<p>One area where I agree with this author is that HYPS etc. are not a good choice for anyone with a fragile ego. They are humbling places. Virtually everyone there will face either a handful or a slew of significant disappointments in the academic and extracurricular spheres. As these things go, I was wildly successful – I was a 3.9 student in a highly desirable singing group, and I got to be a tour guide. But I still got shot down on many things I really wanted that I thought I was well qualified for (theater roles, summer teen mentoring job, Let’s Go editing position, etc.). Some of these were pretty painful rejections. If you can’t let those failures roll off your back, there’s no way to be happy there.</p>