Meet 'Mr. 36'; he got a perfect ACT score
Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published January 26, 2007
Catholic Schools Supplement
Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
Catholic Central High School senior Thomas Mathew should have no problem finding a good college to attend. He achieved a perfect score of 36 on his ACT assessment exam. | Thomas Mathew, a senior at Catholic Central High School in Novi and a member of Our Lady of Loretto Parish in Redford Township, scored a perfect 36 on his ACT exam. He was one of just three students in Michigan and 23 in the United States to ace the test, typically used by colleges to gauge admissions qualifications. Mathew, who graduated from St. Linus School in Dearborn Heights, took the test last February. He's a National Merit Scholar, a member of CC's Quiz Bowl team, and carries a 4.92 cumulative grade point average (Catholic Central gives students points higher than 4.0 for honors and Advance Placement classes).
After answering all the questions on the ACT perfectly, Mathew answered a few more questions posed by Michigan Catholic reporter Joe Kohn. Here's an edited portion of the conversation:
First of all, congratulations, Thomas. What kind of student do you consider yourself to be?
I think I'm hard-working. I definitely like learning a lot. I'm very curious, so it helps out with some of the more intense classes. I don't have a problem sitting down and reading a book or something like that. I think I generally respect knowledge, so that also helps.
What is your most difficult subject?
My most difficult subject is probably history. I very much like history, I'm just not exactly a memorizing person, so I'm not good at that kind of stuff. My best subjects, I think, are math and science. Those are definitely the most interesting for me.
You say you took the exam twice. You got a 35 the first time. Were you expecting to do better the second time?
Actually, the second time I was completely expecting a 36. It was a fairly straightforward test. There was nothing on it that was too difficult.
What did your parents think?
They're definitely thrilled, obviously. Maybe they're used to it. It was definitely a cool bragging thing for them, I'm sure.
Do you have a large family?
My immediate family is pretty small. I have two siblings, an older sister and an older brother. Beyond that it's quite large. I have 42 cousins and lots of aunts and uncles.
I was born in India and after three years I went to Kenya and lived in Kenya for seven years because my dad works with a bank and they just shift a lot around the country. I actually got a lot of cool experiences in Kenya and India, and a lot of cool memories and stuff like that.
Thomas Mathew says his natural curiosity means he never finds it hard to pick up a book — something that helps him out with academics. | How has that background contributed to your academic prowess?
Coming from India, where so many people are poor and they definitely have to work and school to have any kind of chance to feed their family later on, that kind of stuff. That definitely had an effect, me seeing people suffer through that. Hopefully if I can become a doctor, hopefully I can help out and do a lot of stuff like that. That actually inspired me a lot.
When did you come to the United States?
I was 10, so six years ago.
And so went to St. Linus School at that point?
Yeah.
What have your years in Catholic education meant to you?
I think the whole concept of me using my talents from God, to multiply what I've got and not try to compare myself with other people but take what I've got and try to do the best with it and hopefully help out society in some ways – that's there in Christianity, and that's helped me out.
You ever consider doing something within the Church? Have you considered the priesthood, for instance?
Actually, I've never thought of it seriously. I've had a lot of opportunities here, obviously. There have been a lot of vocations classes and stuff like that, so I've thought about it. I don't know if I'd be the right person. So, we'll see.
What is it about Catholic Central that's going to help you become the best man that you can be?
I think we have the right general outlook in life. We have education, and also being a good person, being the man you seek to become. We have a lot of emphasis on the right things and being a moral person and generally being happy in the right ways. That's definitely helped me out here, to have the right respect for that kind of stuff.
So where are you going to college?
I'm not sure yet. I got into the University of Michigan a few months ago and that's where I hope to go. I applied to a lot of places that I'm still waiting for. I applied to MIT, Stanford, Harvard, schools like that, too.
What do you want to do with your life?
Eventually I want to become a doctor but I have four years before going to med school to just expand, see what I can do and see if I like anything else. I'm planning on actually taking economics in undergrad. I've heard it's a strong base for anything you want to do later on in life.
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