David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

schools look at the brilliant students
around them, and how do you think they
feel?
The phenomenon of relative
deprivation applied to education is
called—appropriately enough—the “Big
Fish–Little Pond Effect.” The more elite
an educational institution is, the worse
students feel about their own academic
abilities. Students who would be at the
top of their class at a good school can
easily fall to the bottom of a really good
school. Students who would feel that
they have mastered a subject at a good
school can have the feeling that they are
falling farther and farther behind in a
really good school. And that feeling—as
subjective and ridiculous and irrational