The Top 1% : St. Mary’s Seniors Alexander and Dante Cattaneo Score High on SATs

1600.  That is the ultimate number seniors hope to reach on their SAT’s.  It isn’t easy with the average score being 1060.  According to the College Board, “2.1 million students took the 2018 test and 7 percent of the students (145, 023) scored between 1400-1600.  Less than 1 percent (21,000 students) scored between 1500-1600.”  Considering those odds, it’s amazing that not one, but two St. Mary’s seniors scored in that 1 percent.  Twins Alexander and Dante Cattaneo, who live in Winthrop, scored 1550 and 1580, respectively.  When they received their scores, Alexander was “both very surprised and very excited” while Dante “was kind of disappointed to get so close to a perfect score and not actually get it.”   They have taken numerous AP-and Honors-level classes both together and apart.  When asked what it was like to have your twin in class, and did they compete against each other, Alexander said, “I like having my twin in class.  It makes it easy to find someone to work on group projects or classwork with.  There is a certain amount of competition, but also a lot of cooperation.  We never directly compete against each other, but neither of us wants to fall very far behind the other.  It almost feels more weird to be apart in class than together, but we are both successful in classes when alone.”  Dante agrees that there “wasn’t much of competition.  I was always better!  It is good to have someone to work with on projects.”

The boys are also very active in the school.  They play soccer and tennis, are members of the College Bowl team and Spanish Club, and participate in Campus Ministry and Rachel’s Challenge.  In addition, they are both members of the National Honor Society.  They both hope to participate in some “equivalent programs” in college.  They look back at their St. Mary’s days as happy and enjoyable.   They look forward to an exciting future as they attend Notre Dame together.