DD9 has expressed her desire to attend a college nearby so she can continue to live at home, since she's a member of the generation that inexplicably likes its parents. So at the moment, that's not an issue.
DD is naturally competitive, is responsive to extrinsic rewards, and is perfectionist to boot, so she'd be a wonderful tiger cub, as she already has the claws and fangs, and she just needs to earn her stripes. But since we're [insert the opposite of tiger here, what is that? bear? antelope? meercat?] parents, we've been spending a lot of time helping her file down those claws and fangs. Among the dulling exercises, we deliberately cut back on her schedule if she's getting overloaded, we aggressively schedule her some down/play time, we emphasize mistakes as a valuable part of learning, and we pay her for earning Bs.
At age 5 she became fascinated with Olympic gymnastics, and we discouraged her from pursuing that by pointing out all the hours of training that requires, and all the things in her life that would displace. Once she knew the opportunity costs, she decided she was unwilling to pay. The same argument will still play when it comes time to pursuing an elite college. She can remain an emotionally stable human being who makes connections with other human beings while earning some B's in high school, or she can strive for valedictorian.
And then she'll probably qualify for an Ivy anyway.
