Reply to Competitive academics - what to tell the smart, hard-working kid who isn't "the best"

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

Reply to "Competitive academics - what to tell the smart, hard-working kid who isn't "the best""

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Your daughter sounds just like our current babysitter, who is college-aged. Let me tell you about her in the hopes that it shows you another path.

We live on the west coast near a college campus, and she came to this school specifically for its environmental sciences program. She was not bound for an elite school and probably didn't have a 4.5 and a 1600. She is a laid-back, kind, energetic person. She is the opposite of competitive but she is crazy smart and went to a competitive HS on the east coast that people from NY/NJ/CT would recognize. I imagine her decision to go to school across the country was in part to get away from all of them.

She is having a brilliant college career. She works for multiple professors in their labs, does field study, and is taking an intense, exciting course load (or at least that's how it sounds to us). She will have so many options after graduation. More importantly, she is kind, generous and enthusiastic.

We are fortunate to have her as a role model for our smart elementary school kid who is surrounded by very competitive classmates and their families.[/quote]

Thank you! Yes, this sounds very similar to DD and this is pretty much what we hope for her -- she is not aiming for an Ivy or a top SLAC, we just want a school with a good rep and great teaching/opportunities in her major, and there are lots of options there, especially out West. Maybe I can find a way to relate this to her (without revealing I'm talking about her on the internet) to let her know that she can follow a path like this and that others have found success in it.[/quote]

Tell her you were talking to a friend of a friend or a colleague or something and they mentioned their babysitter. It's a small world and I'm sure we could find a friend in common to make it true![/quote]

+1, I will! She'll roll her eyes at me but maybe it will sink in eventually. I do think she needs some more concrete role models -- maybe we'll start thinking of ways to find some locally who might be able to reinforce this.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics