Big fish, small pond --> Small fish, big pond

nontraditional
Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:38:05 +0000

You don’t sound conceited to me. You sound as if you have a pretty good idea of the role other people’s attention has played in your motivation to work.

The reality is that you can stand out even if you’re not the smartest person in the room: work hard and find niches.

You may do better in a major that doesn’t have a huge cohort progressing through pretty much all the same courses each semester (although maybe I’m just thinking that because I have no experience with those majors). If you’re in a liberal arts major, though, you can find something that particularly interests one or more (more is better, people with recent publications in the area are better, and I sort of lean toward younger faculty being better although I can see arguments against my position) professors at your school that you think you would like to learn from, and go ask for reading lists – then take the lists and start trying to figure out what it is about that subject that interests them. Attend any colloquia that deal with that subject; take any classes that deal with it; and stop by occasionally with specific questions that show you’re working (“I’m having a hard time with this paper; can you help me understand it?” “I’ve read X, Y, and Z and enjoyed them; can you suggest anything else for me to read?”). I would expect that approach to pay off eventually.

You may not be the smartest or hardest working person in the school or the smartest person in the major – though you should definitely be one of the hardest working – but you’re likely to be the smartest – and you can definitely be the hardest working – undergraduate interested in your specific area.