<p>I want to go to Harvard Princeton Stanford or MIT, and I'm reading about all these people that go there that have like gold medals from IMO, or USPhO, and all thse other godlike stats and I feel stupid. At my school, I'm one of hte smartest (not trying to be arrogant), but like compared to these other ppl, im like nothing. I feel like thers a hole in me, I want to be as good as these ppl, but I just cant. Is it because I don't have the potential, or is it because I waste a lot of time and dont work hard all the time?</p>
<p>I think a lot of those people have opportunities to enter these contests handed to them, and have mentors and advisors to help them with their projects. (I've heard of the mentoring practice, at least; I don't know exactly how common it is.) I'm sort of in the same boat as you: Stanford is my dream school, I suppose, but I go to a high school where most teachers (nearly all of the ones who don't have kids who are going through/have gone through the college admissions process) don't know what the SAT II is, and I don't think anybody (except... me, to a very small extent) is encouraged to enter competitions or academic contests or anything of that sort. All the "pushing" I've gotten has been from my parents and, mostly, from myself; many of the kids you're reading about, I believe, have been pushed to win all those awards and such by everyone connected to their education.</p>
<p>Oh, well. I'm often glad I'm not in those kids' shoes. :)</p>