This one hit close to home, actually. My cousin who lives in hong kong (can almost be considered a baby sister) was always at the top of her class when she was little. Something happened between then and now, she's a teenager, and she's dropped out of tougher schools to go to an easier one that trains specifically for computer assembly (kinda like getting a degree in ASP.NET or J2EE), so that she can work for an apple assembly facility (the school has ties w/apple apparently) =\
maybe she's just being a teenager, but it's worrisome.