It's been 10 years since our oldest graduated from high school. The most successful are

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most successful young adults who are now 27 or 28 years old were the top students in their high school class, no matter where they went to undergrad. From Ivies to tiny liberal arts college to fairly regional public universities, they all zoomed through undergrad, sometimes in three years, many went to grad or professional school, and they all have great careers. It seems all of them are married.

The handful of middle of the pack students and student-athletes who surprised everyone when they got into elite T20s regressed to their mean and have totally normal careers, at best.

It seems smart ambitious highly-motivated teens become smart ambitious highly-motivated adults. And if your teen is not those things, Tiger Mom'ing them into an elite college probably isn't going to change anything about their life and professional trajectory.

Haven’t you ever heard the saying “As work for Bs and Cs?”

The most successful adults from my high school were B/C students. Turns out being a straight A student often translates to being risk averse in the work force. I’m not saying straight A students don’t end up in comfortable careers, I’m just saying B and C students who are more hands-on, enterprising, and hard working often land in successful roles too. So maybe they’re not lawyers or doctors, but they’re running very promising and successful businesses.

In other words, it’s not the grades or the school work as much as the personality that determines outcomes.

This is definitely true for my high school. Our valedictorian, who went to Princeton, is a teacher in elementary school. One of my most successful HS friend graduated in the bottom quarter of our private school class, went to a mediocre college, an above average but not top law school and is now a partner in a top law firm making seven figures. There are several of us who graduated in the third quarter who are doing quite well, and better than the all A group.

I find it hard to use this adage in a private school context. I assume everyone came from wealthy or wealthiesh families?

I don’t think it matters where most Andover grads finish in the class vs how they end up in life.

Also, I can’t believe the person who finished tops and went to Princeton became a teacher for any reason other than that is what they wanted to do…not that they were fired by GS and ended up as a teacher (male or female BTW?).

There are two english teachers at my kid's private school. Both were valedictorians in different years at same private, went to Princeton and Stanford and came back to teach at the school.

I see this at almost all the top private schools and they are frequently independently wealthy. They don't need to work but they want to do something respectable and teaching at these schools is respectable.