how to get the highest value (not max value), in a dataset or database in vb

[exsavior10]

for example i entered the following in the database columns are (student_id,name,course):

student_id - 2011001, name - john, course - computer science

then

student_id - 2011002, name - jane, course - business management

how can i get jane's student_id without using the name and course columns?

and not using this method

sam = New SqlDataAdapter("Select student_id from studtable where student_id = " & 2011002 & "" con) of something like that...