<p>hey now, hey now. </p>
<p>Our school is like the big fat kid that gets picked on (3 times as big).</p>
<p>-LOL, it's true.</p>
<p>Wrong, it's 90% of everything.</p>
<p>-Whats the other 10?</p>
<p>work is 90% of everything; the other 10 percent is knowing that work is just about everything</p>
<p>just kidding, i don't really know</p>
<p>but i do know that hard work is key in life; no hard work = no real success</p>
<p>10% = ability? from what I heard. </p>
<p>and oh, don't think badly of Cornell guys! :)</p>
<p>Yeah, ivies are a gigantic reach. </p>
<p>According to Harvard, GPA's are the most important thing in their mind. </p>
<p>Based on the fact that you said that she thought that the work was too easy, the interviewer and the admissions board will probably dismiss her very quickly.</p>
<p>When I hear that a smart student didn't get good grades because the work was "too easy," what that says to me is that the student didn't do required homework because he or she decided it was unnecessary. You can get great grades on tests, but a lousy grade in the course if you don't do homework. This attitude is probably not very appealing to selective schools where students are expected to do a lot of work.</p>
<p>Note: it is possible that a student could overcome a low GPA if it is based on a couple of really low grades in early high school, especially if they were non-academic subjects. Each case has its own individual facts, and you can't make blanket statements. Still, it sounds like this particular student needs to have a range of schools.</p>
<p>"super smart" is so relative...
acing AP exams or getting a 2400 on the SAT only show you're a top student and nothing else. Harvard wants students beyond these "top stats", which, in my opinion, reflect from the obsessive student he/she is.</p>
<p>Damn, people place so much more value on work ethic than intelligence. Sometimes bored intelligent people don't develop their work ethic until they actually have something worth working for. This happens a lot to gifted kids. She'll be successful wherever she goes to college and probably go to a great grad school. I also find that the "lazy genius" stereotype is much more common among boys than in girls so it's interesting to hear about someone like her.</p>
<p>I agree with Hunt in that she probably thinks a lot of assignments are stupid or unnecessary (which they can be), so she has no motivation. I'd like to think she has this mentality rather than a "too easy" mentality, which brings in a sort of arrogant connotation. I would say that a Harvard curriculum with a concentration she's really interested in will fix the motivational problem. So, she would probably be successful at Harvard, if she's as intelligent as cc3c would have us believe. Having said that, in real life there are a lot of things we need to do even if we think they're stupid...</p>
<p>There are numerous people, who worked hard during their High school, got perfect scores in their tests and they have a very good personality. I don't see why this girl should take one of the places offered for these young men.</p>
<p>she might get in cuz colleges are unpredicatable. but, i agree with you guys- slim chances. but definately try others top schools.</p>
<p>I must speak from my own experience and say that good grades do not always equal real hard work, or can represent hard work for the wrong reasons. At my school, kids care more about getting As in AP classes in which they don't learn anything than actually learning the material for themselves to pass the exams. Sometimes, teaching oneself can meanlower grades because of a choice to sacrifice some of the grades from the ridiculous BS homework in exchange for actually learning. Work for work's sake, and for the grade's sake, in this case, is stupid. Actually, the real hard worker in this case, he who chooses to forgo a higher grade in exchange for actually learning and doing well on the AP exam, is spat upon. It is because of this that it is a mistake to assume that only great grades can equate with hard work-- because poor grades can equate with hard work, too; in some cases, the latter is more often true.</p>
<p>^ That is true, but this person evidently didn't do it just because it was easy, not because she was preoccupied with other things that she could learn that were more important than the school work.</p>
<p>But you do bring up a valid argument for those in the situation you described.</p>
<p>This girl has no chance at any decent school unless her school recommendations are phenomenal or she shows some output that is truly impressive. Being smart is not enough to be successful at anything. The competition is both smart and hard working.</p>
<p>I have the same SAT score as the OP's friend. Like her, I was lazy in freshman year and generally only did the homework I could squeeze in during class before the teacher collected it, with exception to a few subjects I found particularly engaging. I spent most of my time at home lifting weights and writing. After freshman year, though, I realized I should start to work.</p>
<p>So I do have sympathy for the OP's friend. Perhaps she has seriously impressive credentials in science research or some other kind of academic distinction other than GPA that will set her apart. For her own sake, I hope she does.</p>