Who Scores a Perfect 2,400 on the SAT?

Who scores a perfect 2,400 on the SAT?

This kid.

Like most bright high school seniors, Chaska’s Sam Peterson is thinking hard about the future. But then this Peterson kid thinks hard about a lot of things, which helps explain why he, among a minuscule number of high schoolers nationwide, earlier this year tallied a perfect 2,400 on the SAT and a near perfect 35 (out of 36) on the ACT. Stellar scores on the daunting college entrance exams help explain, in turn, why the prospective schools Sam is inspecting this month include Harvard and Yale and why he can realistically consider Stanford, Princeton, and the University of Chicago as backups.

“I like the idea of going to law school, but I’m not sure I want to be a lawyer,” Sam says. “I think my true calling lies more in traditional academia, and I can see myself pursuing postgraduate studies and eventually becoming a professor of history. My interests are broad, though, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I studied economics and mathematics and found careers practicing or teaching in these fields. I’ll probably end up being one of those triple-major kids with minors in at least two other fields.”

Oh, one of those.

But Sam’s interests spill out of the classroom. He captains Chaska’s varsity cross-country and track-and-field teams, reads Dumas, Wilde, and Salinger for fun, chills out with Tarantino and Scorsese, and on weekends bags groceries at Byerly’s. The son of a Lutheran minister and a former phys ed instructor now seeking certification to teach English as a second language, he has a younger sister (“a social genius”) at Chaska and a wide range of friends. Did we mention he anchors Chaska’s superlative Quizbowl team and personally hopes to break into the ranks of the top ten players in the national competition?

And not only smart, Sam strikes us as wise beyond his years. “I’m enjoying the diversity of life,” he says. “Intellectual pursuits aren’t the most important thing in my life—they’re among many important things.” —William Swanson