College Discussion - View Single Post

khaki · 04-10-2008, 09:49 PM

Honestly it seems to me like people here are just speaking in generalities about what the typical high school experience is "supposed to be." I obviously can't speak about your schools, so things could be totally different there, but a lot of what's being said here is just downright wrong.

First of all, nobody I know (and I am friends with people across the popularity spectrum) really cares what BRAND of clothes you wear. Now, I don't engage in conversations of this type as much as some of my females friend do, to be sure, but it seems to me like a much bigger issue is how good your clothes look on you. Again, perhaps public school is different, but "OMG ABERCROMIE YOU ARE COOL" does not exist in any way, shape, or form here.

I think there's actually a lot of evidence on this forum for nerds not necessarily being smarter than anyone else. Notice all those "downward trend" threads? I've read a bunch of them that essentially boiled down to people complaining about how they "got into a relationship" and they grades plummeted. What does this mean? One of the following:

These people have horrendous organization skills and can't balance more than one responsibility. In this case, their ECs are either fraudulent or do not exist, in which case most good colleges will be a stretch for them anyway.
These people are spending literally all of their time with their new boyfriend/girlfriend, and suddenly don't have enough time to do ANY work anymore.
Anybody with reasonable intelligence can get good grades in high school if they put in enough work. Most "nerds" put in more than enough work because they have no social alternatives, thus gaining them the "smart" moniker because of their grades. Seriously, with enough work you can even make standardized test scores better. People here constantly talk about studying for stuff like the AIME. Seriously, ***? That test is designed to test your problem-solving abilities, not your past-problem-memorizing abilities.

Anyway, the point I am getting at here is that the smart -> nerd stereotype is overplayed. I know plenty of popular people who are smart (I like to consider myself one, although there are certainly more popular people than me around, although that's partially my fault for alienating a bunch of people). My theory is that "nerds" typically lack social skills and then spend all of their resulting free time working on school, which makes them appear superficially intelligent. Of course, there are also genuinely brilliant introverts... I don't mean to overgeneralize here.

Finally, I think a little social savvy could solve a lot of people's problems. Buying clothes that fit rather than ones that are 2-3 sizes too big like most guys' buy makes someone look ten times better, and doesn't take "all of someone's time" like the article suggest. Having body language that doesn't project "people hate me and I'm a social reject" also helps, but that's less easy to control for most people.

In conclusion, while typical high school students definitely do suck, particularly for their treatment of the less-socially-apt, many "nerds" aren't actually as smart as people make them out to be.

EDIT: I like how "W-T-F," which is essentially self-censoring, is censored here.

04-10-2008, 09:49 PM	#38
khaki Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Threads: 14 Posts: 141	Honestly it seems to me like people here are just speaking in generalities about what the typical high school experience is "supposed to be." I obviously can't speak about your schools, so things could be totally different there, but a lot of what's being said here is just downright wrong. First of all, nobody I know (and I am friends with people across the popularity spectrum) really cares what BRAND of clothes you wear. Now, I don't engage in conversations of this type as much as some of my females friend do, to be sure, but it seems to me like a much bigger issue is how good your clothes look on you. Again, perhaps public school is different, but "OMG ABERCROMIE YOU ARE COOL" does not exist in any way, shape, or form here. I think there's actually a lot of evidence on this forum for nerds not necessarily being smarter than anyone else. Notice all those "downward trend" threads? I've read a bunch of them that essentially boiled down to people complaining about how they "got into a relationship" and they grades plummeted. What does this mean? One of the following: These people have horrendous organization skills and can't balance more than one responsibility. In this case, their ECs are either fraudulent or do not exist, in which case most good colleges will be a stretch for them anyway. These people are spending literally all of their time with their new boyfriend/girlfriend, and suddenly don't have enough time to do ANY work anymore. Anybody with reasonable intelligence can get good grades in high school if they put in enough work. Most "nerds" put in more than enough work because they have no social alternatives, thus gaining them the "smart" moniker because of their grades. Seriously, with enough work you can even make standardized test scores better. People here constantly talk about studying for stuff like the AIME. Seriously, ***? That test is designed to test your problem-solving abilities, not your past-problem-memorizing abilities. Anyway, the point I am getting at here is that the smart -> nerd stereotype is overplayed. I know plenty of popular people who are smart (I like to consider myself one, although there are certainly more popular people than me around, although that's partially my fault for alienating a bunch of people). My theory is that "nerds" typically lack social skills and then spend all of their resulting free time working on school, which makes them appear superficially intelligent. Of course, there are also genuinely brilliant introverts... I don't mean to overgeneralize here. Finally, I think a little social savvy could solve a lot of people's problems. Buying clothes that fit rather than ones that are 2-3 sizes too big like most guys' buy makes someone look ten times better, and doesn't take "all of someone's time" like the article suggest. Having body language that doesn't project "people hate me and I'm a social reject" also helps, but that's less easy to control for most people. In conclusion, while typical high school students definitely do suck, particularly for their treatment of the less-socially-apt, many "nerds" aren't actually as smart as people make them out to be. EDIT: I like how "W-T-F," which is essentially self-censoring, is censored here.