<p>Or as the great Fran Lebowitz said: “I never met anyone who didn’t have a very smart child. What happens to these children, you wonder, when they reach adulthood?”</p>
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<p>So true I had to repeat it. This sums up my thoughts on it at least. </p>
<p>Despite what this frenzied college admissions thing pushes many to believe, there are many many many many paths to a successful, happy life (however defined). It is so so rare that it’s the case that if you don’t do X in school (or get a certain GPA or win something you dreamed of), you can’t get into Y, so you can’t possibly live the dream of Z. This very very simplistic model of the life makes parents and kids feel more secure-- as if they can predict the future- and makes things seem so doable and safe. But most of us end up taking very very different paths, in very unpredictable ways. Most are not what they thought they would be in highschool. Most people end up doing things unrelated to their major. Many go to a variety of different schools for their total education. Most hold multiple careers in their lives. And heck, we can’t even imagine what our career possibilities will be in 20 years! </p>
<p>There are extremely happy, wealthy, super-achievers (pick your dream) in all walks of life that a) were not outstanding in HS b) didn’t go to the Ivy League and c) were not prodigies, and so on. I don’t know if anyone has the data, but I wouldn’t be surprised if highschool GPA isn’t particularly correlated with much in adult life; nor does it matter if you went to #3, #13, or #30 for undergrad.</p>
<p>I know valedictorians who have lived quiet lives with careers that did not require a degree, and just as many average HS students who became professors at an Ivy (like moi!). Come to think of it, most of my colleagues teaching at Ivy now note they could not have gotten in as students. </p>
<p>I would venture to guess that many or most amazing adults who have had amazing lives were not predicted to be ‘amazing’ in their youth. As a wise person once told me: your teen years are NOT the ones you want to be your peak!</p>
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<p>and let me guess…you will want need based aid to support your studies at these schools too. What happened to Yale…wasn’t that on “your” original list…whomever you are?</p>
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<p>Back at cha…this is a great statement.</p>
<p>funny story, we were looking at our high school year books with the kids a month or so ago. They “like” to see their dad with long hair…I guess it amuses them since he has “no hair” these days. Anyway, they have often heard me whine about how much I disliked high school. I don’t have particularly fond memories. It was OK and I graduated third, yada yada yada…anyway they were flipping through going “oh there you are, and there you are and there you are…” I had totally and completely forgotten all the things I was involved in. Totally fogotten. So OP not only does high school have minimal bearing on the future, you can hardly remember high school once you hit your 50s…</p>
<p>Moderator Note: Closing thread started by banned user.</p>