But at the end of his first year studying for A-levels, his AS grades – four As, in French, politics, English and history – sparked a realisation that with university applications looming, he could aim high.
However, I was not considering the constant stress of college applications looming over my final year, with homework and extracurricular activities being thrown into the same pile.
Years ago, when one of my children was partying too much in high school, and college applications were looming, I quit my job teaching at a university and began working full time at home.
But even Maria once found herself losing perspective, lying awake in her bed, her application station looming inches away in the dark, worrying herself sleepless about the importance of the work she needed to do to get the best offer possible from the best possible school.
The research has been published as the deadline for next year's Oxbridge applications looms on 15 October.
It recommended extending the looming 30 June deadline for applications for funding under new guidelines and awarding longer contracts to give more stability.
That's the beauty of Clippy his ambiguous, looming presence triggers as many applications as there are (or, were) Microsoft Word users.
With a Saturday deadline looming on some students' college applications, administrators still are trying to verify the accuracy of seniors' transcripts.
But when application deadlines were looming over my head, I felt out of my comfort zone.
With general election looming, SurveyMonkey's political application could stand it in good stead as it opens its first UK office.
