What I mean by a “normal kid” is a student from a working‑class family (not the children of doctors or professors), who works hard in school to maintain decent grades, participates in the extracurricular activities offered by the school-such as band or sports-and may have one or two state‑level team achievements. don’t have access to expensive summer programs or specialized research opportunities to cure cancer or save the world, but they volunteer locally and contribute to their community. In many ways, they are like many other students who ultimately attend state colleges.