Smarty.
Some people are smarter than others. It is just the fact of the matter. Some folks are good at jumping jacks. Others might have some mad knitting skills. And then there are the smart ones. The gray matters. The big brains.
We measure intelligence in different ways. Most of the time, this is done individually. For you. For me.
But what about collectively? Recently, an evaluation was performed by Penn Stakes. They took a look at the 50 states here in the United States.
So, where do all the super-smart people in America actually live? Well, here’s a hint. New England had some serious shine.
The researchers looked at a few key factors to determine the overall smartest states. These things included “the number of academic degrees within the area’s population, as well as the average IQ, SAT, and ACT scores of residents.”
The big winner was Massachusetts. Of course, it helped that they are the home of Harvard University and a wealth of other prestigious colleges and schools. Overall, they scored a 93.9. They also had the highest percentage of bachelor’s degrees (44.98 percent) and advanced degrees (20.30 percent). Keep it going with more smartness. They scored the highest on their ACTs (27.6). And in the IQ department, they came in second with an average of 103.1. New Hampshire had the highest IQ, by the way, with a 103.2.
Oh, I could have put money that Ohio would not be in the top 20. But here are the top finishes in all their glory.
Massachusetts // 93.9
Connecticut // 73.8
Maryland // 72.8
Virginia // 72.5
Vermont // 72.2
New Hampshire // 70.5
New Jersey // 69.5
Colorado // 69.4
Minnesota // 67.0
Washington // 60.3
New York // 57.8
Maine // 55.8
Utah // 55.5
Kansas // 55.5
Nebraska // 57.8
Pennsylvania // 52.4
Oregon // 52.0
Montana // 51.9
Illinois // 51.4
Rhode Island // 50.5
The winners don’t surprise me for the most part.
Ohio ranked 35th for those who care.
And in last place was West Virginia. Mississippi barely edged them out of 49th.
So there we go. And there we are.
But we are not defined by the state in which we live. As in the United States state.
Yet. We truly are defined by the state in which we live.
( Full list: https://www.pennstakes.com/news/revealed-america-s-smartest-states )
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“You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace.”
― Frank McCourt
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“It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
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“I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.”
— Socrates
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Hey Smarty. Where do you live?
