<p>I've been wondering this for awhile, and asking myself the same question.</p>
<p>Why do we (as in those of us on CC) work so hard? Why do we care about college enough to post on a forum dedicated to college preparation? </p>
<p>For me, most likely, it's watching so many people in my family never go to college. I'm reminded of the life I live coming from a family of a blue-collar lower-class worker and I work harder. </p>
<p>How about you?</p>
<p>Yeah, I just don't want to be a loser like everybody else I know.</p>
<p>I just really want to go to one school. I've been smitten for as long as I've thought about college (my parents work in a field - the field that I also plan to go into - where the college's GRAD school is extremely prestigious and top-notch in research, but when I was five I didn't even know what a grad school was, so my love stems partially from a grave childhood misconception as well as from the utter wonderfulness of the school), so for me, it's all a question of "How Deep Is Your Love". Deep enough to pour myself into the is-2300-on-the-SAT-too-low, 4.0, glutton-for-extracurricular-punishment CC mold, apparently. My parents wouldn't have cared if I'd turned out a solid B-student - the love/butalsoalittlebitobsession is all my own.</p>
<p>^ LolololololOLOLlolol heaven</p>
<p>I wish to live well in the future, and it all depends on where you go to college. Although people who are farther down on the spectrum will be told otherwise( as a way to make them feel better about themselves, idk), and that which college you associate yourself with has no bearing on your future affairs. </p>
<p>We all know that that is ********..and basically attending a good college (which I would consider top 50) is the first real step to truly succeeding in the professional world.</p>
<p>Because I see myself as a very imaginative and creative person, and have many aspirations, of which due to my age and the fact that I live way out in the suburbs, I haven't had many opportunities to explore those aspirations. Thus, I've been living most of my life just itching to get my chance to be independent :).</p>
<p>Plus, my family has had a really....false history, to say the least. It's hard to know what's the truth when you're caught in between two very different lies. So once I'm in college, I'd like to escape all this. You know, be far far from home, meet loads of new people, hell, might even change my name and move to Holland :).</p>
<p>I don't. Count me as one of those "exceptional weirdo" on here. I honestly don't care what college I go to, whether it's a state or a community college, didn't think I'd go to one before I came here. So naturally grades/academics are at the very bottom of my list of priorities. I have other things that I consider more important to myself.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I wish to live well in the future, and it all depends on where you go to college. Although people who are farther down on the spectrum will be told otherwise( as a way to make them feel better about themselves, idk), and that which college you associate yourself with has no bearing on your future affairs.</p>
<p>We all know that that is ********..and basically attending a good college (which I would consider top 50) is the first real step to truly succeeding in the professional world.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Wow you've so lost touch with the real world. You could add up the GPA of my two step brothers and it would be roughly mine, yet both of them are making six figure salaries in their early 30s (one is planning on retiring in his mid-40s). I went to a top-tier undergrad school and am pursuing a PhD at Caltech, and I have no doubts they're making more than I ever will.</p>
<p>I think it's because our very nature would prevent us from not excelling. </p>
<p>I don't think anyone here can do less than their best, receive some lackluster results, and not care.</p>
<p>It deals very much with stability -- just because Bill Gates dropped out and made billions doesn't mean that a similar pattern will work for everyone. </p>
<p>Those wielding degrees will be far more likely to earn comfortable livings than those who don't -- everyone can't be a lottery winner.</p>
<p>Because society makes us believe that HYPSM offer such a better, more prestigious education than lower tier schools. We thus work harder to better our chances of getting into supposedly "better" schools.</p>
<p>The fact is that US News report college #1 will offer an education comparable to an education of US News report college #20.</p>
<p>Because many of us have a competitive nature in which we will utilize anything and everything to get ahead.
Our morals and ideas tell us that this important, and that a good first step in life will help with future ones.
But mostly we're competitive.</p>
<p>hey i've been thinking of the same question. i have no answer, which is why i don't work as hard anymore. ironically, my grades are better. not sure how but they are... i</p>
<p>Maybe we wrok that ahrd, because we are afraid of what might become of us, what might happen in the future. But for me is frustrating to hthink in my future, maybe im giong to be successful or maybe not. Anyway im not sure what im going to do later on, but i work hard because im afraid.</p>
<p>personally, I really do like to learn...as to why I care about that? I want to be wise and knowledgeable-I don't want to be that person in the group who doesn't that X happened.</p>
<p>If I were interested in living a comfortable, self-centered life, I'd start slacking and go to my state school and be an accountant or physician (no offense to either, it's just my personal view/situation; like, some physicians do research, too, and make awesome medicines, but I'm not interested in that, so I would just be a clinic physician).</p>
<p>But I'm not. I want to make a difference in the world, no matter how hackneyed that sounds. Good connections can be made at prestigious schools, and good connections are a good springboard for pretty much everything, especially anything I might want to do in the future (politics, business, etc.).</p>
<p>I don't really see it as anything that will be particularly helpful to my future... I'm just kind of in love with the whole idea of going to a classic school with great academics, a gorgeous campus, friendly and brilliant classmates. The only thing that sucks is that all of the schools that fit into that mold are extremely difficult to get into. I know I can get a great education anywhere, really. For me, it's about a potential experience. I want that gothic architecture, those celebrated professors, that ivy. Is that such a bad thing?</p>
<p>I'm a nerd. I want to be surrounded by other nerds and get away from the jock-celebration that is high school. The easiest way to surround myself with nerds? Get into a school that attracts them, which is guaranteed to be a good school.
Also, I've convinced myself that getting a good education will set me up for the rest of my life?
And before college came to mind (middle school, etc) it was all about perfectionism. =)</p>