<p>Good luck getting an answer to that. I simply don’t know, which is why seeing those posts baffles me.</p>
<p>In this context… someone who is weak at academics. Which is different from intelligence of course.</p>
<p>Jwen… “Affirmative Action” doesn’t mean someone with poor scores can get into a good college just cause they’re black/latino. And affirmative action benefits white women more than anything.</p>
<p>Sorry to keep interjecting on the '14 thread, but assumptions like that are really irritating.</p>
<p>Sorry about the misunderstanding. I meant most kids who go there aren’t dumb, not most kids who don’t go to an at least fairly prestigious university are dumb.</p>
<p>So what is academically dumb in this scenario? Sub-3.0 gpa, sub-1500 SAT? There aren’t too many URMs or artists with those stats getting into CC-prestigious schools. For that matter, not too many URMs/artists with 3.5 GPA, 1900 SATs are getting into top schools, either.</p>
<p>EDIT: ninja’d by 2 posts :/</p>
<p>Stats don’t really give the whole picture. Dumb is subjective, and not something I would use to describe many people. Which is exactly why I say that it’s rare for a dumb student to make it into a prestigious university.</p>
<p>When I say dumb, I don’t usually mean people who do badly in school. I usually mean people who just don’t get it. Like they do their work and get straight As but they don’t actually learn</p>
<p>I find it sort of problematic that “not smart” (dumb, if you will) has a negative connotation. If you describe someone as “not smart,” that’s an insult, which means the word “smart” effectively loses its power as a compliment. Meanwhile, most people are okay with not being talented in other ways.</p>
<p>^That’s not necessarily true that smart loses its power if dumb is an insult. Mean/nice, ugly/attractive, boring/fun. All of those pairs are antonyms and each has a compliment and insult. </p>
<p>I agree with your larger point that dumb shouldn’t be so negative, but I actually don’t think it is seen as that bad of a thing. Tons of people readily admit they’re dumb, even if they aren’t. In fact, socially speaking, it’s usually better to be dumb and attractive or dumb and athletic than smart and unattractive. </p>
<p>It all boils down to the simple fact that everyone is better/worse at different things. I’m good at school-related stuff but I’m terrible at most sports. Someone else could be an amazing singer but has a tough time in school. Of course, some kids are good at pretty much everything.</p>
<p>I think being ‘average’ in society is considered a bad thing, but most of us are average after all. Thus, when you set up a standard of average being bad…well, to call someone less than average is quite demeaning, no?</p>
<p>When I wrote, I’m afraid of being dumb, it’s that I have no clue if I’m actually good at anything. I can adapt to challenges fairly well, I can do well on tests, I’ve been IQ tested and do well enough to get into gifted programs and stuff, but am I actually good enough to be the * best * at a field? If you watch the ‘Women in STEM’ thread, it seems like you can’t be X or Y, or Z unless you’re brilliant. </p>
<p>I think school has a role in that I’ve become largely conditioned to study for an ‘artificial barrier’ such as an exam. So I feel like anything I’ve done doesn’t really mean anything. I don’t know what I’m actually worth, per se.</p>
<p>I think no one is truly dumb in that they are horrible at everything, but a below 25 percentile on IQ or on other standardized measurements might be a way to indicate sub-par intellectual ability.</p>
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<p>Most of them don’t actually believe it’s true, though. Calling yourself dumb is a way of making excuses and/or fishing for compliments. If they really believed they were dumb they probably wouldn’t announce it so readily.</p>
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<p>Things only have meaning in the context of other things. I think that’s how the universe/existence works in general.</p>
<p>CC dumb is probably anything less than a 1700/3.2 or whatever.</p>
<p>“Things only have meaning in the context of other things. I think that’s how the universe/existence works in general.”</p>
<p>Deeeeep. And entirely correct. Sometimes if I’m nervous before a presentation or something I just remind myself that it really doesn’t matter what the other collections of atoms think of me (another insignificant collection of atoms). It’s comforting actually, although some might find it depressing.</p>
<p>Now…this may sound rude, but after having to suffer through a general, non-honors, biology class last year, I think I understand what “dumb” is.</p>
<p>I can’t tell if they were faking, but I have no idea why you would want to pretend to be dumb.
There was one girl in particular, but she may have something wrong with her learning, so I have no idea. She was in my dissection lab group though. Ugh.</p>
<p>Most of the others just didn’t care as much. They’re not dumb, just unmotivated. I’ve never seen people just not do their homework. Not forget to do it, not even try to do it in homeroom, just outright don’t do it. This sounds naive, but coming from someone who’s always been in advanced classes, this was a real eye-opener to how some students really are.</p>
<p>^I felt the same way when I took health and consumer ed.</p>
<p>One of my “friends” is really dumb. He doesn’t understand anything. You kinda need to know him, but he got straight C’s 9th + 10th grade and took full IB. He wants to be a filmmaker and will do it at all costs but he just isn’t good. If you want to see one of his “films” I’ll PM you the link. He can’t write at all like doesn’t use apostrophes. Doesn’t capitalize his “I’s.” And I mean in formal English papers too.</p>
<p>Yeah I was in regular level sciences for the most part and I have never seen so many idiotic kids. It’s sad and embarrasing</p>
<p>I’d tell you all to be less elitist, but it’s probably too late for this website. </p>
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<p>I’ve overcome some of my shyness by thinking this way. Maybe not in terms of atoms, but something similar. People are just people.</p>
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<ol>
<li>To fit in with the other underachievers because they’re your friends and all the smart kids think you’re too dumb to associate with. </li>
<li>Because it’s easier to blame your lack of accomplishment on “smart but lazy” than it is to risk really trying and potentially becoming “dumb but hardworking.”</li>
<li>So people won’t expect anything of you. This is good because you don’t have to work now and you can surprise everyone later.</li>
<li>People think you’re dumb. They think you’re so goddamn dumb that they write about you on Internet forums. When you’re not sure of your identity, it can be nice to have a label, even if it’s a bad one. (Once in seventh grade I was walking down the sidewalk and someone from school yelled out their car window, “Hey, there’s that weird girl!” In some strange way I was glad that they’d noticed me and were thinking about me, even though I was a joke to them.)</li>
</ol>
<p>Just visited Cornell and Rochester</p>
<p>Cornell’s campus is really nice but it’s not really my fit…Ithaca is really in the middle of nowhere and I didn’t feel it had the upbeat student life tht I’m looking for</p>
<p>Rochester on the other hand was amazing…they have all tht I’m looking for in a college…they have so many research and study abroad opportunities an I love their cluster type of academics …I’m trying to get into their REMS program but they said only 10 ppl get in so i highly doubt I will get in but I would still love to go for undergrad</p>
<p>“Dumb” is of course a broad term that cannot really be specifically defined. However, for practicality’s sake, one could define “dumb” relatively by assigning a person with SAT scores or GPA greater than two standard deviations below the mean (of a particular school) as dumb. Hence, if the average SAT/GPA at Harvard is 2200/3.9 with std. deviations of 100/.1, then a person with a 2000/3.7 or lower would be considered dumb at Harvard.</p>
<p>This is a largely silly exercise, however, because there are smart people with low academic statistics and dumb with high (as someone mentioned, a high GPA/SAT can be attained with copious studying in lieu of intelligence).</p>
<p>I prefer defining a dumb person as someone who is apathetic about matters of intellectual merit and/or unable to carry an intelligent conversation. In this sense, someone with an IQ of 150 who raves about Ke$ha and glazes over when someone mentions Kant is considered dumb. I don’t care if a person has a certain intellectual capacity; I care if he/she is interesting.</p>