<p>I am really tempted to say that anyone who seriously believes, at 17, that he or she is so far behind in an academic discipline that it’s not worth pursuing, is categorically too stupid and/or intimidated to go to Harvard.</p>
<p>Ditto for anyone who believes it’s not worth studying a field in which he or she is not demonstrably a genius before starting the first college class.</p>
<p>It’s just a ridiculous attitude, a complete misunderstanding of what scholarship means and what scholars do. Both anti-intellectual and self-destructive.</p>