Q&A
Yale graduate Alexandra Robbins knows a thing or two about driven students. For starters, she says she was one. Her new book, The Overachievers (Hyperion), follows a group of students from her alma mater, Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Md., as they apply to college. They are competing for a prized slot in a freshman class, a race for what they see as the universal measure of their success, at a time in their lives when image means everything.
Has education always been this competitive?
Simply put, there are more high school students, and they are applying in far greater numbers to the same amount of schools. The idea is that in order to win you must go to an elite college--to some people that means it's necessary to go to an elite high school, grade school, even preschool. ... Education is no longer about a learning experience; it's a game of Survivor where kids are strategizing to work against each other and beat the system.
But most students don't at tend top schools. Do we have a nation of profoundly disappointed graduates?
We have a myth. It's a myth that enrolling in an "elite" college guarantees success. There are ample studies to show that your undergraduate college doesn't affect your average salary or whether you'll be a CEO.
What does it mean for high schoolers?
One of the students I followed turned to cutting and burning himself. More than one turned to drinking. (And they sound very much like adults when they'd say, "I just need a drink to wind down after a stressful day.") Many said they were depressed, and three of my main characters talked about having suicidal thoughts. I also think that the cheating rate among high school students has something to do with the pressure they're under.
What is a defeat for these kids?
Sadly, in some cases, it's an A minus.
How widespread is this?
A lot more than I thought. It's a trickledown problem where the behavior of the top students impacts everyone else. The sad thing is that there is no middle ground anymore. Either you are a high achiever, or you're below average.
In what ways has this competitiveness changed school?
School is no longer about the love of learning. It's become a Machiavellian exercise where students and parents feel they have to do whatever is necessary to get an edge. It's a system that turns students into little more than their test scores.
Was school ever really about the "love of learning"?
When I graduated from high school in 1994, we could take classes for enjoyment and not worry about how it would look on a transcript. Today, many kids can't take classes like music, photography, journalism, or yearbook because they fear they will fall behind in class rank.
Are their goals to actually become professionals or just to get into a college that will allow them to do that?
It is just the undergraduate college that they are fixated on. So many students are focused on college because of that period at the end of junior year and the beginning of senior year when they are all asked by their parents' friends: Where are you applying? No one wants to explain a school on their list that no one has heard of.
Test scores show American students often lagging. Perhaps it's good that kids are driven.
[It's] not the motivation to do well. It's a motivation to gain recognition and accolades. One student wrote in her diary: "Do I want to be happy, or do I want to be successful?" The idea that those two things are mutually exclusive is not unusual.
Does their drive come from a lack of high-stakes pressure in other areas of their lives?
I did find similar pressures in other aspects of their lives. One of the students says, "Man, the pressure comes at you from every direction. My parents make me think that a B isn't good enough. Teachers make me feel that my homework could have been better. Competition in speech and debate makes me feel that if I didn't get first place I wasn't trying hard enough. Theater and choral make me think that my talent isn't great unless the audience thinks so. All of it is overpowering."
What can be done?
High schools should drop class rank because it encourages competition, cheating, and choosing classes based on GPA rather than genuine interest. Schools should limit how many Advanced Placement classes a student can take and increase awareness of too much stress. Colleges should boycott rankings. If schools didn't participate, it might de-emphasize the focus on rankings. And parents and kids should note: Don't discuss your test scores, college applications, or acceptances with anyone, don't take admissions decisions personally, and limit your extracurricular activities.
This story appears in the August 7, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.