Reply to Normal people?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Normal people? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]People always think their immediate circle = normal. If you have a kid who is in the top tier of their school, whether that's from their own desire or parental pushing, you think the top tier is normal. And, if you went to an Ivy league school (even if you couldn't get in today) you think that's normal and can't imagine that the vast majority of the population has a happy life without that.

There's also a segment on here that takes *everything* about college discussions as a competition. If someone says their kid is getting a great education at little-known school X, that kind of person has to jump in to say it's nowhere near as good as the education at T20 or whatever. Who the F cares?? They just can't be OK with someone who either wasn't competitive for a T20 or couldn't afford it actually being happy and doing well at a tier of school that would make them disown their own child. They assume any anecdotes about success from these schools MUST be a one-off, despite data that shows otherwise. These are miserable people and I really hope I don't know them IRL.

I'd call my kids average smart kids at an affluent public school. They are/were probably top 25% of their class. Mostly As and some Bs for final grades with the occasional C in a tough quarter. They take a "light" load, compared to friends who tend to be more in the top 10%, by taking only 3 APs in junior year but more in senior year, although some of those are the "easy" APs. The fact that this puts them in the top 25% means there are plenty of kids who aren't getting as good grades and/or taking as rigorous a schedule but to them they feel like "everyone" takes 4-5 APs junior year. Neither of them is on a sports team or doing a ton with school clubs or being a leader. Older DC had a community service activity he cared about and he spent a lot of HS hanging out with friends and playing video games but he's also a whiz at math. He's now happy at a big state school, doing a LOT of math. Being through the process once has made me more relaxed with #2 who also has one academic passion, a community service activity, loves her time playing in the band, and outside of that and homework seems to spend way too much time watching YouTube. She's not going to an T20 but we've ID'd a variety of LACs we can afford where she can do what she wants and they have excellent grad school and career placement outcomes. (and, yes, for the insecure T20-or-nothing segment, I know those "excellent" options may not be as good as an Ivy etc. but you can shut up about it. And she has zero interest in going into IB/Consulting thank goodness!).

I also had this skewed perspective of "normal" since most of the kids my kids spend time with were on that honors/AP track. Then I started doing some tutoring at their HS and met a much wider range of students. Who are also great kids who also get into colleges that will provide them plenty of opportunities. (yes, yes, I know it will be inferior to an T20 so you can keep patting yourself on the back  :roll: )[/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