The Brilliant will Fail

Changes to the academic culture and coursework have made college unpalatable for the most brilliant students.

Study? Why would I do that?

The most brilliant people are smart enough to know that they want friends, and how to keep them. People who spend all of their time studying in college aren’t usually considered “cool”, and they don’t have a lot of friends.

I was not a cool kid in college. I was a nerdy kid who was always blowing the curve, competing for the top score in every class. I was smart enough, but I wasn’t brilliant, and I studied a lot. Who are the brilliant kids, if they’re not at the top of the class? They’re probably the ones sitting in the back row, looking quite relaxed. The magical thing about brilliance is that it makes college seem effortless. Brilliant students are never grubbing for points, asking for homework answers, or looking for study buddies.

“The magical thing about brilliance is that it makes college seem effortless.”

Brilliance is accompanied by an air of nonchalance. There’s no need for a brilliant person to spend sixteen hours reviewing the four hours of lecture that were given that week. They understood it the first time. They can demonstrate their understanding on the test, when it is time. Success and learning used to be measured in tests. Now, for better or worse, the paradigm has shifted. Nonchalance is losing its foothold in higher ed.

Don’t waste my time.

I always firmly believed that work ethic could level the playing field for those of us who were not naturally gifted. Sure, everything is easier if you’re brilliant. If you’re a genius, you can just coast through college, and probably through life. But if I just work hard enough, I can get to the same level as those brilliant people. This belief held strong for a long time, but college has changed. Now, teachers give way more credit for “class participation” and “group projects”. In the new millennium, work ethic appears to have superseded brilliance in academic value.

“In the new millennium, work ethic appears to have superseded brilliance in academic value.”

Professors are broadening their teaching modalities, adapting to different learning styles, and making sure that their curricula are inclusive. In many cases, this means ensuring that everyone is able to pass their classes if they try hard enough. Yet, there are some students that get overlooked in this new paradigm. There are some students that will struggle. The brilliant ones.

Brilliant people are not accustomed to wasting time. Nonchalance does not accompany the hours of tedious busywork that literally everyone must endure in order to get full credit for modern coursework. There is no coasting. Breezing through college with brilliant nonchalance is literally impossible now.

Prove it.

The smartest people among us don’t need to attend college and draw concept maps and participate in flipped classroom activities in order to learn challenging new subjects. They can just sit down, read about them, and come out with a better understanding than most people could gather in a sixteen week college course. We have devalued understanding, and college credit is now awarded for getting the work done.

Degrees will no longer be conferred without endless hours of mindless college coursework. Perhaps more CLEP tests will become available to demonstrate subject understanding and award appropriate credits. Unfortunately, the existing model mandates chaining students to laptops for hours on end for discussions with classmates on static message boards in order to prove that they are meeting the learning objectives of the class. This shift is squeezing the smartest students out of college.

Brilliance will have to find a new medium.