I don’t think it is every cool to be smart, except in some movies. I went to a high school in a college town. One-third the kids were professors’ kids, it seemed to me. But none of us were cool.
It wasn’t cool to be on the debate team, but at least people approved of your successes. Olivia got 1600s on her SATs and we all knew and were in awe. Her brother didn’t do quite as well and was a disappointment, but went to Harvard anyway and later became a doctor of some kind.
Awesome, yes. Not cool, though. The cool kids were the popular ones and the popular ones focused on relationships. To be a good student, you needed to study. You didn’t have time for relationships. Besides which, you probably weren’t good at them.
Smart kids work hard. If you work hard, you don’t have time to be cool. I’ll bet you anything that the answer to this question is entirely dependent on how we are defining cool and smart.