When we were in high school, we were taught to look up to the kid who sacrificed everything to get straight A's, whose parents forced them into extravagant music lessons and then got into the Ivy League. While many of us still strive for that, it's important to consider whether that is, in fact, a good idea. Many college freshmen, having prepared for a very demanding major in high school, realize that they can't compete with others at their schools with higher aptitude. Others are forced to transfer, or even fail out, having arrived at a school either with the wrong ideas about what they wanted to do, or being a fish out of water in a sea of geniuses. And yet, this is what many, if not most, intelligent high school students and their parents reach for.
What College is About

What all of us want in life is fulfilment. For a lot of us, that means an enjoyable career that pulls in enough money for a family and a few luxuries. The idea that money and prestige are the biggest pieces of the pie, and think that means that a career in business, economics, engineering, or applied science is the key to success. But nobody is happy doing a career they don't enjoy. Some people are engineers or businessmen, but others are natural-born artists, philosophers, political scientists, sociologists, and foresters. If you allow yourself free rein to do what you love, you'll find out what it is that you love doing. College should be about taking an opportunity to further your skill in an area where you have talent and interest, and letting your passion take you as far as it can.
Why Grades aren't the End-All of Admissions

What high school grades reflect is a combination of aptitude and achievement in your classes. However, I promise you that is instead of powering through classes you hate to get straight A's, you find extracurricular activities that you love, be they volunteerwork, orchestra, theatre, debate, robotics or nearly anything else, you will do better in those activities; if you also focus on classes you love, you'll get easy A's in them. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses this way will also help you to choose a college and a major in which you'll really excel and have a blast. And colleges have a way of picking out the sorts of people who'd thrive. Caltech, for instance, looks for students with clearly defined interests in the sciences, reaching to having taken college courses and having done actual research, an art institute, however, will probably disregard your grades, and focus all their attention on the paintings in your cherished portfolio. If either of these schools simply focused on grades, they'd get unsuitable, and unhappy, students.
A New Prescription

If you enjoy a class, you'll work hard in it; if you did well in it anyway, then you've got enough willpower to power through it. However, many of us, while in high school, aren't honest with ourselves about what we're really good at and enjoy doing. If you think you should really be a Math/Econ major for Mom and Dad's sake but keep spending all your time working on the school musical, then maybe it's time to reconsider. There's no reason to believe that you'll wake up in college and start loving your classes if you've chosen a major based on prestige or earning potential. So, don't worry so much about grades, and go out into the world and learn from it. If you make it a focus of your application and your admissions essays, then whatever your passion is can really be your ticket to a great school.