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I guess it's just too bad if the hard working, genius nerd who was going to cure cancer has to go to community college because she was too focused to do enough community service in high school.
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I think this is misguided. A hard-working, genius nerd would find some way outside of the classroom to show this. This kind of kid isn't going to be satisfied with just getting good grades in HS and acing the SAT. The kids I know who've ended up at Harvard, Dartmouth, MIT, Columbia, Cornell and Brown etc all excelled inside the classroom. But that world wasn't big enough for them. My older son did very well on all objective measurements of academic ability. But he also did research at a local university, as did many other high achieving kids I know.</p>