Not sure about the Harvards of the world, but I'm pretty sure the college I ended up going to only cared about my ACT score, which was > double the minimum scor

Not sure about the Harvards of the world, but I'm pretty sure the college I ended up going to only cared about my ACT score, which was > double the minimum score required for them. I know many people in my HS enjoyed it and were challenged by the classes. Personally I took as many AP courses as I could get my hands on, but the two versions of an AP class seemed to be really slow pace and really high percentage busywork. By the time my senior year hit, for example, I was attending just enough of my AP Calc class to stay in it and when I was there I slept. AP Calc was my favorite course in HS (because of the math, not nap time), but between the lack of content and slow pace, I couldn't stay awake. I always got points off for not showing work on tests, etc, because I did the work in my head and the time it took to write everything out wasn't worth the ~2 points it cost me. My college experience wasn't much better. These days I assume it's because I spent the extra four years in HS. I had academic and athletic scholarships, but the classes were ridiculous and of the same HS variety. Sometimes I wonder if applying to places like Stanford would have helped the situation, but when I see the course setups I'm not so sure. I'd agree that college is more self-directed than HS, but I don't believe it's self directed enough.