What was your SAT/GRE/MCAT/LSAT/GMAT/etc score?

Most of the genuinely wealthy people I know are not well educated, by any stretch of the imagination. A couple of them got their education after becoming wealthy. The other not-so-bright-but-lotsa-money guys are plumbers and electricians. If your only aim is money, I doubt being smart has much to do with it. There may even be a negative correlation.

 

No, I wouldn't. My kids are going to have to work very hard to earn their way in life, as I did, and will likely never be rich. Further education and training will practically guarantee that they will earn more money, as it would with most people. With luck and perseverance, they may eventually become successfully comfortable, but they'll always have to work for a living. Not like the 'genuinely wealthy', perhaps obtuse examples I was thinking of earlier. The kind of wealth that lets you send your kids to university in a foreign country, and buy them a car to drive and a house to live in while they're there.

 

If I'm not mistaken, Hyo sees a couple rich plumbers but he is actually seeing a plumber with a business that hires other plumbers. The other plumbers are blue collar, with blue collar wages. That kind of successful business is *far* from assured to the drop-out, and arguably is not more likely for the college grad either. For all the people who do not have the inate skills/opportunity/desire/luck to be the rich business owner, education is a smart idea.

I would no more suggest that plumbing is a sure road to riches than I would say it of professional athletics. The few who made it to the top tend to obscure the view of the many, many more who did not.

 

In any event, I think that all these so called aptitude tests have two main components -- a certain logic and a certain language -- that make them highly studiable. I analogize these tests to a person that you have grown to know really well -- so well, that when presented with any given situation or question, you know exactly what that person will say (the logic component) and how that person will say it (the language component).

So, if getting a high score on these tests is important to you, I strongly recommend taking a good test preparation course and taking as many practice exams as you can tolerate. But the test prep course and practice exams should be based upon or simulate the logic and language of the real exam as much as possible. In this regard, my family and I have liked and had the most success (scoring within the 99th percentile) with the Stanley Kaplan test prep courses and practice exams we've taken (PSAT, SAT, GRE, LSAT).

 

SAT 1490/1600 back in the go-go 80's. Good nuf for Caltech anyway.

PhD's in chemical engineering are in demand. We're hiring them like crazy. If you are one, PM me.

 

Yes. I did my BS in Physics and Astronomy (minor in math) and got a GPA of 3.89. I got senioritis in the last semester, and was already admitted to grad school, so I slacked off and got a B and a C. Before that I had 3.96 or something.

I got my Ph.D. in Biophysics (2009). A Ph.D. requires going through a LOT of crap and endurance. It's not about being smart like everyone else thinks. LOT of crap.

I get the feeling that mcmaster wants to do a Ph.D. All the best!

 

Woo hoo, Astronomy!

SAT: 1430/1600 (something like 740 math/690 verbal)
GRE: 800 Analytical, 780 Math, 620 Verbal
Physics GRE (the hardest test I ever took): ~500/800

Got a BA in Physics/Astronomy at a great Liberal Arts college, a PhD in Astronomy at an Ivy League University, and will be starting a faculty position at a small liberal arts college this winter.