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Among people who knew Ballmer in the past math geek (or similar) comes up a fair bit. Here's a PSA he did about learning math: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4

Among people who knew Ballmer in the past math geek (or similar) comes up a fair bit. Here's a PSA he did about learning math: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4219nb0dpeU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4219nb0dpeU. Here's an article that talks about his life which refers to him as a math whiz: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/102009-ballmer-bio.html http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/102009-ballmer-bio.htm... Magna cum laude typically represents about the top 20% of a class, with summa cum laude often around the top 5%. Although I'm unclear why the distinction mtters in this discussion.

6ren 15y ago
Those people who knew him seems a good guide. In that video, he's talking about accounting math. Actually, I assumed "math whiz" meant proficiency in proving theorems, but the ordinary meaning of being good at arithmetic is reasonable, and probably what's meant here. Although he's a maths geek in that sense, and he also went to Harvard, I think combing those two as "math geek from Harvard" suggests the theorem proving meaning. To clarify: that wikipedia article says he graduated magna cum laude. I think to be a maths whiz, you need to be really good at it.