<p>I just wanted to let the parents of the other average kids out there (2 of my 3 fall into this category) know what their future can hold…</p>
<p>I put my 21 yo daughter on a plane on Thursday, and as of yesterday, she is on a research ship somewhere in the middle of the Pacific, doing something that relates to seismology and volcanoes. (Hey, I’m an accountant, I don’t need to understand geology, lol). It is weird to think that I can’t communicate with her in any way for the next three weeks, but it is so exciting for her. It was really strange buying her an orange rain coat so that she could be seen in the water in case she fell overboard. (Highly unlikely, but as a mom I felt compelled to worry about something!)</p>
<p>Her HS stats? 3.4 GPA, 1200 old SAT (trust me, the gods were smiling that day), some EC’s, nothing major. She attends San Diego State. I didn’t really think that she would go this far, but I always told her that every day, someone wakes up and goes to <em>your</em> dream job. They got that job by deciding that it was what they wanted to do, and then doing whatever it took to make it happen. And she believed me. Her passion for her field of study has more than compensated for her lack of passion for test taking. She gets tripped up by dumb details, (has anyone else’s kid filled in the entire scantron, only to get to the end and realize that they are one line off?) but can hold her own in discussions with the faculty. Her prior internship was also in her field, but in a lab in DC. I’ll never forget her comment about the group photo in which they were wearing their university sweatshirts - “It was like Sesame Street - One of these things is not like the other”, because the Ivies were well represented and she was wearing an SDSU sweatshirt, but again, her passion leveled the playing field. </p>
<p>Just wanted to let you know that everything will turn out just fine. Even if they wind up attending their local state university. :)</p>
<p>Truer words were never spoken. If only more kids would focus on that advice. They can make their “dream” happen at almost any college. But they have to want it, and the ones with a passion really are the lucky ones.</p>
<p>It is so refreshing to hear this from parents. All parents want the best for their kids, but unfortunately some assume that the only way to success is an Ivy League School and a degree in “something useful.” Thanks for that! Good luck to your daughter, too. Passion is something missing in testing-machine kids.</p>
<p>I love it. Rush Limbaugh tells a similar story, and came to the same conclusion: Passion about what you want to do is 99% of what it takes to get you there. If you don’t like Rush, there’s Bill Gates…if you don’t like Bill there’s the guy down the street running a successful tractor sales business…or the other guy down the street who didn’t go to college but turned out to be a great landscaper with a nose for real estate investment…only in America.</p>
I hope so, otherwise I’ll have to worry a bit about kid#2.</p>
<p>The thing is, those “bright” kids, such as my #2 receive a lot of attention and extra perks because they stand out in a crowd. They get in to the “name brand” universities (rightfully so) with their stats. I’m just saying that if an “average” kid pursues their interest with passion, they can achieve their dreams as well. Thank goodness.</p>
<p>Btw, in the fourth grade, at our parent-teacher conference, the teacher sighed at me in exasperation and told me that my daughter was a “square peg”. Thank goodness in her senior year of high school, her oceanography teacher recognized her enthusiasm, told her that he believed in her ability, and encouraged her to pursue the sciences even though her grades didn’t indicate that as the obvious path of study.</p>
<p>how nice to hear about some “regular” kids, given my S exceptional board scores one would think he should have had straight As. He might have IF he always remembered to turn homework assignments in the day they were due and IF he was always attentive and ready to tackle pre-calculus (hated it) or Algebra II with analysis (that’s what they call honors – hated that, too). IF he studied for every test – he didn’t because C-Span is WAAAY more interesting to him. We’re hoping that some adcom at one of the schools to which he applied will see that he is an award winning political cartoonist with straight As in the subjects he loved – English, History, Psychology – get the thread? he’s not into science or math – but social sciences, literature, art…I keep telling him someone will get it and he will end up where he is supposed to be. hope I’m right</p>
<p>Great to hear your story! Mine is VERY similar (including geology), 2.9 UW, 1120 SAT…ended up graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with my geology degree magna cum laude and am in my second year of my MS program in geology. If you D needs any advice on where to go next with geology, or just moral support, you can PM me and I can get you my contact info. Is your D on an ODP trip? or doing something with Scripps? Sounds exciting and interesting (I love how much travel I get to do in geology)!</p>