<p>This is something I've been wondering about in regards to college applications. There is a student in my grade who is obviously brilliant and easily makes A's in school. He had stellar SATs/PSATs. But he prides himself on how little he works in school and refuses to do the extra work to gain honors credit in any optional honors courses. </p>
<p>There is another student in our class who does not have the genetic genius. But she works very hard, maybe even obsesses a little too much. Her test scores were good but not great, but her GPA is excellent because she takes every optional honors and maintains perfect grades. </p>
<p>I was wondering which kind of person a college prefers. Smart but lazy or average but obsessive?</p>
<p>Average but obsessive. I mean, obviously smart-but-obsessive is better still, but of the two…</p>
<p>You don’t have to be a mental giant to graduate from college. (Think about it. Don’t you know some college graduates who aren’t too swift? Maybe over the years you’ve been saddled with a teacher or two who was dumb as a box of rocks? Those folks made it through college.) But you do have to be persistent. You have to complete all the tasks–even the ones that are tedious, labor-intensive, or both.</p>
<p>“Where there is will, there is a way”
heh.</p>
<p>Teacher and counselor recommendations are very imortant to most colleges. If someone just does the minimum and coasts, the letters will reflect it. A very selective school has a choice of applicants who have done more and can be predicted to continue to do more.</p>
<p>The answer just really depends on how the whole application comes across. I’d say the hard worker has a better shot if the recommendations and essays can convey her determination. Course load is very important these days so if I understood you correctly, the hard workers takes a difficult load while the lazy person takes average classes, which means the hard worker looks much more appealing on paper. The one thing that we need to know though is the test scores for this case. Because if the hard worker has an 1800 and the lazy kid has a 2300 then that could change everything. But in general I’d say the average but hard working is preferred to the smart but lazy.</p>
<p>Very interesting. But I’ve heard that colleges don’t like the student that looks like they are trying too hard (you know, the kids that have spent their entire childhood building up their application for the ivies) and would prefer a bright kid that does not obsess over grades…any truth to this?</p>
<p>I think that as long as the applicant shows that they still have a personality and life beyond grades, then they will be better off than a smart-but-lazy kid. I know a number of them lol. Colleges aren’t going to roll down the red carpet for someone just because they’re smart if they don’t apply themselves for anything but the bare minimum.</p>