Date: May 1st, 2007 12:25 PM Author: Demanding University
The media never asks the fucking obvious question:
"So...if you're such a genius, why are you headed for
Wayne StaTTTe U Law? Is it because you tanked on the LSATs?"
WHITFIELD: So what you didn't know we had a third co-anchor here today, Brooks Burns who happens to be the son of our executive producer, Eric Burns because it is bring your children to work today. He is a sheer genius and so is this lady, Nicole Matisse. She was once a challenging five-year-old who dumbfounded her skeptical teachers and now she's a 19 year old college grad looking for a challenge.
More from Paula Tutman at affiliate WDIV in Michigan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA TUTMAN, WDIV TV CORRESPONDENT: (inaudible) a brand-new crop of students will be walking the campus of Wayne State University. Among those students a 19-year-old from Bloomfield Hills. While that might not see out of the ordinary, get this, she will be entering the law school as one of the youngest students ever.
(voice-over): Her name is Nicole Matisse, she was reading at a fifth grade level at age five, finished under grad in a year and even with fake nails, can pretty much type as fast as she can think or as quickly as anybody can read.
(on camera): "A Time to Kill" by John Grisham. "Harry Rex Bonner was a huge slob of a lawyer."
NICOLE MATISSE, 19 YEAR OLD COLLEGE GRAD: "Reporters crammed into the room which trailed down the hall into the reception area."
TUTMAN: "Reporters crammed into the room which overflowed and trailed down the halls to the reception area." Good girl.
(voice-over): She graduates this year from University of Michigan at the tender age of 19 with a 4.0 average in sight having aced 87 credits in one year.
MATISSE: The easiest course I think I took in college was behavioral neuroscience.
TUTMAN: Behavioral neuroscience?
A product of public school, her biggest challenge is she has yet to really find a challenge.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just hearing teachers say she was plagiarizing her work when she was five. She was writing things that they thought she was copying from the "World Book."
TUTMAN: Next stop Wayne State University Law School where she will enter as the youngest student ever. How tough will it be, we asked some of the students.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just got out of the hardest final I have ever taken. There isa good chance I was in the entirely wrong classroom for that test.
TUTMAN: How will these 23 year olds regard a 19-year-old?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have people like full-grown adults that are like 50 and 60 and it doesn't matter to anybody. Age doesn't matter right now. The more important things are finals.
TUTMAN: And besides, she won't be 19 forever. Next February, she'll be 20.
i love nicole matisse. why? because she represents a big "fuck you" to every t14 arsehole on this board who's full of himself because of a high lsat score.
i dont recall reading anywhere that she claims herself to be a "genius". basically, this chick appears to have an insatiable appetite for reading and learning, combined with undeniable raw brain power she's gifted with. she burned through all of her high school credits in record time, with a 4.0 gpa plus several AP credits mind you, which is how she ended up in college early. an ug degree from michigan is pretty solid, and her transcript there is also straight A's across the board: 4.0. a lot better than most of the douchebags on this board (they know who they are).
yeah, the fact that she's going to wayne state is pretty odd. maybe she did get a shitty lsat score. are any of you smart enough to comprehend that the correlation between high intelligence and a high lsat score is less than 100 percent? she's an example of that. good for her. i'm sure she will make a very good, hard working and smart lawyer.
Date: May 1st, 2007 1:30 PM Author: Underhanded Water Buffalo
But she won't be able to land a good clerkship and will have a hard time getting a solid job when she graduates. She also won't be able to drink legally for her first few years of school. And she completely missed out on having any fun in college.
i doubt it. only insecure douchebags who are full of themselves work in biglaw for more than the first 3 years of their careers. since she's going to wayne state i doubt she'll ever work in biglaw. if she continues to be as industrious and hard working as she's been so far, she'll make a great lawyer wherever she ends working... in govt, midlaw, pi, whatever.
you just contradicted yourself and made my point for me.
all you know about her is that she's hard working and smart. and all i said is that if she continues to be a hard worker, she can make a great lawyer. the only reason anyone would have to disagree with that is jealousy and/or bitterness. certainly nothing to do with actual facts.
no, im a lawyer with a few years of experience but i have no idea how the legal profession works. why dont you or some other douchebag explain it to me so i will understand?
i dont claim to be in the know, but i also deny that im totally ignorant as the first post suggested. im sure theres a healthy balance somewhere in the middle of those extremes.
i dont know what "touchy about biglaw" means, unless you're referring to my very public distaste for billable hours, working long hours, working hard in general at the expense of enjoying life, etc. is that so weird?
the consensus reaction on xoxo to the nicole matisse story is: this girl is in the media because she's supposed to be smart, but *i'm* smart and dont get media attention, so fuck her! she's a fake!
Date: May 1st, 2007 12:33 PM Author: Titillating newt
i was stunned by the unidentified male's use of time theory at the end of this piece. if only CNN segments could be longer than 8 seconds I would have liked to have explored Matisse's age in 2-3 years.
I grew up in the same town as this girl and went to the same undergrad.
Public schools in Bloomfield Hills and the surrounding burbs are good, but among the AP/IB crowd they can be psycho-competitive. There is a crucible-like culture of skipping grades/classes to get done early. A lot of people would cram on math, foreign language, etc. during the summer, and then take a placement exam so they could be the "genius" sophomores in a French III class of smart juniors and average seniors. I know a LOT of people who graduated high school at 16 and could have easily done college in 3 years, graduating at 19. I graduated at 20 and was a bit of a slacker.
The people who do this usually killed themselves or fizzled out after they hit 20. They rarely have the stamina to go into top grad programs.
Date: May 1st, 2007 2:32 PM Author: electric international law enforcement agency gay wizard
Yes this is so incredibly bogus.
Anyone smart enough to get into T14 could graduate from a state school in the same time if they studied instead of drinking beer and took a full schedule of summer classes.
I guess the only thing remarkable is that CNN found a student who spent all her time in college studying.
1. she's 19. is that really so wrong? it wasnt too long ago (well, now it has been) that i wanted to be a major league baseball player. and didnt she say state supreme court, not scotus?
2. touche. but see above. given her brain power that no one can reasonably dispute, and industriousness, and crappiness of WSU, she will probably graduate near the top of her class.