<p>“I like to be around ambitious people. It’s fun and it pushes me.”
-yes, there are plenty of these type absolutely everywhere. You may assume that every #1 ranked is applying to Harvard and such. Incorrrect assumption. Many of them smart enough and mature enough to stant their ground and instead to be part of Honors colleges or some privates on a full tuition Merit. I am talking about kids who would be accepted to Harvard, but instead choose not spend lots of money in UG while aiming at Grad. School. As I have mentioned, D’s Honors college required to be top 2% and ACT=31+, it claims 100% acceptance to the Med. School. Here you have your “intellectual” community, however, these kids did not need to be pushed by anybody, they pushed themselves plenty and were pushing everybody else. However, they also had opportunitiy to meet with people outside of these Honors/pre-med circle, kids with different interests, maybe not heavily into science, but excessling in other aspects of life. Social interrations with variety of people is great for personal growth.<br>
But at the end, I say, if one feels that he/she belongs in Harvard, go for it (hopefully somebody is funding you so that you are not going into debt, I mean funding in both UG and Grad. school). However, if person does not feel like going to Ivy / Elite, this self-drven student WILL FIND plenty of UGs where they excell, simply because they do not need any push from anybody (but talking about pre-med, you have to push yourself, there is not other way, you will not be accepted anywhere if you are not this type of person, having college GPA below 3.6 is not a good idea at all and one should aim ata 4.0 at any place, Harvard or un-known local college, and that is what Med. Schools are looking for, not the name of your UG). As I said before, we are paying for D’s Med. School for 2 reasons: because she worked so hard to earn her Merit award and because she choose her UG smartly, since only 2 have offerred her full tuition or close to it. Otherwise, she would have been in $300k debt after graduation from Med. School. Is it attractive prospect? I guess it is for some, but I do not see any positives here. D. is not inferior to anybody in her Med. School class with majority from Ivy’s / Elites. Not by the feedbacks that she has been receiving. So, why 75% of Med. School graduates CHOOSE to graduate with that much debt, while they ALL quilify for Merits somewhere being cream of the crop caliber students. This is a very confusing to me. </p>