Originally Posted by st pauli girl
Yes, this is one of the only places where you will find a big group of people who do NOT want their kids to get all A's. Our kids deserve to learn how to fail and how to persevere, just like all the other kids in school.

I understand the reasoning of you and others -- challenge is important -- but if your child is "privileged" -- white or Asian with parents having advanced degrees -- the most selective schools expect nearly straight A's as a baseline and want to see an exceptional extracurricular achievement on top. Look at the stats for Brown http://www.brown.edu/admission/undergraduate/about/admission-facts .

So I want my son to do his "failing" on things like the AIME (test taken by students who excel on the AMC), NOT in regular courses whose grades will determine class rank.