By Tara Westover — 2022
For kids today from poorer backgrounds, the path I took through education no longer exists.
Read on www.nytimes.com
CLEAR ALL
“Students from low-income backgrounds receive daily reminders—interpersonal and institutional, symbolic and structural—that they are the ones who do not belong.”
Today in my interactions with college students and young scientists in training, I’m often struck by the limits that they are placing on their own potential by comparing their achievements to those of others.
Imposter syndrome, alongside alcoholism and chronic insomnia, is one of the experiences key to the morbid trinity of student life; the quirks forming the foundation of every post on every university confessions page.
We’ve all heard the fake it till you make it a phenomenon. Like every student. A person with imposter syndrome can have all the training in the world with the finest degrees, and still not believe they have the right for people to recognize their accomplishments.
Impostor syndrome is not a unique feeling, but some researchers believe it hits minority groups harder.
“Do you ever have feelings of self-doubt, that you’re not good enough or that you don’t belong?” we asked students in our Student Opinion question inspired by Smarter Living’s guide on “How to Overcome ‘Impostor Syndrome.’”
What do you do when your biggest doubter is yourself?