Palo Verde student who scored perfect ACT will attend UNLV

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.

Recent Palo Verde High School graduate Thomas Kaiser doesn't need to brag.

His test scores do it for him.

The 18-year-old achieved a perfect score on the ACT assessment and a nearly perfect score on the SAT, the two leading college-entrance exams.

Kaiser's scores place him in the top 1 percent of all college-bound students in the nation, according to officials with both ACT and SAT. He was one of only 41 high school graduates in the country to score a perfect 36 on the ACT out of 425,000 test takers, and the only student to accomplish the feat in Nevada this year.

He got a 1550 out of a possible 1600 on the SAT.

A high score on the PSAT, the SAT practice test, and a solid B-plus grade point average also earned Kaiser a spot as a National Merit Scholar.

"You are in the one-hundredth of 1 percent that achieved a 36, so you are rare," Ernest Valdez, assistant vice president and western regional manager for ACT, said.

Valdez was one of many educational officials to honor Kaiser in a special ceremony with Gov. Kenny Guinn Tuesday at the Sawyer State Office Building.

The test scores would allow Kaiser to essentially "control his own ship," Valdez said. "Basically he would have the choice of any college or university in the country."

Kaiser's choice, at least for the first two years, is the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he plans to attend the Honors College while he figures out his major.

Kaiser's mother and father, Kathy and James Kaiser, said their son got scholarship offers from universities in Oklahoma, Texas and Arizona.

Guinn said he was proud of Kaiser and glad the Millennium Scholarship enticed the teen to stay in Nevada.

"He's bright and he's humble," Guinn said. "We thank you for staying with us because you could have gone wherever you wanted to go."

In addition to the Millennium Scholarship, Kaizer also received a provost's scholarship and a Honors College scholarship to attend UNLV.

"He may have to pay for a sandwich occassionally, but his education will be paid for," Stephen Rosenbaum, dean of the Honors College, said.

Kaiser could have received similar scholarships at any of the nation's Ivy League schools, but he said the thought of going somewhere like Harvard or Stanford University didn't appeal to him.

"It didn't seem like a big deal to me to go to a school like that when I'm not sure what I want to do," said the quiet teen, who is leaning toward majoring in a math or science field.

Kaiser also didn't see his test scores as a big deal because he took them without studying just to see what he would get on his own.

"If I didn't like it (the final score), I figured I would study and try again," Kaiser said. "But then I didn't need to with either one."

Kaiser said he was most proud of the perfect 5 he got on the Advanced Placement U.S. history test he took last year, which he said he worked for.

It is reputed to be the hardest test offered in advanced placement, with a 50 percent pass-fail rate, Kaiser's history teacher Linda Mercier said.

"He's probably the best history student I've ever had," Mercier said.

Administrators at Palo Verde said they were amazed at the score.

"We've called him in a number of times and simply bowed down to him," Assistant Principal Glenda Goetting said.

His father, James, a foreman at the Las Vegas Hilton, and mother, Kathy, who works for the Clark County School District, said they weren't sure where their son got his intellect. James said his teenage son tutors other family members, including his older brother.

"He's very self-motivated," Kathy Kaiser said. "We never had to push him to do anything."

Guinn said the Kaisers had earned "bragging rights" for their son.

"But I wouldn't say it's bragging," Guinn said. "It's telling the facts as they are."