ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 30, 1996 TAG: 9612030019
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: HAL SHEIKERZ STAFF WRITER
Rachel Knapp has accomplished what very few students in the country do each year. The Blacksburg High School senior earned a perfect score of 1600 on the Scholastic Assessment Test exam.
The SAT I measures students' verbal and mathematical abilities and is the nation's main college entrance exam, used to gauge expected academic achievement.
When she opened the envelope containing her test scores, Knapp said, she was surprised. But she conceded that being one of only 521 students in the United States to score a perfect 1600 on the test during the 1995-96 school year was "pretty cool."
Cool, indeed: More than 1 million students across the country took the SAT last year; the average combined score was 1013.
Doing well in school is not new for Knapp. She maintains a 4.2-plus grade-point average. She also is ranked first in Blacksburg's 218-member senior class, which includes 13 other students with GPA's greater than 4.0.
"She's certainly a student that few people can compare with as far as talent," said Greg Harman, guidance counselor at Blacksburg.
He added that she also has received perfect 5's on all the advanced placement tests she's taken.
But the high scores have relieved some pressures for Knapp. She doesn't have to worry about taking the exams for a second time, like many seniors do. It also makes her an even better candidate when she applies to colleges. Her choices include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago and the California Institute of Technology. She also is considering Harvard University, where her father went, and Columbia University, which her mother attended.
In college she wants to pursue a degree in physics. This is something she's known since her freshman year. It all started because her teacher made everything in physics so interesting.
"It's so fundamental. You can deal with the tiniest things there are and also huge mass," she said.
Because of her interest in the sciences and math, Knapp has completed every math course offered at the high school level. She is taking freshman calculus at Virginia Tech this year. The five-credit-hour class meets daily from 8 to 9 a.m. at the university. She is one of five Blacksburg High School students taking classes at Virginia Tech or Radford University. So far she has found most of the class a review of last year's material.
By the time she graduates, Knapp, 17, will have taken every AP class offered in Montgomery County except for computer science, art and biology. Her class schedule this year also includes AP English, AP chemistry and Latin V, which she is taking as an independent study. She also is taking drafting as an elective. It was recommended to her by a physics teacher.
While she is interested in pursuing a degree in the sciences, Knapp also has a passion for writing. She enjoys reading philosophy and the classics, such as novels by Jane Austen. But her favorite author is 20th century social critic Ayn Rand.
In fact, for the past three years Knapp has entered the Ayn Rand National Essay Contest. She placed second as a freshman and third as a sophomore. She received honorable mention as a junior.
Knapp also is involved several organizations at school. She was a member of the Junior Engineering Technical Society JV team as a junior. This year she is captain of the Mountain Academic Competition Conference science team and practices with the all-around and math teams. She also has appeared twice on "Klassroom Kwiz." Her team won both times.
"She's an idea person, very thoughtful; and she also has very strong convictions," Harman said. "She's been most certainly successful in everything she's tried."
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Knapp. color. KEYWORDS: 2DAby CNB