Why? I really like mathematics and music, but what’s wrong with wanting money and power? That’s isn’t a bad thing. It just means that I may (notice how I say may, nothing is for sure) go for a business major and get into business ownership for my job. But I may not. You never know. In fact, business owners with money and power attract women too. But then again, so may playing the violin well. Just because I want money and power doesn’t mean I can’t like to do other things. I can still play the violin and own a business. But I may not want to. It’s too early to know what I will do. But my point is, that there’s nothing wrong with that either.
It is considered bad form to view power and money as the primary goal rather than the love of the pursuit itself even if it is true. That applies to business, government, and even technical specialties. You wouldn’t want your child’s brain surgeon to tell you he worked really hard to be a neurosurgeon because chicks dig it and it pays a whole lot for example. The same is true for people in business. It is great to want to run the best business you can and reap the rewards from that but bad things happen when people focus on the money and power rather than the more direct responsibilities.
People that focus on money and power as the true goal often have another name later in life - ‘inmate’.
No, I mean violin could be (don’t misunderstand be, I said “could be”) my fun thing that I do. I could still play in orchestras and practice, while owning a business. Business could be my career, and violin for fun.
The reason I also may want to go into business is because of a fortune teller. A fortune teller from Feng Shui said I will grow up to be a very successful big business owner with a lot of money and power.
But then again, I might not do it. But I don’t see the problem with it.
Ah, Feng Shui - beautiful country there. I visited once - even the trash heaps were arranged just right.
Do you prefer math or power? You’re probably not going to do both. I took some management classes from Harvard Business school profs and the math was trivial. And while I know you would like to be a rich business owner, would you prefer to work on math you love or be a non-rich business owner, one who works so hard and long there is not time for the hot babes?
Riches and power should be a result, not a goal. People who sell books and teach courses on how any schmuck can get rich are basically scam artists.
Then what’s the point of wondering what magic formula will get you into MIT? What if you decide in the next couple of years that your real passion is music and you want to go to Julliard? What if you decide you want to go into finance and decide Notre Dame or Cornell is a better business school?
Here’s another question you might want to think about. MIT is ranked #1 in math. Boston University is ranked #46. What if MIT accepted you but didn’t offer any financial aid and BU offered you a full scholarship? Would you rather mortgage your future to get an undergraduate degree from MIT, or get one from BU and graduate free of debt.
Right, at best they’ll have a reasonable benchmark like “at least a B average” or something, but it gets far too subjective. They understand that sometimes people have a shit teacher (or a teacher whose teaching style doesn’t mesh with your learning style), or their Grandma died before the big test, and that that can bring scores down a little. I’ve heard of people with GPAs as low as 3.2 and SATs under 1200 (when it was still on a 1600 scale) getting accepted to MIT because they really liked their essay or extra-curriculars.
There’s no single metric, sometimes MIT might just give you an interview because they’ve never had anybody from your area as qualified, even if compared to the rest of the nation you’re underqualified. Sure, good grades, excellent extra-curriculars etc are an indicator of potential success, but there are too many variables involved that may cause you to get accepted or denied seemingly arbitrarily. Hell, maybe you would have been a shoe-in any other year, but the SPECIFIC year you applied there just happened to be 1k applicants better than you, which doesn’t normally happen.
Or you fall in love with a girl who wants to go to Timbuktu and the two of you follow a different life than anything in your wildest dreams?
Or you get hit by a bus…
Jesus kid, chill out.
First you get the money…then you get the power…THEN you get the weemin!
That’s from Scarface by the way. You saw how that turned out for Tony Montana.
The best advice I could give the OP is that it’s good to have a direction you’re planning on. But stay flexible. Don’t commit yourself fully to this direction because you might end up finding an opportunity to head somewhere else that’s a better direction. Don’t feel that you only have one possibility in your life and that you have to achieve it or fail.
I am also fourteen and I am in a similar situation, except I hope to study architecture at either Cambridge or Cornell. I have found reading this thread very informative as, like the OP, I had thought that top grades and commitment to several different clubs would probably be enough to be accepted at at least one of my preferred universities.
To the OP: I will PM you.
“SuperSmartAlex?” Is this going to be your vanity license plate?
Architecture’s brutal. 
Good luck! Though quite rewarding if you love it. I do remember some of my dorm-mates in architecture at Cornell. I remember finding one of them sprawled on the floor of his room at 6AM because he didn’t make it to the bed before falling asleep. Hehe. Plus, you get to make a dragon.
Certainly by the time you get to college, you’re going to realize that as smart as you think you are, there are many other people just as smart or smarter than you. And there are many, many people who aren’t so smart but are successful, happy people along with many smart, even brilliant people who aren’t successful or don’t amount to much or are just unhappy. Brains alone aren’t enough.
And BTW, Cambridge or Cornell for architecture? I wasn’t familiar with how well-regarded Cornell’s program is, but from a Google search, the undergraduate program is one of the best. But Cambridge? Do you mean the UK university? I didn’t know that it was known for architecture.
Thanks, Jman. I really love architecture, and although I am aware it can be quite brutal, I think it will be worth it for me.
I know that there are many people as smart or smarter than me, and I accept that. I realise that being smart alone is not enough, which is why I am starting to prepare for university now, and I am working on other things as well as trying to ensure that my exam scores are good, to try to make my chances of getting into an ivy league university as high as possible.
BTW, Cambridge has one of the best architecture programs in England, and Cambridge seems like a good place for me.
Who you will learn to hate and brood about incessantly and wonder and curse what kind of fate or Supreme Being would allow them to flourish.
Nm
This made me think of this, very apt, SMBC.
You’ve got your whole life ahead of you and plenty of time to find what makes you happy. And what makes you happy is allowed to change. College is a great time to develop yourself socially and intellectually, but so is highschool. Go learn, go have fun. Worry about the rest in a couple of years. Godspeed.
Yeah, because success is ultimately about other people. No matter how smart you are, if you cant work with and for other people or inspire and influence people to work with and for you, you won’t be successful.
Yeah, Indian counts as Asian.
Top 10-15 for math is a FAR cry from “I must get into MIT”
People will be impressed by the college you went to right up until the first round of exams when you go to graduate school.
They care about where you went to graduate school right up until you get your first job.
The only thing that I have found impressed people over time is the ability to drink a shitload without turning into an idiot.
Are you under the impression that the average MIT grad is wealthier than the average Harvard or Stanford grad?
Talk to someone who knows wtf, talk to a college counselor.
There’s not much good that worrying will do.
Just realize that guys like you are a dime a dozen.
Maybe not in your school but in the applicant pool at highly competitive colleges, you are a dime a dozen.
My high school puts weighted gpa’s out of a 100 scales (boosting 2 for each honors class and 5 for each AP class; so if you get a 95 in an honors class, that goes in as a 97) on the TRANSCRIPT. I asked them about it as I hear many saying that it’s an unweighted one that counts, and I asked my counselor about it. She said, "Don’t worry about that. It’s all set. Colleges love us.) The reason I’m stressing this is because it really matters to me which one is actually getting sent in. Unweighted is going to decrease my gpa by 1.25. Also, do you know on a 4.0 scale what numerical average would be a 4.0. Assume that 97+ is A+, 93-96 is A, and 90-92 is A-. So what would you need to have a 4.0? Just asking even though it probably doesn’t matter to me as my school doesn’t do that kind of thing.