ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 4, 1996 TAG: 9601040036
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: HALE SHEIKERZ STAFF WRITER
Scott Turner's first and only B was in history. And that was so long ago, it seems like history to him - he was in third grade. Since then he has earned all A's.
But this 18-year-old's academic accomplishment isn't limited to his report card.
Turner is one of about 1,200 high school seniors who earned a perfect 1600 on the Scholastic Assessment Test. Even though his score is perfect, the Radford High School senior said he missed a few questions on both the verbal and math portions of the exam. The year before the SATs were revised to allow for a few incorrect answers, only 26 students scored a perfect 1600.
Carolyn Canada, guidance counselor at the high school, said there have been students at Radford High in the past who scored a perfect 800 on either the math or verbal portions of the test, but never both.
Turner, who is a National Merit Semi-Finalist and whose grade-point average is above 4.0, is being recruited heavily by several colleges and universities across the country. But that doesn't faze him.
"A fair amount of mail from colleges have definitely hit me ... most of them I trash," Turner said. The school that is showing him the most interest is Florida State University, one of the few schools to which he plans to apply.
"I think it could be interesting," Turner said. Florida seems a bit out of place compared to some of the other colleges he is looking at: Roanoke College, Brigham Young University, James Madison University and Virginia Tech.
Turner's list doesn't include Ivy League schools. It doesn't even include the University of Virginia or the College of William and Mary.
"I don't want to go [there]. I wouldn't like it ... it's not me," Turner says of the big name schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford, which traditionally seek students with outstanding grades and scores.
"I don't want to go somewhere just because I can," Turner says. He recently visited Duke University and found it "too huge and I thought I was being lost."
Turner is the third of six kids. His two older brothers attend Brigham Young and Virginia Tech, so he will have company if he attends either of those. His brothers also did well on the SAT, scoring in the 1500s. Both also were National Merit Semi-finalists. His sister, Emily, is a junior at Radford High and his 13-year-old twin brother and sister are in middle school.
Turner thinks his parents' influence in the language arts is the reason he's looking toward a degree in the arts and languages, rather than math and science (he does well in those fields but doesn't enjoy them as much). His father is a reference librarian at Radford University and his mother is a homemaker who substitutes and teaches homebound children.
Turner describes himself as a laid back kind of guy.
He likes to read - scientific and fantasy are his favorite.
He likes to sleep - he takes a nap almost every day after school.
He likes to watch movies - he has seen the Star Wars trilogy, Indiana Jones and Princes Bride "at least 100 times."
He likes to listen to music - his collection, which really is the family collection, includes everything from "They Might Be Giants" and "Oingo Boingo" to "The Police," Louis Armstrong, movie sound tracks ("Star Wars," "American Graffiti") and classical music.
Turner is laid back when it comes to school and work, too.
"It's not my favorite thing but it's bearable," is how he describes school. "Some classes I had a tough time getting through because they were dull. They're interesting but not strenuous."
His course load includes advanced placement classes in English, calculus and government, along with honors physics and advanced programming. His one elective class is the school's newspaper.
SAT prep classes, late night studying, computer programs - none of these were part of Turner's strategy to prepare for the exam he took in June.
"I didn't do much of anything and I should have. I procrastinated until 11 o'clock the night before. I decided [then] I should go to bed, go to sleep," he said.
He didn't even have the chance to open the envelope with the magic scores. He was at Governor's School for Science and Technology when they arrived so his parents were the ones who found out first and called him.
"I didn't really care," he says. He doesn't tell people his scores unless they ask him.
Usually by then, he said, his parents have already told them.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff. Radford High School senior Scottby CNBTurner, whose combined verbal and math score on the Scholastic
Assessment Test is 1600 - which is as high as it gets - is being
recruited by several colleges and universities around the U.S.
color.