the death of exceptionalism - by laura gao - being less
If some program has a 10% acceptance rate, it's not enough to just meet the requirements. 60% of applicants will meet requirements. You can't be normal, you can't just be passing, you can't just be good enough. You have to stand out, to be revolutionary, to be unique, to be different from the other applicants, to go above and beyond, to be exceptional. You've heard this story before. Since a young age, I wanted to be exceptional. I did not let myself be just good enough, in any area of my life. If I send a text message, I have to send a great message. If I wanted to be an uber successful top-100-in-the-world, I also had to be top 10% at interacting with people, and by definition, being in the top 10% requires you to be "different from other applicants." And god, this is crippling. I ghost all my closest friends. I would receive a message, read it, and thorougly enjoy it, but put my phone down because I'm too tired to craft a thoughtful response. I switched my blog to a different platfo
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