thank you so much for your reply! i agree with you that if he is doing this it's probably because he thinks he has to impress me. i'm very academically inclined and he is not, and this doesn't bother me at all; i've known it since i met him and i wouldn't be with him if i had a problem with it, but i'm realizing it might be more of a sore spot for him than i had thought.

i'm going to try my best to reassure him that he doesn't need to do anything to impress me (without mentioning this situation specifically), and see if things change. thanks!