<p>I find some it to be related to legit hard work (and sometimes luck in curved classes), but a lot of it being related to pure obedience to the point where original thought or ideas are nearly stifled. I’m biased because I was a science major, however. A lot of classes were not very friendly to people that didn’t want to simply memorize. Needless to say, I had to really cherry pick profs. that had a course structure that appreciated or even demanded a deeper, student-derived interpretation of material. I tended to do well in humanities and social sciences courses because I actually did have my own ideas about material. I tended to choose profs. that were more into how well and clearly you present those ideas and also care about how well you back them up, than merely writing about a concept in a class in a particular way. Needless to say, I needed minimal obedience in these profs. courses, and these were actually good professors. You can learn from these people without finding an amazing way to merely rehash their ideas. Many good profs. in those areas don’t neccessarily care to have discussions where no students challenge the prof. or another students interpretation of a phenomenon. They feel as if they accomplished a lot when a student is able to challenge an idea using viable evidence. This is a liberal arts institution, a good prof. will teach you “how” to think and not what to think. If the best way to get an A or to prove you “learned” is to rehash their interpretations elegantly, then they are not that great in my opinion. It should mainly be about how well whatever ideas you choose to present (whether you are rehashing or deriving your own idea), are expressed. Having ones own ideas isn’t an issue of humility if it is backed by a reasonable body of evidence. However, I admittedly do find that many students overestimate their writing skills. This is an area where students can indeed use humility, regardless of if they want a better grade or simply want to actually achieve excellent writing (as opposed to what all their HS profs. called “excellent writing”).</p>