Beep, beep, beep, beep – I slam my hand down on my alarm clock for the third time. It is 6:34. My dad has turned the shower on, hoping to guilt me into getting up. I can feel steam drifting under the door and hear the soothing sound of water hitting tile. But I am in no mood to be guilted. Not today. After what feels like the shortest two minutes, I finally drag myself out of bed, eyes stuck shut and head throbbing. Only two more days of this hell, I think … and then realize it’s only Tuesday.
I am a junior, and I am stressed. From 6:30 a.m. until midnight, I work, learn, cram, and stress about the future. “Get into a top school or your future is bleak” is the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) message we get every day. As a result, we cram as many sports and extracurricular activities as we can into a day, all the while trying to maintain excellent grades.
The race to get into the college of our dreams is leading to significant health problems. Increasingly, we don’t get enough sleep and are even more stressed, making it difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle. According to the National Sleep Foundation, teens need nine or more hours nightly, however, the American Psychological Association found that average teens get 7.4 hours a night. This means they wake up more tired, leading to a vicious cycle of sleep deprivation, a condition that has consequences such as depression, anxiety, and a higher likelihood of abuse of drugs and alcohol. Sleep deprivation can also impact learning and athletic performance, making it harder to concentrate and retain the information being taught, thereby repeating the vicious cycle.
In a study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, a team of researchers at New York University presented their findings regarding stress among juniors at two top high schools. They found that 49 percent of students felt a great deal of stress each day, and that 26 percent had been diagnosed with some form of depression – four times the average.
The high cost of tuition at private high schools leads to high parental expectations, which in turn creates significant stress for students. As one teacher in the study stated, “Parents are coming in and thinking, I’m [spending a lot of money] and I need to get something, a very tangible something. A great education is not a tangible something; a diploma from Harvard, Princeton or Yale – that’s tangible.” However, an acceptance rate of less than 7 percent means it is extremely difficult to gain admission to these institutions. Parents and teens are keenly aware of these statistics, leading to more stress as students attempt to participate in activities and take more challenging courses that will help them stand out from peers.
Teens in elite private and public schools that are unable to cope with chronic stress, depression, and anxiety sometimes resort to extreme measures. According to the Jason Foundation, an average of 5,400 teens from seventh to twelfth grade attempt suicide each day. Palo Alto, California, one of the most competitive regions in the country, has seen a recent spate of high school suicides. These clusters of suicides, all within a few months, are alarming and revelatory about the high school experience at these competitive high schools. Through these tragic events we see the most extreme forms of stress and anxiety, and its impact on the communities that are left wondering how this could have happened. Prior to these incidents, most parents believed that teens who committed suicide were outcasts, without friends, and may have been depressed, making it easier to distance those kids from theirs. However, these recent deaths were teens who were popular, high-achieving, and athletic, leading many parents to question whether their child could be next.
In the midst of all this competition, parents and students need to ask a basic question: Is this madness worth it? The high school experience has changed from one of discovery and learning to a mindless rush to fill up one’s résumé for the college application process. Students are so indoctrinated into this idea that they find the allure of a top school hard to resist, creating even more pressure to succeed.
This college mania derives from the perception that going to a top institution will ensure career and economic success. And conversely, attending a lower-tier college will result in it being harder to find a job or support a family. The importance that society places on brand-name colleges convinces teens that where they go will determine the course of their life, for better or for worse. This is a mistake.
The New York Times columnist Frank Bruni explains that we are shaped by the relationships we form and the challenges we face, not where we go to college. Bruni discusses a Princeton study that found that students who attended a top university had no better life outcomes than those who had applied but were rejected by that same university. Thus it isn’t the school but the type of students who attend those schools that influences their career and determines their income.
Teens and parents should not make college admissions the focus of high school. The risk to the mental and physical health of teens is too high and the rewards don’t appear to justify those risks. Instead, high school should be an opportunity to explore and develop interests, deepen relationships, and learn and grow as a person. But that is easier said than done. We humans are not programmed to take the long view. The innate instinct to seek comfort in a herd is hard to overcome. A herd represents safety. It provides reassurance that we are on the right path. The alternative is uncertain and unproven. So, the path of least resistance is one that conforms to the crowd. My own experience shows this to be true. Knowing what I know, I thought I could resist the pressure to participate in the race. So far, however, I can’t say that I’m winning the battle.
But I still hope to win the war