[UMTerp]

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I also grew up in Montgomery County (and still live there), and went to the somewhat well-known math/science magnet program.

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Blair?

I grew up in Southern Maryland (Calvert County for those in the area), which is extremely rural compared to the suburbia that is Montgomery County. My parents were/are both teachers, and stressed the importance of education to me growing up, so I did enough to get A's and make them happy. I graduated top of my HS class, had great SAT's, got in everywhere I applied, and ended up at Maryland on a full ride. When I got there, I was stunned at how much smarter some of the top Montgomery County kids were than me. And not in an aptitude sense; I could still pick new concepts up more quickly than just about any of them, but it was so obvious that the Montgomery County kids were like 100x better prepared for college than me. And through no fault of my own - I learned what I was taught. These kids knew 2 years of physics before they got to college, they all came in with 20-30 AP credits, etc. I was actually a bit jealous of the opportunities they had that I didn't. Why did I deserve to be so far behind the curve? That's probably a result of all the competition they had among each other in high school.

I could only imagine how far behind I'd have been if I wasn't near the top of my high school class, or if I grew up in an area with really inferior high schools.

Of course when I got to college, I liked my new-found freedom too much and drank every night and rarely went to class. Made it through OK though.

And I live in Montgomery County now too.