25 People Reveal What Happened To Their Smartest Classmate

By now, we know that our school career doesn’t necessarily reflect our future successes. Yet, many still pressure children to excel academically, forgetting that being the brightest student doesn’t guarantee the anticipated outcomes in life.

When one Redditor posed the question, “Did your school have a ‘school genius’ that was frighteningly talented or intelligent? Where are they now, and what are they currently doing?”, numerous individuals shared intriguing anecdotes in response. We’ve run through the list and found a few favourites which we’ve shared in the gallery below.

#1

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So my h**h school was a gifted school. With the exception of scholarship purposes, we all went to top 30 universities. But still…I didn’t meet reeeeeeal genius until I went to college. This guy, one year above me, went on College Jeopardy and annihilated everyone. He was 10s of thousands of dollars ahead of everyone every round. He won overall. Graduated from our school, then went to our rival, MIT, and got his PhD. And now he’s a?/the? principal engineer at Intel. One of my friends knew him personally. He said he was weird as s**t. But being weird as s**t is kind of normal in nerd haven.

#2

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We did. She was one of my best friends. She went through a stoner phase, drinks like a fish, married a s******r, and now works insurance.

On the other side of the spectrum, the kid who nearly failed every math class and was literally kicked out of college now makes nearly 100K a year doing web development.

Life’s a f****n trip.

#3

Image source: vixiecat, Zinkevych_D / Envato

My school’s genius was painfully awkward and socially inept, but still a pretty nice guy. Perfect score on the ACT and the SAT’s. I have no idea where he chose to go to school. He owns his own lighting design company along with his wife who is an interior decorator.

They just bought their 3rd vacation home.

skieezy:

Our school genius was also very awkward and socially inept. This was in middle school. He took the SATs in 8th grade, scored perfect and skipped all of high school and went straight to University at 14.
He jumped off the 20th floor at the university the next year.

#4

Image source: _Green_Kyanite_, nd3000 / Envato

Yup- my best friend. She’s still freakishly smart. Just got a STEM PhD from Harvard, and felt guilty that it took her “so long” to finish.

She finished in six years after skipping a grade in school. She’s 27 and has a freaking STEM PhD, and feels like she hasn’t done enough.

That girl is gonna cure cancer. She’s going to cure cancer, refuse to patent the technology, and do everything in her power to make sure it’s a super low cost d**g everybody can afford. That d**g will save millions of lives. She’ll win every prize ever.

And then she’ll be sad that she couldn’t make the miracle d**g cure cancer *and* diabetes.

RickGrizz95:

Although I’m sure it seems unfair that they are not satisfied even though they are clearly doing amazing, I really feel bad for them. Imposter syndrome is rampant in the STEM fields and it’s all too common to be way too hard on yourself to the point it can cause serious mental health issues.

#5

Image source: penguin_ag, Image-Source / Envato

My school have one, a freaking genius that excel at every scientific subjects and entered one of the best university in my country for medical profession. Everyone in my school thought he would become a surgeon or something like that.

Well, he did graduate university, but never got his lisence to be a proper doctor. Apparently during university, he found out that he really, really, really like and good at boxing.

Currently, about 5 years after he graduated, he had become professional athlete in boxing and won a few championship. The dude has one of the best minds I’ve ever seen, but apparently nothing make him happier than boxing.

#6

Image source: nousernameusername, katchanatsarin / Envato

Kid who made high grade explosives. He was a little weird, socially awkward. But a nice guy. At the age where you d**k around with firecrackers and match heads? He was the same, except he was smarter (not wiser) than you or me. So he ordered various chemicals from the internet… and ended up triggering the online companies into informing the Police.

Armed Police kicked his family’s door in at 3am and stormed the place. Army B**b Squad examined the stuff he’d made -apparently, it was pretty much stable plastic explosive – but still had to take it out in to the fields behind his house and destroy it.

He got away with little more than a caution and court ordered counselling.

Fell out of touch with him, but Facebook stalking reveals – he went to Cambridge to study Physics, he now designs the software certain companies use to trade on the stockmarket, married the daughter of a Hong Kong investment banker and splits his time between his apartment in Hong Kong and house in London.

#7

Image source: debunkerFL, simonapilolla / Envato

I went the middle school with an incredibly intelligent boy. Super smart, very attractive, was the adopted son of the wealthiest family in town. Died from a brain tumor when we were 13. That was about 40 years ago and I still wonder how his life would have turned out.

the_oracle_of_wifi:

Science High School classmate. Very smart, very handsome, but socially awkward. Died in 11th grade from a brain aneurism. Guy was bullied a lot but he was going places.

#8

Image source: anon, seventyfourimages / Envato

Got a job right out of h**h school, for the best gaming company in our country (basically our local google). His starting salary was bigger then my parents who’ve worked the same job for 10 years.

He spent every paycheck on video games, and was fired after like 3 month’s for being lazy.

Edit (more info): He decided to take a break year, mostly stayed at home playing video games. Actually met his current gf playing Counter Strike, so he has that going for him.

#9

Image source: Dapper_Presentation, voronaman111 / Envato

I’m still friends with the smartest guy in my school (and pretty much that I’ve ever met). His uni entrance score was the highest my high school has ever had before or since.

He’s married to a great woman and has a couple of terrific kids. He is a VP in a global chemicals company. And he’s still a terrific bloke.

#10

Image source: beesknees9, Xiangkun ZHU

We had a kid that came from China. He skipped three or four grades, so he was like 12 in 9th grade. He carried all of his textbooks in a wheely suitcase. All of the dumb jocks adored him, he was their mascot. He went to Harvard Business School and now works at a VC firm in LA.

#11

Image source: icyboy89, Julia Giacomini

Not from my school. But there was this kid who is my mom’s friend son. When I was young, my mom would tell me stories of how good is he at studying and how his a gifted student and probably going to be a doctor/lawyer and earn lots of money (Maybe as a way to compare me to other kids to motivate me in studies). The way that they praised him, I legitimately thought as a kid that his going to be a future president or something.

Fast forward many years later, that guy decided to drop out of school and went to be a tattoo artist. He has full sleeves on both hands too. Heard that his parents were disappointed that he turned out that way. But hey, at least his doing what he loves right now and not be forced to be what his parent’s vision of him.

#12

Image source: Swagidizzle, guyswhoshoot / Envato

There was this one kid who was autistic. He could memorize basically anything in seconds, but is practically impossible to communicate with unless you were someone close to him. Don’t know how he’s doing now, but from what I’ve heard he still needs full time support from his parents.

Prompt-me-promptly:

I worked a telecom job with a guy who was quite autistic. If you told him your birthday, he would instantly tell you what day (OF THE WEEK) you were born. He would also tell a lot of people what their zip code was as soon as they’d tell him what town they lived in, before they had a chance. It was beyond extraordinary.
The guy was also beyond socially awkward. He would walk up to a full table in the break room and just linger very close to people.
I’d always try to sit a ways away from him in the cubicles because he was very loud on the phones. He also didn’t understand proper sales speech. I was sitting near him one day because all the other seats were full and I hear him say very loudly, “well ma’am, if you’d stop asking questions, the call would be over in about 5 minutes”. I fell out of my chair laughing. The guy was a mathematical genius but they had to let him go because he couldn’t keep people on the phone or make sales.
I think they should have allowed him to explain that he was autistic, people had no idea.

#13

Image source: Twuggy, Anthony Tran

She married an amazing guy, they both got their phd’s. She was then asked by several universities to teach the course she got her phd in.
She got pregnant and died during child birth losing the baby.

#14

Image source: Lady_Otaku, YuriArcursPeopleimages / Envato

He wasn’t a genius. He was a socially awkward, uncharismatic, and most importantly didn’t like authority. Everyone expected him to fail. The girls in class used to say he will be living with his parents until he was 50. He was going to die alone, he was going to be a pedophile or commit s*****e.

I remember some people shooting paintballs at him when he was walking home. This was when they were around 16 to 18 years old.

Turns out he can play the stockmarket and has a mind for business. He bought his third house recently and posted about it on facebook.

A lot of the people that bullied him and treated him like dirt started treating him like royalty. They talked about how they were good friends, fun times, etc. He didn’t buy it for a second. One of the girls tried to sue him for sexual harassment/false r**e claim.

He won easily because he has not had any physical contact with anyone from the graduating class because he flew across the country and didn’t want to see any of them. Our HS keeps trying to invite him back to do a speech, talk, or just tell anyone the secret to his success.

He told them to f**k right off. When they said they were going to open a new building and name it after him. He told them they better not because he refuses to give his name to that school in any kind of capacity. The school quickly backed down.

I wouldn’t say he is a completely 100% happy person. He is very defensive and doesn’t trust others openly. He has a few friends and from the looks of things that’s all he needs.

#15

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My school genius got a 5 out of 5 in calculus 2 AP when he was a junior in h**h school. He was a cocky m**********r but no one denied the kid was a genius. Loved learning, and loved being smart. He had completed most AP classes by the time his senior year had started.

He got accepted to MIT for physics.

He got drunk one night during graduate school* scaled a building on campus with his friends, and fell off, k**ling himself in Darwinian fashion.

It’s truly one of the most ironic things I’ve ever seen: the smartest person I’ve ever met died in the dumbest way I had ever seen.

#16

Image source: th3capone45, Jesson Mata

He went to college. Graduated C*m Laude. Was a high level manager at a branch of some multi-billion dollar corporation, and last I heard he retired at 28 or 29.
Now he just works part time at a restaurant because it makes him happy and he works with people he enjoys being around. Less stressful apparently.

#17

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School genius was an absolute Sweetheart, and still is. He recieved 98% on the IB (International Baccalaureate) and went to Oxford to study law (we are Australian, so that is a BIG deal!) He has since returned and become a corporate lawyer earning huge amounts, met his now wife at a corporate event, and at the age of 36 has two beautiful little girls.

His parents were extremely well off, but he also worked his A**E off to get to where he is today! He is one of those “rich white guys” that fortunately dosen’t take anything for granted, and KNOWS how lucky he has been, but can also hold his head h**h because he has worked hard for everything he has.

#18

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My friend Ian was the smartest kid in school. He was two grades above me, got a perfect score on SAT, and actually wrote the skeleton of a play for the drama club, me and some other people higher up in the club all sat down with him and our drama teacher and did some editing like made lines shorter, easier to memorize (he used really big words) added or changed characters so we could use more people in the production. He jokingly applied to Yale just to see what would happen. He actually got in and they really wanted him to go, just not enough to lower prices enough for someone from Hicksville, MI to go there. He ended up going to Michigan Tech. I don’t remember what his major is.

#19

Image source: mr-cafe, Pablo Merchán Montes

Both k**led themselves. One because he was only measured by his achivements, not his personality, even at his funeral. The other one must have had mental issues no one was aware of.

#20

Image source: jackbigbot, Getty Images

He went on to college and became a veterinarian because he always loved animals.

highrouleur:

I’ve always questioned vet as a job choice for animal lovers purely because you’d mainly be dealing with animals that are suffering and often have to “send them to the farm”. The reality of it must be quite hard to take.

#21

Image source: importantmaps2, Przemysław Jahr

I went to school with Nigel Short. I’m not sure what his ranking is nowadays but if I remember rightly he’s a big name in the chess world.

7893:

He loves to do and say very questionable things. Yes he is a great player but I can’t look over the fact he was invited to an Australian tournament a few years ago that he participated in (and won) and gave himself the brillancy prize. Who does that…

#22

Image source: anon, Ekaterina Tyapkina

I had the school genius in my class. She always had the best grades in all school. Could have gone to med school if she wanted. Went to law school because her parents were both lawyers. It took her almost twice the time to finish it ( where I’m from it’s 4 years for the degree, and she took 7), and is currently working as a shop assistant at Primark ( a clothing shop in Europe). I heard she had a major meltdown in uni, because her grades weren’t top of the class, and she didn’t know how to handle it.

#23

Image source: Qmnip0tent, Ryan Snaadt

I went to a small high school about 70 kids per grade in Kansas the genius in the grade above me works at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe.

He was a really good dude. The best story that stuck out for me is he used to hang out with another guy Erik who was pretty hardcore football player and wrestling no one wanted to mess with. One day I heard a teacher say jokingly “ It’s scary they hangout together because ****** is smart enough to build a bomb and Erik is crazy enough to use it.