<p>My question is: Do you think setting a goal to be the best in everything is a good goal to have? some say, aim for the 100 and you'll get a 90+ but aim for a 90 and you'll get an ever lower grade. on the other hand, others say that aspiring to be the best in everything is unhealthy and can lead to mental health issues in the long run.</p>
<p>i for one set the goal to be number one in my class and was successful freshman year but something unexpected happened sophomore year which caused my ranking to go down by 60 places and which made me realize that being #1 is not everything. i have found it very difficult to simply bounce back and move on but i know that if i want to attend a topnotch college, that i would have to work on improving my gpa. i'm getting there (i have all As so far in the most demanding courseload, save AP CompSci for which i have no interest) and i'm proud of myself for staying optimistic for the most part but at the same time, it's also depressing to come into terms with reality. with a 1540 and only a top 20% ranking, which colleges would be willing to take me? it seems as though most kids coming from non-competitive public high schools need to be at least in the top 5% to be considered at the top 10 colleges. </p>
<p>at this point, my curiosity is the only thing that's driving me to learn more (humanities-oriented stuff in particular since i could care less about math), so even though i'm not the best in class gpa-wise, at least i have this inborn curiosity for which i am grateful. oftentimes, i get the impression (which were later confirmed) that many of the kids in the top 10 do not make a genuine effort to learn the material for the sake of learning since they even admitted to copying stuff (ie term identifications for APUSH) off of a website when they're supposed to be sifting through the reading and finding the facts on their own. granted, they usually do well on chapter-by-chapter memorization tests that ask for facts but not as well on comprehensive tests that require in-depth analyses and interpretation of the material.</p>