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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DD is pretty neurotic and a high scorer on exams but simply lacks extracurriculars. She aspires to be a physicist and in her free time, she’s president of the Quantum physics and robotics team. I’m concerned that without going to a top 20 university, she won’t be able to ever achieve her dream. Looking through the assistant professor page at Princeton, every one of them has a degree from MIT, Stanford, Tsinghua, and IIT, so what chance does she have getting into the professsion?[/quote] If physics is her strength, she should be doing things like USAPhO, and programs like SPINWIP. Has she? If not, why not? Does she study university level physics in her spare time, and if so, which textbooks has she completed? Are you in VA? Which year of school is she in?[/quote]

To this point, the better metric would be seeing where kids who do well in the USA Physics Olympiad (and some go onto the international one) go. These are the top ones.

That being said, I still find it very hard to believe that a kid who sounds like a current junior in HS has been exposed to enough physics to be obsessed with it. This screams of a snowflake tiger mom who thinks their child is the greatest thing since sliced bread humble bragging in a public forum.[/quote]

I promise you as the mother of a physics undergraduate who wants to go to grad school and who has loved physics since hs that these types of kids exist.  It is really not a parental flex.  Nobody is jealous at a cocktail party when I share my kid is becoming a physicist.  Most common response is the socially appropriate “how nice”.  Most heartfelt response is “why”. [/quote]

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