Maniacally

I laugh a little maniacally inside every time I sit down in class.
I don't claim to be the perfect student, but I do take my higher education seriously. I arrive on class on time, if not earlier, I do my homework well before deadlines, and read and participate as necessary. When the teacher lectures, I am quiet and concentrate on what is being explained.
There are others, who sit in the same class as I do, who do not share my standard. I overhear them converse to each other about how they barely submitted the homework on time, never did the reading, and this was being said during class. (Can you blame them? That is when they showed up.) I think to myself, "This is who I am competing with in the 'real world'?" It is at that point when I smile and continue to out perform my peers. But then another thought occurs to me.
I feel cheated by attending a state college. It gives be a false sense of security by letting me think highly of myself, but what am I comparing myself too? The college has relatively lower cost of attending, which attracts those who lack prestige to attend a private institution. I have to be careful not to fall into the trap, the trap of being satisfied to comparing myself to... them.