“I hate this place,” decorated with some “colorful metaphors” in the words of Spock, seems to be a common-enough statement at MIT, so that would be consistent with the post by 1NJParent. On the other hand, I have not heard this at other universities.
The possibility of burnout due to attending a college that one could barely get into does not apply to students like Cheng, though.
I think it is more a case of figuring out where his real interests lie.
I am not sure what else he is doing besides PrepScholar.