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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Check out the "College Confidential" message board, OP.  These kids put crazy pressure on themselves and worry about college acceptance from middle school on.  It is the world we live in.  [/quote]

Wow - that is one scary site!  These poor kids are driving themselves crazy.  [/quote]

I don't find that site all that scary. That is what it takes to get into an ivy and frankly it's also what it took when I went 15 yrs ago. Admissions percentages haven't dropped that much, nor is it that much harder than it used to be -- it's just that there's more info out there due to active websites like CC. Frankly I think it's better to start focusing in 8th grade if the Ivys are what you want or drop the dream in 10 th grade if you realize your kid just can't hold on to a number 1-2 rank in the class, than it is to "follow your interests" for years, think you can get straight A's in 11th grade and do a bit of volunteer work to get into the Ivys the next yr and then be massively disappointed when it doesn't happen; I've seen that happen too many times.
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Maybe kids won't be "massively disappointed" when they fail to get into the Ivys if they haven't been programmed to believe that the entire goal of high school is being admitted to an Ivy.   [/quote]

I'm the PP you quoted -- the Ivy programming happens in lots of ways. Even if the parents don't care -- and many in this area do -- the kids get it from their friends. Even if the kids aren't friends with that top group in the high school, they still hear that top group speak sometimes and think they should covet the same things. I grew up in an area where Penn is the "local"/closest ivy. 15 yrs ago the top of the high school class always applied to Penn, but because it was local/closest even the "mid range" students knew people who had gone there etc. So you had kids who breezed through high school "following their interests," taking mostly honors classes and maybe 1 AP all through high school, holding like a 3.6 GPA and then when application time rolled around, working really hard on the Penn application saying things like "AND the lady whose kid I babysit every week is a nurse at the Hospital of the Univ. of Pa. so that's another thing that helps me." Um -- yeah -- that's a set up for massive disappointment, when their parents could have involved themselves 4-5 yrs prior to start actually working towards an ivy and then realized by 10-11th grade that their kid was not the top of the class type and guided them in other directions.

I do think the entire goal of high school is where you go to college. Yeah -- prom and graduation and friends are nice but honestly how many people remain so tight with their high school group their whole life that it's worth sacrificing your academic career for that?[/quote]

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