Backstory: High school dropout to Rhodes scholar - mission possible

Among this year's 32 winners of the famously prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, only one can honestly say that having biceps like baseballs played a critical role.

Meet Nicholas Schmitz, a high school dropout who enlisted in the Marines at 17 and found his way through community college night classes to the US Naval Academy, where he's No. 1 in his class.

For six years without so much as two weeks off, he's wowed superiors as a quick study with loads of technical aptitude and a relentless work ethic. But it was his performance on the chin-up bars during a physical exam in 2000 that helped convince recruiters to admit him without a diploma.

"They required four chin-ups," says his proud father, Joe Schmitz, in an interview at the family home here.A staff sergeant suggested the deal was all but done when Nick "cranked out 26 perfect chin-ups, looked down, and said, 'Is that enough?' "

"That," says Joe Schmitz, "was definitely a performance waiver."

Nick Schmitz's unorthodox journey from boot camp to Oxford University, where he'll spend the next two years studying political theory on a full ride from the Rhodes Trust, might suggest a rise from humble origins. But he came from privilege - following an adventurous streak off the beaten path, largely to show himself what he could do.

"He's Huck Finn," says Bill Mohan, father of Schmitz's close high school friend Will Mohan. "You can tell from his smile that he's up for anything.... He's a rare Rhodes scholar. I'd guarantee most of them have taken very predictable courses in life, but Nick's is about as unpredictable as it gets."

Even Schmitz seems a little surprised by how it all worked out: "I wouldn't recommend it to my little brothers to do it this way. But for me, it was the right thing."

Others weren't so sure it would be. Mr. Mohan recalls "a certain recklessness about it" when Nick suddenly bolted from high school without a plan. He feared Will might also conclude that "it's okay to fly by the seat of your pants."

Yet, from his early days, Schmitz liked to push the envelope further than his peers. When biking as a kid, he was constantly taking jumps, riding half-pipes, or doing tricks on his BMX, according to lifelong pal Michael Pomponi. Thrill-seeking served him well in pole vaulting, competitive diving, and on the Naval Academy's gymnastics team.

"He was always the smartest and always the strongest," Mr. Pomponi remembers. "He's been out-performing people his whole life.... It was kind of annoying."

At the Schmitz home, a columned brick Georgian, high achievement was always expected. Joe Schmitz, a successful Washington attorney, was a standout high school footballer and Navy captain who served as Department of Defense Inspector General from April 2002 until last September. He and his wife, Mollie, have sent all eight children to Roman Catholic schools with hopes they'd excel in academics and sports, and go on to the likes of Georgetown University and Boston College. The kids haven't disappointed.

For a time, Nick Schmitz traveled the predetermined track. He enrolled at Georgetown Preparatory School, a nearby Jesuit school for boys where his father, uncle, and two older brothers earned reputations as leaders.

The Rev. Aloysius Galvin, S.J., Schmitz's pre- calculus teacher there, remembers that "His questions were always pushing ahead. It was as if he had an instinct for where we were going to go with the topic."

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