Impostor syndrome is rampant, especially among freshmen. Valedictorians go from the best of the best to just another straight-A kid in a place stuffed full of them. Basically everyone feels the clawing insecurity I did. To get into Stanford is to be told you are extraordinary among the high achievers and the strivers, it is treated as a value judgment on your worth as a person. Do you “deserve” to get in? people ask.
Nobody deserves to get into Stanford. The wealth, the opportunity, the concentrated resources—it’s impossible to say anyone at seventeen or eighteen is worthy of that. Because people frame acceptance as something you “earn,” they tie up far too much of their self-worth in a deeply flawed admissions process. In reality, getting into Stanford isn’t a “reward for all your hard work.” It’s an opportunity, a bit of very good luck. No one is entitled to admission; it is a chance that must be seized, not the goal in and of itself.
Theo Baker, How to Rule the World, 41
tags: Gratitude Gratitude × Humility Humility × Stanford Stanford ×