Competition drives mankind as a whole, and the students at our school are no exception. Students often find themselves with packed schedules and no free blocks, just as athletes are commonly scrambling between three-hour practices and that dreaded English paper. Boys and girls compete with each other for the affection of others and to be labeled as stylish and popular.
Everyone knows that colleges love to see students involved in extracurricular activities, but sometimes we go a step too far and murder ourselves with clubs, sports and other activities. A word used too commonly here for people who do this: over-achiever. Over-achievers are a force to be reckoned with, as they will stomp on anything and anyone who gets in their way of getting into a good college.
The majority of students at our school who are engaged in multiple activities at the same time are just participating so they can get into a good college. Newsflash: Colleges don’t care whether you can sign a piece of paper saying that you’re in a club. For it to matter, colleges want to see commitment and actual interest.
More on the over-achiever: He or she is usually an honors student involved with a minimum of three extracurricular activities. They can include a mix of any club, sport or group. I have friends who take two languages, play sports three seasons a year and alternate between upwards of three clubs every X-block.
It isn’t a fun lifestyle. It’s boring, repetitive and meaningless. For those sophomores starting to think about college and ways to impress admissions counselors, I’m going to give you a little piece of advice. It’s much more impressive to be a part of one club and put a lot of effort into that one club so that by your senior year, you become club president.
I’m not totally trashing over-achievers. Hey, if I could join a dozen clubs, be president of them and manage to maintain a 4.0 GPA, I would. The main point I am trying to prove is that the competitive nature of applying to colleges and, in particular, the competition between students, can sometimes be unhealthy.
At a time of our lives when stress-levels are already off the charts, play it safe and don’t kill yourself by overloading your schedule. Focus on a few things that you are passionate about and excel at them.
Competition is a tool that allows us to be the best, but too often in high school, it makes students think that being the best means doing every possible activity they can do. Being competitive is one thing, being masochistic is another. Don’t be a softy, but at the same time, don’t be an idiot.
Know your limit. If you approach life realistically, more often than not you’ll exceed your expectations. Melting down in Advanced Placement Biology because you can’t handle the workload anymore really isn’t a good look. It’s pathetic. Don’t be another drone with no voice. Enjoy life; we only live once.
Evan Sternstein can be contacted at [email protected].
Carlos Rojas-Alvarez • May 9, 2012 at 12:09 am
Mr. Zimmet,
You completely misunderstand the
nature of competition, particularly with regards to the college application
process. High school students do, in fact, see each other as competitors who
are vying for your spot at Harvard
(or Yale or Princeton, what have you) because there is only a limited amount of
space in the incoming Freshman classes (how else can you explain that hundreds,
if not thousands, of students fully qualified to attend the most elite colleges
are rejected year after year due to insufficient space?). In light of that, the
competitive struggles that ensue and the subsequent unhealthy lifestyles on
which Ms. Sternstein comments (in a sufficiently respectful and neutral tone,
in my opinion), stems, not from negative comments being made about such
lifestyles, but from the very atmosphere that the college process creates. Your
statement actually doesn’t make much sense. Regardless of what people say about
my lifestyle, if it results in no personal time for myself, my friends and
family, if I’m constantly stressed and experience nervous breakdowns on the
daily and if I can’t seem to take a minute and enjoy life due to a packed schedule,
I’d still be miserable. And let’s face it, plenty of people trade happiness and
accept misery for academic success.
Or put simply: When in a race (and
that is exactly what the college process is) one does not ask, “how can I be
the first to finish” without considering what those who are competing against
you are capable of. The first thing I would do is measure myself up against my
competitors.
Of course not everyone who engages
in extra curricular activities, nor does every student who makes the honor roll, do
so solely for the advantages that it gives you come application time, but a
large percentage of students do carry that mentality, across the nation. It is a
dangerous state of mind, and hard to detect or break out of if one has already
fallen into it (cough, cough).
Anonymous • Jan 17, 2012 at 8:36 pm
Well aren’t you just a little ray of sunshine?
This article represents how many students feel, seniors or otherwise. We all want to do well and be accepted by colleges for being an interesting, involved person, but some students more easily achieve this look than others.
For some, it is easier to be a part of five clubs and be a super-star in each one. Some people love it, some hate it. The only thing is, it’s not possible for the average Joes and Janes at BHS to stand our from all the other overachievers produced by our loving school.
Ari Zimmet • Jan 23, 2012 at 11:42 pm
I am a ray of sunshine, Mr/s. Anonymous, thank you.
I understand that many people feel this way and I’m not saying Evan is wrong, I was just trying to defend some of the people that I felt were getting hated on a little bit.
But for you to say that “it’s not possible for the average Joes and Janes at BHS to stand out from all the other overacheivers”, I feel sad because I think that is so untrue. You can stand out dude/dudette. Pick up a pencil and write comething creative or draw a picture. Define your own way to stand out.
Ari Zimmet • Dec 11, 2011 at 8:12 pm
This article makes no sense to me at all. First you say ”
The majority of students at our school who are engaged in multiple
activities at the same time are just participating so they can get into a
good college.” This is erroneous and frankly offensive to me. I am involved in multiple extracurricular activities, and I can think of no instance where I signed up in order to use it as a Common App filler…
You go on to say “It isn’t a fun lifestyle.” However, you then say “Hey, if I could join a dozen clubs, be president of them and manage to maintain a 4.0 GPA, I would.” Just because you can’t do a something, and I’m not saying its something I can do, it doesn’t give you a right to trash it. That’s like hating on people who know how to swim when you were raised in a landlocked section of Russia with no water bodies or pools around…
The thing I have the biggest problem with is; “The main point I am trying to prove is that the competitive nature of
applying to colleges and, in particular, the competition between
students, can sometimes be unhealthy.” I agree completely with you, but this unhealthy competition does not come from one person individually pushing them self to be their best; it comes from articles and the things people say behind people’s back about them being overachievers. You cant get mad at a person for being a beast, but you can try to degrade them for looking more impressive on paper than yourself, and when that happens, the unhealthy-ness of the application process occurs. They’re not competing with you. They didn’t go out one day and say; “I’m gonna make sure Student A and Student B don’t get into Harvard. I guess I’ll have to bust my butt to do it.” They say; “I really want to go to Harvard, how can I do it?”
If people in the senior class respected each other more and complimented one another on their accomplishments, instead of railing on them for pushing themselves, or community would be a lot less divided.