You can do it

Other than my occasional doubts about whether I would be better off in grad school or working as a mail carrier (for the record, I never considered working at McDonald’s), a lack of self-confidence has never been among my problems.  Maybe this is why I have a particularly hard time dealing with excellent students that have no belief in their abilities whatsoever.  One particular student recently earned the highest grade in one of my toughest courses but argued that she “didn’t know enough” to serve as a tutor for the course.  Another student, who is my advisee, recently approached me to discuss dropping a course because it required the use of some research methods that he had not yet learned.  Although I (knowing that he is an excellent student) advised him against this decision and the professor told him that he should have no problem with the course, he decided to drop it.  Rather than an isolated case, this student runs from anything that goes even a bit beyond his comfort level.  Barring a “Biggest Loser” style emotional breakdown in which he reveals that his parents have never believed in him, I have no idea at this early stage of my advising career how to demonstrate to a student with a 3.8 GPA that he just might be intelligent.