With the goal of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in mind, Evan Stice felt he could score even higher than a 34 he scored on an ACT in September.
“I want to go to MIT and the thing is, they are a very competitive college,” Evan said. “A 34, crazy as it is, is considered a lower score there.”
Two months later, Evan achieved perfection, scoring a 36.
“I felt pretty confident walking out of the testing room,” he said, asked about his reaction to the high score. “I was thinking more of a 35.”
Evan is 16 and a junior at Little Rock’s eStem High School, although he shares time between the Capitol City and Pine Bluff. His father, Lelan Stice, owns the Doctor’s Orders pharmacies in the area as well as Town & Country Hardware in Pine Bluff.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“His mom is really intelligent. She made straight As and has a degree in psychology from Texas A&M,” Lelan said. “Me, I did just enough to finish high school.”
Lelan also earned a pharmacy degree after serving in the Army.
Evan’s score is a composite (or average) of the four section test scores — English, math, reading and science, each scored on a scale from 1-36. The composite score does not include the ACT’s optional writing test.
According to ACT, about 0.25% of students who take the ACT will earn a top score. Last year 3,041 of 1.37 million ACT takers, or 0.22%, reached perfection.
“When a student earns a top score of 36 on the ACT test, it opens doors to a promising future, demonstrating for colleges and universities that they are ready for the challenges ahead,” said ACT CEO Janet Godwin in a news release. “This remarkable achievement is something we celebrate along with the student and their family.”
Evan’s choices for college — MIT, Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and Stanford University — offer challenging rigor. Wherever he attends, he plans to major in computer science or software development.
“Not just because of the rigor, but going to those schools will get you in connection with like-minded people in their careers,” he said.
His dream after college is to work at a company like Google or Facebook, but his purpose for getting into computer science is to make programs that can help people live better lives.
“It’s really been something I’ve been interested in ever since a kid,” Evan said. “I would read books on it. It’s something that interests me.”
Evan says he stays on top of his homework, yet he doesn’t usually spend what he calls a crazy amount of time studying, as he is involved in a number of extracurricular activities. He prepped for the November ACT by going off of information from September’s test, for which he said he studied heavily.
The future for Evan, his father says, is unlimited.
“He wants to do something in computer science. I’ve encouraged him to get his master’s in business while he’s in school,” Lelan said. “Then he can come out and be an entrepreneur and start his own business writing code … or come make my business better.”