Education is a broad term that covers learning of many types. People have intelligence and they have wisdom, and they are not the same thing. Between the two, above average wisdom and average intelligence is more valuable than above average intelligence and average wisdom. Wisdom will keep you alive, keep you out of bad business deals and keep you away from bad relationships. Bundled up in wisdom is self awareness, the willingness to confront your own motives and weaknesses and the willpower to act on these things.

You two are in the best school in Atlanta and lord knows it’s not cheap. You are stressed about getting into a good college and how that translates into a successful career. All I can speak from is my experience and the mistakes that I made with little guidance from my parents.

I knew you generally needed good grades to get into a good college and going was always presumed. We didn’t have much money on a one  income government salary so paying tuition was always going to be an issue. I went to college at a time before student loans skewed the costs sky high. UVA was $6,000 a year in 1990.

First, let’s address the myth of good college. There are tons of smart people at what I consider schools outside of the Top 100. When I got to law school I was stunned by the number of people from Directional State schools who excelled and ended up on law review. There are often tons of reasons why smart people attend “weak” schools, scholarships, sick family members etc. You are a fool to judge the book that way. Now, it is also true that there are a lot of dipshits at these schools. Therefore, I would argue the truest way to make the statement is “the more competitive a school is academically, the less fools you will have.”  That said, even the competitive schools can be packed with book-smart, street stupid people. Be aware.

What does this mean for you? It means that while getting into a known good school, either nationally or regionally can be an accomplishment, in the long run it won’t matter that much unless you are in a business that has a strong networking component that circles around sports and that University, see UGA Bulldogs etc. You will take your undergraduate degree and frankly the GPA doesn’t matter unless you are applying to grad school.

College does not prepare you for a job. College is designed to give you a degree of control to experiment and try the things that interest you. By your Junior year, you should have a strong idea of what you like and don’t like and focus on that for a Major. Majors are not important outside of highly technical fields like engineering, medicine, pharmacy. Art majors can go to law school.

So, the bottom line is, do the very best you can in school as this may get you a scholarship and increase your options on where you can get in, but don’t stress out that your life will be ruined because you end up at big state U. You will find bright challenging professors at any large University and you will find a pocket of smart, engaging friends wherever you go. Take a deep breath, study hard and look for a place where you will stand out.

There are not a lot of Georgia applicants to New England and West Coast schools. Look for places where fish like you are not common.