"Most People Had No Idea": 25 Updates On The “Smartest” Kids In High School That Prove Life Rarely Goes According To Plan

It's true that some people peak during their high school years, but is that the case for the "smartest" kid in school?

Even though it's impossible to single out just one student who's smarter than the others (intelligence takes many different forms, after all), Reddit user u/Ostor123 started a fascinating conversation when they asked, "What happened to the smart kids of your high school class?" Here are some of the top answers below:

1. "Our valedictorian dropped out of college two years in and, after a stint as a garbage collector, now works the front desk at a hotel."

—u/SmileIntelligent3940

2. "She got her PhD in psych and has written multiple papers on forced perfectionism in children. She was always naturally brilliant, but God forbid she be anything less than perfect for her parents. Every club, every sport, every 'volunteer' position, she had to do it all. Most people had no idea she was dealing with so much shit at home."

—u/Poofenplotz

3. "My sister was one, and she is now married and working at a daycare at the military base where her husband is stationed. She wanted to be a doctor in high school, then an English teacher, and kept changing her major until she ended up with a degree in early childhood education. She said it was a lot harder to keep up with the studies in college than in high school because of all the freedom she had."

—u/Ambitious_9619

4. "One is a Supreme Court justice. I married the other one, and then I divorced him. He is an ass."

—u/Lollygagging-guru

5. "One of the smartest was also homecoming queen. She was funny, dynamic, and cute. She goes away to a respected liberal arts school on the West Coast. From there, she goes to medical school. Turns out, she gets kicked out for cheating but never tells her family. Facebook takes off around the time she would be starting life as a doctor. She works at a hospital and posts about doing 'rounds.' Everyone assumes she is a doctor, and she never corrects them. A mutual friend is at her house and, concerned for her child, calls CPS. The kid is taken away from her, and there is a hearing. For the first time, the daughter takes the stand and says she is a doctor. Yikes. Her date from the high school reunion later emails everyone in attendance, saying she is a fraud and a fake."

—u/Sbmizzou

6. "The smartest kid went to the Air Force Academy and recently retired. He was flying F-35s at the end of his career, pretty badass. Probably making bank as an airline pilot now."

—u/ay-guey

7. "The girl who got perfect scores on everything is now a project manager for some tech company, doing fine but nothing crazy. The guy everyone thought was a genius dropped out of college and runs a small repair shop, seems happier than anyone else from our class, honestly."

—u/Practical-Fact-6956

"I was valedictorian, student council president, etc. I'm a project manager now.

I do well for myself, and I'm very good at my job. It's in a field where I feel like I make a positive impact in the world. But I'm not grinding it out to move up the corporate ladder.

I found happiness that wasn't solely dependent on my performance. Have a family. Enjoy my hobbies. Make enough money to do things like travel. Have a life I love."

—u/woahwoahwoah28

8. "Scott Gessler finished at our public high school and then went to an Ivy League school, went into the military, had a successful stint there, ran for office, and became the Colorado Secretary of State. Then, he was successful enough to get re-elected (but I assume, after a head injury), he became a Trumper and threw away his career to support an amoral conman and convicted felon. He had been a smart guy. I’ll never understand. Although he did seem a lot like a 55-year-old Republican even when we were 17."

—u/Mikesaidit36

9. "Dude became a drug addict, went to jail, and now is selling peptides on TikTok. He just bought a Lamborghini. I guess he was smart enough to figure out which drugs are good, LOL."

—u/Caguileraa

10. "One was my best friend growing up, lived across the street from me (we grew out of touch after graduation), but he went to a great college, worked on Wall Street, burned out in his late 20s, and then struggled with mental health issues. Right now, he works a part-time job at a grocery store, but that's about it."

—u/Small_Perception885

11. "The valedictorians are now: an aspiring math teacher, an aspiring marine biologist, and a mechanical engineer at Lockheed Martin. The salutatorian is a software engineer at Apple."

—u/ProfessionalTwo332

12. "It's a mixed bag. We had a bunch of really smart kids, but we were all from a tiny, extremely poor rural town in a rural county with only about 30k people. One of the kids scored like 1200 out of 1600 on the SAT at the time. He burned out by our senior year, got busted for drugs after school, and last I heard, digs pools. On the other end, one is a doctor and very successful. I haven't kept up with most of them. The ones of us that moved away seem to have done the best. The poverty is really soul-crushing at times, and a lot of people got trapped by the cycle there."

—u/KitSoKudo

13. "I was my high school valedictorian and the definition of an overachiever: varsity athlete, student council, National Honor Society, high ACT score. Went to a state school intending to go to medical school, had a breakdown my junior year from stress and fear that I'd never be good enough for medical school, changed my major to respiratory therapy, and have been working in that field ever since. I'm good at my job and enjoy it, and it pays well enough, so even though I didn't become a doctor, I think I'm doing all right, all things considered."

—u/suzy_snowflake

14. "Our smartest guy was awesome and universally liked by all in school. He continued doing what he had already liked in school: physics and mathematics, and became a professor. You can often see him on TV or in local YouTube Shorts talking about school/his students/experiments. He is good PR that education can be fun."

—u/ProctoBlast

15. "One went on to lead AI education at Stanford and Google. The other got a PhD, then became a stay-at-home dad because his wife could make more money."

—u/DanielTrebuchet

17. "She is currently a professor of mechanical engineering and has a 5.0 rating on Rate My Professors. She completed her PhD at 24. The other people in that conversation are doctors (one a GI, one an oncologist), engineers (one helped design a lot of the current self-driving technology, and one works in military guidance software), and another is working on developing AI software that is able to look at cell slides and identify the types of cancer at a much more rapid pace than currently available."

—u/mfatty2

18. "Three of us went on to get PhDs (in archaeology, mathematics, and biology), and the fourth is a whiz-kid programmer/software developer working for NASA. Pretty sure we're all also on antidepressants."

—u/CurvyBadger

19. "The valedictorian and salutatorian from my high school became a successful and respected doctor and a successful and respected lawyer/executive, respectively. I know everyone loves hearing about falls from grace, but these guys were hard workers who didn't let up in adulthood. Good for them. Neither was a jerk when I last knew them."

—u/BeastInDarkness

20. "The valedictorian is teaching at one of the oldest colleges in the UK. The salutatorian is a stay-at-home mom of six children."

—u/TheReallyAngryOne

21. "The kid who got a perfect score on the ACT became a librarian. This might sound small, but homie got a city job at 22, worked his way up, and I think he's at a point where he doesn't have to deal with the general public much. I think he's doing pretty well."

—u/manderifffic

22. "I did pretty well. Advanced degree in engineering and a long, well-paid (and stressful) job in aerospace. Going to retire soon, but no definite plans yet. Honestly, I've been lucky, as I didn't always make the best decisions when I was young. Developing much better social skills accounts for a lot of it too. Smarts can only take you so far."

—u/ComfortableRow8347

23. "One of the smartest girls in my graduating class got a full ride to college. This was much less common back then (30 years ago) and was a huge deal. She quit school after one semester, married a man, and had seven children. I just hope she is happy."

—u/trexcrossing

24. "My wife was a smart kid in her high school. Got a PhD in statistics and is now retired from a great career. The valedictorian in her class dropped out of college to marry his high school girlfriend."

—u/TransportationOk4787

25. And finally, "I was valedictorian, and I went to a private university in a different state for two years. Then both my parents almost died, and I had a nasty incident with my old best friend, and I just couldn’t take being there anymore. Transferred back home and now work with my father after getting my mechanical engineering degree. I want to be a professor, but that’s most likely far into the future for me."

—u/Ambitious_Ad9619

These answers prove that GPA and academic titles aren't everything. It's wonderful to be smart, but hard work, resourcefulness, and a willingness to learn can get someone far in life, too.

Note: Responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.