4.0 GPA in High School, Goes to Military Instead of College
If I asked you to guess what the average GPA of a military recruit was in high school, what would you say? You might not know it, but in 2013 the average GPA of an accepted applicant to the United States Military Academy was 3.48-3.78, considerably close to the coveted 4.
0. Why am I telling you this? Maybe you can relate, because if you’re anything like me, you grew up in a white collar, upper middle class upbringing, thinking that only jocks and troublemakers signed in for the life of a soldier, either by their own feelings of patriotism, being forced in by their parents, or seeing the economic benefits as the best path to prosperity. However, while all my friends in our junior year of high school and I start searching for colleges, I remain alone as the only one desiring to join the ranks of the United States Air Force Academy. Now believe me, there’s a reason my grades are so good-I’m a tech nerd at heart, regularly going to conferences at local colleges in my area year after year, learning computer science in my spare time and in school, starting my own Youtube channel last summer to spread my love of medicine through technology.
But I’m also not content to now spend all that creative bandwidth, all that time of which a young person is so abundantly blessed with, to spend in a classroom for another four years of my life. Now, I’m not simply writing this so that you write college off as a scam. I actually think college is a great opportunity for those looking to make connections for future business opportunities, are playing are a great athletics program, or need the degree to follow a career in something like engineering or medicines. I am writing this however, so that others know they are not alone in feeling college is not best for for them, but not because they lack the same intellectual punch their peers do. I’m speaking to the kid who like me, feels like they just aren’t following the same drummer as the average student who’s looking to go to college. They’re not in life for all the joking, all the fooling present amongst their group of non hustling yet getting by on pure talent grade performers, they’re looking to go all in to build something truly great.
For me, this comes in the form of wanting to be the next great entrepreneur once I get out of the force, and I know that my education in the military will teach me the knowledge I need, but also the collaborative mindset, the leadership skills, and the work ethic to go along with it so I can achieve my main goal, which is to maximize on my greatness. I don’t want to be the college student who goes to class, naturally has enough skill to get through without major issue, and then spends the excess time partying, and doing things which are counterintuitive to his greatness simply because college is that sort of environment. By the way, I fully plan on applying and going to an Ivy League school or some of the other big name schools if I’m accepted, because as I said above I’m a nerd at heart. However, under any other school I prefer the military, because it offers the most growth to me. I don’t just want to make it to the top, I want to risk the path that will challenge me the most while bringing the most benefit, because my ultimate KPI is whether or not I reach my full potential, both daily and in aggregate over my whole lifespan.
I’m not saying this is the path everyone should take, but it should be realized it’s the path of everyone in history who remembered for greatness in history: be it Michael Jordan, Steve Jobs, or the Beatles. Don’t listen to the noise. Take the path of most resistance, not the least.
