cut me to a B+, cost me valedictorian. My self-esteem was based entirely on being the highest grade so it crushed me. I went off to college shook. Triggered the start of a bipolar episode that lasted ten years. Dropped o it, because who even was I anymore? I fell off the face of the earth. Took me a long time to claw my way out of it. I’m in my 40s now and am doing well, thank you.#57
Went to MIT. He makes iPad video games now.
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#58
Extremely successful doctor. Does plastic surgery to help those with disfigurements.#59
I don't know about my class but I do know about my wife's. She was the salutatorian. She dropped out of college, married me and had a ton of babies. We are still married over four decades later.#60
She became a wickedly successful plastic surgeon. She was a bad*ss, super rockabilly/punk Chinese girl. I always thought she was cool.#61
They co founded a site with a silly character. Invested in companies. Wrote a book. Fell in love with and Married one of the greatest female athletes of all time. Has a beautiful family. Still invests in stuff. Living his best life, as we all should.#62
I went to college, got degrees in Math and Physics, got a job in financial sales, got a d**g habit. Then I was homeless for a spell but got my s**t together and got a job working in retail. Worked my way up to manager, went back to school and got a few more degrees. (Computer Science, Information Assurance, Master's in Computer Science)Now I'm a software developer with healthy salary and only do *actual* work for ~4 hours a day, tops.
#63
Our valedictorian is an orthopedic surgeon. He married our salutatorian. I believe she's a stay at home mom.#64
Went to Harvard, earned a PhD in philosophy, currently teaches at UC Berkeley.#65
I went to grade school with a kid, his initials were SM. His mom was a teacher so SM was super smart, he was always sat aside doing advanced work or extra credit. At recess he would constantly run laps for the “mileage club” instead of playing with other kids. Fast forward, SM gets a full scholarship to Cornell University for running track, not sure what he was studying but he ended up dropping acid with his girlfriend, freaking out and running around campus half naked. He tackled at least one female and threatened to r*pe her and was arrested.#66
He worked for corporations as an IT guy for a decade, and then left and started his own IT consulting company. I think he is doing well. I think he retired early.#67
She’s a s**t hot corporate lawyer making the big bucks.#68
He scored an almost perfect score in the chinese gaokao, almost top 20 in the country .. he is now a popular streamer for 'Bronie' material in asian platforms, i think he does this full time and has a few hundred thousand followers. he was a real lovely guy and im happy hes doing what makes him happy! jia you.#69
Went to fancy engineering school. Got a great job doing fancy engineering. Quit and opened up a couple coffee shops.#70
I'm an alcoholic and I live in Mexico as a real estate agent. Make the bad and good of that what you will. .#71
Became a d**g addict that couldn't hold down a job at McDonald's.#72
So he ended up getting an internship with BMW in England. Last I heard he’s been doing quite well he was always a cool down to earth dude to so I wish the best for him.#73
He is currently director of med student education in psychiatry at a major US teaching hospital. Holds an MD/PHD. Brilliant guy who is also a wonderful human.#74
The class valedictorian joined the air force and became an F-22 pilot. Her husband, the salutatorian, followed her around the word for a few years, but I have no idea what he was doing professionally.The actual smartest kid in the class died in a motorcycle accident a few years after graduation. Although probably a loss for his friends and family, the world is probably better off.
Some of the other 'smart' kids became a relator, a high school technology teacher, a dental hygienist, physical therapist, and a professional lacrosse player / then coach.
#75
One went to some ivy league colleges and is a lawyer in NYC. Another went to state college for engineering works at NASA. Another stopped caring about school when he got laid and has been working at a grocery store after getting married at 18 and divorced at 19.#76
It was me! I was valedictorian in 2003, went off to a prestigious school, but came home after a year due to money and family drama. Continued engineering degree but fell deep into drinking after my brother died (suspected suicide but unable to confirm). Decided to get out of that environment and joined the Army...did three deployments, got out, and got married. Went back to college and earned a degree in criminal justice and worked in community corrections for 11 years, ending up in upper admin supervising an entire department. Two years ago, we moved as wife wanted to be in home state with family. Now, I do warranty work on newly built homes (a job I got through a guy I served with). I certainly miss the correctional side of helping people in my hometown, but I make more money now, wife is happier, and our 7 year old is thriving! Life threw some curves, but we're happy and healthy!#77
They're now a tech billionaire, but we all know their real genius lies in finding the perfect meme for any situation.#78
She got a full ride through Annapolis and is currently looking at promotion to O6.She is also a potential candidate for captaincy of CVN-80 when it launches.
#79
Graduated top in HS. Got a full ride government funded scholarship to study overseas.That’s when everything went downhill. Dropped out during my senior year. Came back to my hometown and was unemployed for 2 years.
Work for a minimum wage job for 2 months and then got an offer to work for a start up company at another state. Earn a decent salary to pay off the debt from the scholarship (didn’t finished my study so I have to pay them in full). After working there for a few years I was appointed as the company’s director, earn a lot of money.
But depression and psychosis was bad. Attempted S**c*de. Almost unalive myself but the rope that i used snapped. Didn’t die. Bummer.
Quit the job. Moved back with my parents. Rest for a year. Attempted s**c*de a few more times so I was basically living in psych ward - parents house for that 1 year.
Moved to a new city trying to start a new life in 2022. Working as a normal 8-5 white collar worker now. Not trying to achieve anything big. Just want to be happy and be content with life now.
#80
Extremely smart guy, he must’ve gotten nearly perfect grades in all his classes. Smoked weed all day every single day, hung out with the more popular people, just a great guy in general. Never really got into any extracurricular stuff in school.Got a full ride to USC. After Masters in aerospace engineering went for doctorate in physics. Now he is very high up at Lockheed Martin, can’t talk about what he does.
