“Absolutely Bloody Tragic”: 50 People Reveal Where The Smartest Kid Of Their Class Ended Up

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.

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!

Killed themselves by jumping in front of a truck after getting a failing grade from a professor that hated her attending Stanford.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

She became a wickedly successful plastic surgeon. She was a bad*ss, super rockabilly/punk Chinese girl. I always thought she was cool.

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?