<p>Most of us on cc work really hard to get good grades in school so we can get into a good college. Twenty years from now will we look back on high school and be glad we worked as hard as we did or wish we hadn't put as much pressure on ourselves and taken the classes we were really interested-the ones that aren't offered at the H or AP level. Is the stress worth it? Is the prestigious school worth it?</p>
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I’d go with this. You only go around once, why waste life being stressed and doing things you don’t like? Go for what you love to do, or you’ll soon find that time has slipped through your fingers and you’ve left your life unlived.</p>
<p>Why not do both?</p>
<p>I take a full IB diploma courseload, but I have always left one class period open to take a theatre class. “Working hard” and “following your interests” should not be mutually exclusive - in fact, colleges want them to go hand in hand.</p>
<p>If you’re doing something you’re passionate about, the stress is worth it.</p>
<p>But many times passion and success are mutually exclusive; especially in high school. I know students who do well in school (perfect GPA’s with a full IB Diploma courseload) who don’t enjoy many of their classes. I like all my classes to some degree, even though its a full IB courseload, but I don’t get perfect grades because I’m unwilling to push that hard (so I’m not really stressed out). Those who do get the best grades in every class are very stressed. They stay up late to finish work, do their varsity sports, do their EC’s,…
I say this to call attention to the fact that while passion is important so is the ability to grit one’s teeth and push for those A’s in classes you don’t like.</p>
<p>What if I’m genuinely interested in all the classes I’m taking?</p>
<p>Anyway, my aim in being successful in high school was not to get in to a prestigious college, but rather to get in to a college whose students are predominantly very smart. I It just so happens that the schools that have the greatest proportion of really smart kids also tend to be fairly prestigious.</p>
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<p>but then you don’t get all the special attention for being smart, because everyone around you is. And then also you lose the benefit of being smarter than those around you - being able to see the things they don’t, offer the insightful advice, teach them, and so on. For me, my early friendships were defined a lot by my intellectual dominance. Hopefully you have a more varied experience. </p>
<p>For a lot of people this matter of intelligence is irrelevant to them (they don’t think about it) so it doesn’t directly affect them. However, for you, as one who thinks about such things, I would think it might matter.</p>
<p>Is it the smartness of the smart people you like (like there ability to think complexly) or the traits associated with being smart that don’t involve complex thinking.</p>