Reply to Princeton has 8 suicides in 3 years

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]In my opinion, it seems some students are just not ready for college and especially not ready for a competitive pressure cooker college for whatever reasons. Perhaps they push through high school to get the top grades, EC’s etc and then are just burnt out. Perhaps they think an elite college is the ultimate prize at the end of high school and once they are in they feel their work is done only to find out that they have to continue to grind and the pressure is even more intense. I don’t know. Just wondering. It’s really sad. [/quote]

I think it’s more that it is very difficult to live in a highly pressured situation surrounded by so many type A students — there are very few counterbalancing influences telling you to chill or that it doesn’t matter, and the living environment is chaotic and unhealthy too. It doesn’t matter how “ready” a student is, it’s just a very stressful situation for a kid who is probably already the amped-up, conscientious type. [/quote]

I see the resumes of these kids - and while ridiculously accomplished from a resume standpoint, my immediate reaction is - are you OK?  And slow down - you don't need to do it all before you're 25. [/quote]

This. It just seems super unhealthy that kids have to be so ridiculously accomplished to get into these schools and then they are all put together to compete with each other for grades, clubs, and whatever the next carrot is, all while being expected to look as if it's effortless. I think it was in the article about the competition for clubs once you are in an elite school that talked about how kids work insanely hard in high school to be perfect and think once they get to college maybe they can relax a bit, explore, try new things, only to discover you still are expected to be perfect, to be an expert in something just to join that club vs. being able to try it out. That must be so demoralizing to learn the ordeal of HS is just going to continue in college. I can see why a student would feel hopeless and trapped. They did *everything* they were supposed to do and are miserable but have never failed at anything so they can't be a failure by changing track, transferring to a less insane school, etc.[/quote]

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