Reminds me of somebody I went to school with - let's call her Jessica
Jessica loved horses wanted to become a vet when she grew up so she could work with them. I moved from a state school to her private school at 12, and at the time one of the things I wanted to do when I grew up was become a vet too. I didn't particularly like horses (I was more interested in zoo animals) but she saw all other pupils who wanted to be vets as competition and she tried to put them off.
Every year we had to fill in a series of forms (similar to the national record of achievement) which included a question about our career ambitions. As I was filling mine in, Jessica snatched it from me, saw the word "vet" on it and immediately started loudly preaching about how I mustn't become a vet because it requires "people skills" and my people skills were somehow inferior to hers. She then hung around reading over my shoulder and commenting on everything I wrote and wouldn't go away until I erased all mention of being a vet from my form.
When we were 14, me, Jessica and another girl all came joint first in a Biology test. Jessica cried and ordered the teacher to re-mark it because she wanted to be first and couldn't stand coming joint first with other people, especially with one who had previously been (horror!) state-educated - "It must be a mistake, MC Toffeehammer can't possibly do as well as me!"
When we had to choose our GCSEs, she again hung around reading over my shoulder as I chose my subjects from the option blocks, and pressurised me into choosing biology from a different block to her so we would be in different biology classes because she really couldn't bear to be in a class with someone who do as well as her.
In sixth form, Jessica applied for a veterinary medicine course at the University of Cambridge and immediately started swanning around the school saying, "I'm going to Cambridge," and telling everyone how this made her better than them. When she got a letter from Cambridge, she decided to open it at school so everyone could see her being accepted by Cambridge... except that it was a rejection letter. She immediately burst into tears and ran home, and spent the next couple of days off school because she couldn't stop crying.
When she came back to school, she was moaning, "How could they reject me? They must have given my place to someone from a state school... how dare they, they don't deserve it, I do!" to anyone who would listen (and several who wouldn't). Most kids who were rejected by universities just accepted it and moved on, but one teacher indulged Jessica by telling her, "Oh yes, you should have got that place, they only gave it to someone from a state school to be politically correct..." when she should have been telling her that actually, loads of other pupils had the exact same grades as her, or better, and she shouldn't have expected to get a place on a difficult and competitive course at a top university just like that.
(MC Toffeehammer, Thu 31 Jan 2013, 12:00, Reply)