Three’s the magic number for the Chow family.
Forest Hills triplets Dylan, Brandon and Kylie Chow ended their final year of high school as academic superstars, with each being honored as a valedictorian or salutatorian in the graduating classes of their schools.
Two of the trio, Dylan and Brandon, both graduated on June 6 from the all-boys Holy Cross High School in Flushing. They had grade point averages only one point from each other, with valedictorian Dylan earning a yearly average of 105, and Brandon graduating with 104.
Kylie, the third of the Chow triplets, graduated as the 2015 salutatorian from The Mary Louis Academy, an all-girls Catholic school in Jamaica Estates that had a 100 percent college acceptance rate last year for the 2014 graduating class.
According to Nina and Jeffrey Chow, the brainy teens’ parents, all three are self-motivated to attain academic achievement and did not need any outside discipline imposed on them to get good grades.
“Mostly, I think it comes from within,” Nina Chow said, “and I think those are the people the succeed and do well.”
Even in elementary school, Dylan, Brandon and Kylie breezed through at the top of their classes, and all won full scholarships to attend private high schools. They say that their greatest scholarly competition was each other, and this proved to be a strong incentive toward their continued success.
“You don’t want to be the dumbest out of the three,” said Brandon, who could compare many of his own grades with marks earned by his brother in the same classes. Both he and Kylie plan to begin classes this fall in the business school of Villanova University in Pennsylvania.
Although what they have accomplished is a dream for many, the teens manage to stay humble.
“It’s nice to know that your hard work paid off,” said Kylie, who said she was surprised to be named for the salutatorian position because her grades were very nearly beat by another girl with whom she competed academically.
“I didn’t really care about being the best, just in doing my best,” said Dylan, who is set to attend the Macaulay Honors College at Baruch College. “I didn’t put too much pressure on myself, I just took it easy.”
While they are bursting with as much pride as any parent would be in their position, Nina and Jeffery Chow admit that even they are amazed at having all three of their youngest children graduate high school with such distinction. Their eldest daughter, Kaitlin, currently resides in Philadelphia and will turn 25 this month.
“They are different in personality, but for them all to accomplish the same thing, to us it’s just amazing,” Nina Chow said.
“It’s pretty incredible what they did,” Jeffrey Chow said. “We had some idea that they were somewhere near the top, but not the top.”
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