<p>Hey, look, I understand why you feel like you may have an inferiority complex, and while this won’t make it go away, I just want to tell you that college is what you make out of it, so don’t make it miserable on yourself. Now there are a few geniuses at Cornell (they’re generally some of the most modest people I’ve met), but most students I know are pretty average. The truth is, coming in as a freshman, everyone has that same inferiority complex. </p>
<p>It’s not about academics. Hell, if I wanted to learn things, I would’ve just gotten a library card. Some of the higher level courses here are taught at the seventh grade level in central Africa (I’m looking at you modern algebra and failings of the US education system). The thing I’ve found about college is that, owing to the specialized nature of the material you are taught and learn for yourself, it’s generally much easier than the courseload in highschool. Sure, the material may be more difficult to understand, but they’re always presented in a way that if you just ponder it for a few moments, it’ll always click (after all, you’re not writing a PHD thesis here, the professors/book/google will give you all the hints you need). So rather than mechanically go through a hundred or so tiny word problems, you instead wait for it to click, and then do the one or two problems that hinges on a conceptual understanding of what you’re taught (I count the time it takes for a problem to click as part of my “work time”, which is why I tell my parents that I work very hard at school). I personally prefer this over regurgitating crap from a thousand-page long textbook. (Note: I’m CS in Engineering, your experiences may vary)</p>
<p>But academics really only makes up for a small part of your daily life at college. I usually go to my classes in the morning/sleep in when occasionally, do an hour’s worth of work, which usually finishes about 70% of my problem sets (as an engineer, I don’t have too much text to read), and spend the rest of the day hanging out and having fun until around 11 rolls around, at which point I try do a little more work while watching Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, and then go to bed. There’s no urgency in what I’m doing (unless it’s around exam time, but you’ll get used to the prelims and sacrificing the Daily Show every once in a while) and no incentive to actually compete with anyone else academically. You do the work for your own sake, and oftentimes you may even find the challenge kind of fun (from your post history, you seem like someone who likes puzzles but hates rote memorization so you may appreciate this point too). And without the need nor care to always compare yourself to other people, your insecurities will fade away in time. </p>
<p>So here’s my advice, it doesn’t matter why you think you’re not good enough for Cornell or any other school, that **** means nothing once you come here so just enjoy yourself. Time really does fly</p>