Cons of being at the top of your class in college?

College Search & Selection
21

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He thinks differently from me because I got a 26?

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<p>Perhaps.</p>

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I think it's safe to say that a test score does not make you more intelligent.

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<p>No test score makes you more intelligent, I never said that. It's the reverse actually. Generally intelligent people score well on tests. </p>

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You are being ignorant if you think that someone with a 26 is not equally intelligent.

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<p>I'm ignorant for thinking that someone who scores a 26 on their ACT is probably not as smart as someone who scores a 36? Keep thinking that... a 36 and 26 are extremely far apart and only a very very very small amount of kids gets 36s on the ACT every year. While you may perform better than the kid with a perfect score in school, that really doesn't mean anything. I know plenty of kids with ridiculous SAT/ACT scores who are smart but aren't quite intellectual and don't really care about score, does that make them any less intelligent than grinds who plug and chug their way to "academic success"-obviously not.[coincedentally, most grinds who are finally faced with some standardized measure of their ability refuse to come to terms with the fact that they might not be as smart as they once thought they were]<br>
Grades are more of a product of motivation and some intelligence, whereas test scores have little to do with motivation. You're telling me to wake up and see the real world, but I think it is you who needs to realize that a person with a 36 ACT is almost always smarter than a person with a 26.</p>

22

<p>ok i definitely understand now that there will be plenty of smart kids anywhere, and i definitely understand the incentive to go to a larger school where i can find more options/higher end classes. unfortunately for some of the same reasons my gpa is really low, i also need a small school/high teacher-student ratio, etc. </p>

<p>BedHead, thanks for your list. I need to look at Sarah Lawrence and Rhodes, reed i cant get into, and the rest are too large/cant get into. </p>

<p>Im trying to find old threads or online articles that might have an even larger list of colleges where intellectualism is in abundance. I can add St. Johns college, deep springs, marlboro, and new college of florida to your list i think.</p>

<p>bennyblanco - you happen to be wrong in all your assumptions about me except maybe the first one, seeing as how subjective that is. just goes to show how detached we can be from our own cyber personalities. </p>

<p>thank you aaa12321 for putting to words some of my own thoughts. unfortunately because of my monetary situation, i doubt i will be able to attend my reach schools even if i were to be accepted to them. St. johns college is both a safety and quite intellectual, but since there are no merit scholarships, and my financial aid situation is complicated, i cant even be sure about it. im not in state for new college of florida, although it is still a bargain tuition.</p>

<p>"either my english skills suck or im a total *****. if its the ladder then i am sorry" </p>

<p>woops so it is latter, lol.</p>

<p>ive looked for honors colleges since they seem like a good solution, but either the college in whole needs to be small, or the honors college needs to be pretty independent, and i havent found many of those that i can think of right now?</p>

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<p>Awesome how everybody takes Mouse's posts as a personal insult.</p>

<p>What he's saying is completely reasonable and I can relate.</p>

<p>University of Chicago is all I have to say. Good luck.</p>

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<p>If you get the chance, I'd definitely visit Sarah Lawrence. I loved it on paper, but when I visited it I found it too small for me.</p>

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<p>Also, try applying to Amherst. I never really looked at it because I dislike small classes, so I don't know what the situation is with financial aid there, but it might work for you.</p>

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<p>here is an abridged list of "intellectual" colleges as collected from previous CC threads:</p>

<p>Highly Intellectual:
U Chicago
Swarthmore
Reed
St. John's
Bryn Mawr
Harvey Mudd
Columbia
Deep Springs
Cal Tech
MIT</p>

<p>Still pretty intellectual:
Amherst
Sarah Lawrence
Oberlin
Williams
Hampshire
Brown
Pomona
New College of Fl.</p>

<p>Probably just as intellectual:
Brandeis
Bard
Carleton
Macalester
Claremont M.
Wellesley
Smith
Barnard
Mount Holyoke
Rice
Bennington
College of the Atlantic
Kenyon
Marlboro
Antioch
Haverford
Grinnell
Wesleyan</p>

<p>Questionable?
Thomas More
Beloit
Bates
Yale
Harvard
Princeton
Middlebury
Evergreen State
Dartmouth
Carnegie Mellon
William & Mary
Alegheny
Colorado College
Earlham
Thomas Aquinas</p>

<p>My college list so far:
St. Johns - Safety
Deep Springs - lol
Sarah Lawrence - ?
Hampshire - match
New College of Fl. - match
Colorado College - Reach
Pitzer - match (the only one not on intellectual list :( )</p>

<p>my gpa is 3.2, I'm guessing colleges like amherst are just ridiculous reaches, regardless of my test scores.</p>

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<p>if you are lookin for intellectualism</p>

<p>DO NOT GOT TO PITZER - PERIOD. ive been there, and had a couple of overnights with a girl there, trust me. its all about alcohol and getting high there.</p>

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<p>I stand by what I said. Someone who scores a 33 thinks differently from someone with 26. It has nothing to do with who's the better student.</p>

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<p>Seiken,
I would hope you would recognize that your short stay at Pitzer isn't representative of the Pitzer experience- No short stay can really do that for any school.
Anyway, I'm a Pitzer student and I've found the atmosphere to be incredibly intellectual, with intense academics, and I was a National Merit Scholar.</p>

<p>Btw Seiken I agree with you throughout this thread.</p>