I’m African American, have never taken an IQ test but recently graduated pre-med with a 3.72 GPA am doing a two-year paid internship at the NIH and then am going to medical school for MD/PhD afterwards. I grew up in an upper middle class family teetering on the edge of outright upper class. Others in my family are smart but I attribute my success to my parents wealth. I’d say IQ has little to do with it. I’d probably still be on the path to success anyways even if I weren’t as smart as I am because of my parents wealth status affording me so many opportunities,(reply>), Out of curiosity, are there any specific aspects of your upper-middle-class upbringing that you'd credit for your success? <br><br>I ask because I grew up fairly poor (my whole family lived in a motor home for a few years), and I honestly can't say there were many factors that "got in my way". Going to a high school without extracurriculars or AP classes wasn't ideal, but I'd strongly prefer those hurdles to the challenges many of my classmates had with following a lecture, structuring an essay, or finishing a test on time.<br><br>My sense is that a lot of smart people take for granted the ability to "just get it." After studying math at a "top" university though, I found it pretty exhausting to need to spend hours each day to keep up with material that some of my much-smarter classmates seemed to understand almost instantly. No doubt there are ways class privilege can guarantee at least a minimum level of success, but my sense is that academic/career success is pretty heavily driven by this sort of "genetic/talent-based privilege.",(reply>), Your parents were wealthy because they were intelligent.,(reply>), @Stephen Light my dad’s IQ is 135, so I’m guessing mine may be up there too. I won’t deny some genetic inheritance factor. But IQ is also influenced by environmental factors as well,(reply>), You had a better chance to develop your innate abilities. However, that did not alter your ability. If you were not born with the raw mental horsepower necessary to by a MD/PhD, it would not matter how long you spent in an upper middle class family. Same thing for being a Center Fielder for the Yankees. If you never had a chance to play baseball, you are an unlikely candidate. However, unless you have the innate physical abilities in the upper 1% or so of human beings, it does not matter how many games you played in Little League.