I want to hear from parents whose kids chose rigorous, pressure cooker schools

[Anonymous]

These schools do their best to hide the suicide rate. Do your due diligence. Check the local press. Visit a nearby fire house and ask them about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After going to a pressure cooker high school, college seemed easy.

+1. High school was much harder than college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your DCs are the type who have succeeded at a pressure cooker high school and ended up at a rigorous college (think JHU, CMU, Princeton, Swarthmore, Georgia tech, UIUC), were/are they happy? Did they eventually get burned out? Do you wish they experienced a more balanced campus life and waited until at least grad school to be so serious?

Schools are not rigorous. Majors are.

Also, kids who burn out are the ones who do not have a strong academic foundation. This one falls squarely on parents. If you rely only on the K-12 schools to educate your kids, they will always feel pressure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After going to a pressure cooker high school, college seemed easy.

+1. High school was much harder than college.

+2. My kid went to a pressure cooker middle school. 6th grade was an absolute nightmare. But once he learned the life lessons the school was forcing him to learn, things became progressively easier, all the way through college and eventually his job.

[Anonymous]

Well, it's an n of 1, but someone I know from Georgia Tech did very well there. It seemed like all was well. But after graduation, they just didn't get a job, didn't look for one, and now they are doing a number of gig type jobs with no concrete plans to look for something long term and in their field. It has only been a year so they may have just needed a break.

[Anonymous]

Kid at UMich in the CS program. The school has a wide range of student types and programs which cuts down on the pressure cooker atmosphere. You pick the tough majors, but can offroad to easier classes if need be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your DCs are the type who have succeeded at a pressure cooker high school and ended up at a rigorous college (think JHU, CMU, Princeton, Swarthmore, Georgia tech, UIUC), were/are they happy? Did they eventually get burned out? Do you wish they experienced a more balanced campus life and waited until at least grad school to be so serious?

They thought college was a piece of cake compared to their high school. Mostly because they had more flexibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These schools do their best to hide the suicide rate. Do your due diligence. Check the local press. Visit a nearby fire house and ask them about it.

Fire house or EMT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kid at UMich in the CS program. The school has a wide range of student types and programs which cuts down on the pressure cooker atmosphere. You pick the tough majors, but can offroad to easier classes if need be.

DC is at UMich in the EE/CS program. Would not call Umich a pressure cooker at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After going to a pressure cooker high school, college seemed easy.

Same for mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your DCs are the type who have succeeded at a pressure cooker high school and ended up at a rigorous college (think JHU, CMU, Princeton, Swarthmore, Georgia tech, UIUC), were/are they happy? Did they eventually get burned out? Do you wish they experienced a more balanced campus life and waited until at least grad school to be so serious?

Schools are not rigorous. Majors are.

Also, kids who burn out are the ones who do not have a strong academic foundation. This one falls squarely on parents. If you rely only on the K-12 schools to educate your kids, they will always feel pressure.

That's absolutely BS. You can have a strong academic foundation and still burnout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your DCs are the type who have succeeded at a pressure cooker high school and ended up at a rigorous college (think JHU, CMU, Princeton, Swarthmore, Georgia tech, UIUC), were/are they happy? Did they eventually get burned out? Do you wish they experienced a more balanced campus life and waited until at least grad school to be so serious?

Yes, very happy. As a bonus, met his wife there, she is even more driven than he is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your DCs are the type who have succeeded at a pressure cooker high school and ended up at a rigorous college (think JHU, CMU, Princeton, Swarthmore, Georgia tech, UIUC), were/are they happy? Did they eventually get burned out? Do you wish they experienced a more balanced campus life and waited until at least grad school to be so serious?

Yes, very happy. As a bonus, met his wife there, she is even more driven than he is.

Oh, boy. That does not usually turn out well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your DCs are the type who have succeeded at a pressure cooker high school and ended up at a rigorous college (think JHU, CMU, Princeton, Swarthmore, Georgia tech, UIUC), were/are they happy? Did they eventually get burned out? Do you wish they experienced a more balanced campus life and waited until at least grad school to be so serious?

Schools are not rigorous. Majors are.

Also, kids who burn out are the ones who do not have a strong academic foundation. This one falls squarely on parents. If you rely only on the K-12 schools to educate your kids, they will always feel pressure.

No. We relied on Sidwell (‘22) to educate our kid, who received zero minimum of outside tutoring or enrichment. Is doing well at T15 school, will graduate phi beta kappa. Goes out 3-4 nights a week.

[Anonymous]

Zero minutes