Ask New Question
Sign In
Quora uses cookies to improve your experience. Read more
Answer Wiki
29 Answers
I was asked to answer, so I'll answer as best I can even though I have had no direct contact to judge Natalie Portman. I will say that I do know a reasonable number of people who have met her in one way or another (I was a senior for her first year, so there were overlapping people on campus) and I have yet to hear a single person fail to say that she was nice, grounded, and smart.
How impressive would her workload and academic achievements be compared to what?
Compared to the typical US Citizen: Very impressive.
Compared to the typical College student: Still very impressive.
Compared to the median Harvard student: Probably much closer to on par, but maybe still moderately impressive.
Some people want to knock Natalie Portman going to Harvard by thinking "She only got in because she is a famous actress" but that misses a few things:
So overall I'd say Natalie Portman is very intelligent. If I had to wager, I'd bet she is greatly underestimated in popular culture where I think people think of her as "She's very smart... for an actress" where there is (likely unfairly) an undertone of actresses as generally vapid and unintelligent. I think "She's very smart... for a smart person" is probably much closer to the truth.
How impressive would her workload and academic achievements be compared to what?
Compared to the typical US Citizen: Very impressive.
Compared to the typical College student: Still very impressive.
Compared to the median Harvard student: Probably much closer to on par, but maybe still moderately impressive.
Some people want to knock Natalie Portman going to Harvard by thinking "She only got in because she is a famous actress" but that misses a few things:
- She still had to be really smart and have impressive academic credentials to get in, even if it was easier because she was a world famous actress.
- Many students have an easier path to get in to Harvard because they excel at a national or international level at something. That is part of what gets "angular" students into Harvard. For some it is math, for others violin, for others debate, for some football, and for her it was acting. The only thing unusual about Natalie Portman here is that her exceptional talent was something the general public cares obsessively about. It is just expected that many students are among the best in their primary hobby, and that is taken into account for all students, not just Natalie Portman. If you take away her acting, you'd have to take away other admitted student's most impressive extracurricular activity to make a fair comparison. Would Yo-Yo Ma have gotten in without the cello? The Blake brothers without the tennis? Less famous people without their Math Olympiad recognition or Writing awards or national debate awards or whatever their primary hobby is?
- Just because it was undoubtedly easier for Natalie Portman to get in because of her acting talent and focus, that doesn't mean that she could not have been strong enough to be admitted without them. Athletes as a group had lower SAT scores and other objective measures than non-athletes (but it was close) at Harvard, but many athletes would certainly have been able to get in without their athletic credentials (and athletes as a group had better objective credentials than legacies as a group - at least at the time I was there). So it is unfair to discount someone's ability just because the bar might have been a little bit lower, since they may have cleared the bar by a lot.
So overall I'd say Natalie Portman is very intelligent. If I had to wager, I'd bet she is greatly underestimated in popular culture where I think people think of her as "She's very smart... for an actress" where there is (likely unfairly) an undertone of actresses as generally vapid and unintelligent. I think "She's very smart... for a smart person" is probably much closer to the truth.
Related QuestionsMore Answers Below
I met Natalie several years ago... but before I tell you about that, let's get something straight:
I think you're confusing intelligence with an academic record.
Natalie Portman and all other people can possess great intelligence and poor academic records (consider Einstein – or not: see erratum in comment below), or can have great academic records and be completely devoid of human intelligence (this is a much larger set of people than the former). There are also those people who demonstrate both great intelligence and high academic prowess (though such practical exhibitions often appear at odds with each other in many parts of academia and the entrepreneurial world).
As far as my judgement of human intelligence goes it has little to nothing to do with academics. Yes, they intersect in some Venn diagrams, but who really cares as most people are usually too busy demonstrating one or the other, or recruiting for one or the other – unless you're Elon Musk, in which case you've pretty much already hired the majority of folks possessing both today.
The best signature of intelligence in my experience is a person's sense of humor, their depth of contemplative insights and commentary on the human condition we all share. Add to that their ability to grasp such expressions in others and you have evidence of the greatest human intelligence around.
So I met Natalie several years ago, when she was traveling with Gael Garcia Bernal, in LAX airport. We spoke together for awhile, making wide-ranging articulate banter, but most importantly she laughed heartily with all my witticisms.
I vouch she's mad intelligent.
I have no idea about her academics.
I think you're confusing intelligence with an academic record.
Natalie Portman and all other people can possess great intelligence and poor academic records (consider Einstein – or not: see erratum in comment below), or can have great academic records and be completely devoid of human intelligence (this is a much larger set of people than the former). There are also those people who demonstrate both great intelligence and high academic prowess (though such practical exhibitions often appear at odds with each other in many parts of academia and the entrepreneurial world).
As far as my judgement of human intelligence goes it has little to nothing to do with academics. Yes, they intersect in some Venn diagrams, but who really cares as most people are usually too busy demonstrating one or the other, or recruiting for one or the other – unless you're Elon Musk, in which case you've pretty much already hired the majority of folks possessing both today.
The best signature of intelligence in my experience is a person's sense of humor, their depth of contemplative insights and commentary on the human condition we all share. Add to that their ability to grasp such expressions in others and you have evidence of the greatest human intelligence around.
So I met Natalie several years ago, when she was traveling with Gael Garcia Bernal, in LAX airport. We spoke together for awhile, making wide-ranging articulate banter, but most importantly she laughed heartily with all my witticisms.
I vouch she's mad intelligent.
I have no idea about her academics.
I think your premise is a little ridiculous. So she did well because she's a famous actress? Doubtful.
First of all, her degree is in psychology, not in acting. Her ability to act really wouldn't have helped. Not to mention, she supposedly kept a pretty low profile - and she went by her real name, which would have meant people didn't recognize who she was so easily (remember, she graduated in 2003 which was a time when we didn't all have instant access to IMDB and Google in our pocket).
Second of all, she's good at acting and she seems to also have kind of a knack for comedy. Both of these require more intelligence than people often realize.
First of all, her degree is in psychology, not in acting. Her ability to act really wouldn't have helped. Not to mention, she supposedly kept a pretty low profile - and she went by her real name, which would have meant people didn't recognize who she was so easily (remember, she graduated in 2003 which was a time when we didn't all have instant access to IMDB and Google in our pocket).
Second of all, she's good at acting and she seems to also have kind of a knack for comedy. Both of these require more intelligence than people often realize.
Proof she's smart: she co-authored two incredibly technical research papers in neuroscience, which were published in reputable journals. (http://mindhacks.com/2007/06/18/...)
Proof she's not: Jonathan Safran Foer's pitifully argued book convinced her to become a vegan. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/na...
Proof she's not: Jonathan Safran Foer's pitifully argued book convinced her to become a vegan. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/na...
According to the internet, from varied sources, her IQ is 140.
99 Views · 1 Upvote
In her high school days, she blended in with the other students in the school. If a person didn't know who she was, they would have walked by her without so much as a polite hello.
She was on the track team along with another notable, Sue Bird, who is one of the WNBA all-time greats. When the team handed out the awards at the end of the season, Natalie was recognized as having one the top grade point averages in her senior class.
Up close and personal she is reserved and focused on the task at hand. If intelligence is measured by problem-solving ability, then yes, Natalie ranks very high. But intelligence can be measured in many different ways: academically, emotionally, psychologically, artistically, etc.
Natalie Portman doesn't seek to impress people with her academic record or acting ability. Even if she wasn't in high-profile world of entertainment, she would simply give her best effort to the task at hand.
She was on the track team along with another notable, Sue Bird, who is one of the WNBA all-time greats. When the team handed out the awards at the end of the season, Natalie was recognized as having one the top grade point averages in her senior class.
Up close and personal she is reserved and focused on the task at hand. If intelligence is measured by problem-solving ability, then yes, Natalie ranks very high. But intelligence can be measured in many different ways: academically, emotionally, psychologically, artistically, etc.
Natalie Portman doesn't seek to impress people with her academic record or acting ability. Even if she wasn't in high-profile world of entertainment, she would simply give her best effort to the task at hand.
I personally believe that someone who collaborates with SNL / The Lonely Island to make something like "Natalie's rap"
and having the guts to potentially lose the bigot share of her audience can't be anything but intelligent.
and having the guts to potentially lose the bigot share of her audience can't be anything but intelligent.
I read in a New York Times article a few years back that Natalie Portman had made it to the semifinals of the Intel Science Talent Search, a prestigious high school research competition.
And here's what one of Portman's mentors at Harvard had to say about her: “I’ve taught at Harvard, Dartmouth and Vassar, and I’ve had the privilege of teaching a lot of very bright kids,” said Abigail A. Baird, who was one of Ms. Portman’s mentors at Harvard. “There are very few who are as inherently bright as Natalie is, who have as much intellectual horsepower, who work as hard as she did. She didn’t take a single thing for granted.”
And here's what one of Portman's mentors at Harvard had to say about her: “I’ve taught at Harvard, Dartmouth and Vassar, and I’ve had the privilege of teaching a lot of very bright kids,” said Abigail A. Baird, who was one of Ms. Portman’s mentors at Harvard. “There are very few who are as inherently bright as Natalie is, who have as much intellectual horsepower, who work as hard as she did. She didn’t take a single thing for granted.”
View More
Related Questions
Still have a question? Ask your own!