But the kind of pressure many high school students face has little to do with science and more to do with an all-consuming focus on getting ahead in the academic world.
Some admissions officers and college presidents are beginning to see a problem with serious high school students swapping their youth for a chance to attend the college they or their parents choose.
And it's about time, because pressure to get top grades, be involved in extracurricular activities, school politics and off-campus service projects is less about education than putting together a resume that will impress admissions officers. And those resumes are sometimes coming at the expense of the students' health.
Increases in ulcers, depression, alcoholism, anxiety disorders and such control-related maladies as eating disorders and self-mutilation among teenagers are a result of parents, teachers and colleges pushing too hard.
It's become a vicious cycle -- the "packaging" of young students and the expensive process of a college sifting through hundreds of nearly identical applications. Where a straight-A grade average used to be unusual and a sign of an academically gifted student, such a GPA is now commonplace, even expected. That's the result, too often, of teachers yielding to pushy parents who refuse to let their children accept the grade they've earned if it isn't an "A."
So, applicants have to come up with other ways to stand out: starting a business, getting their academic research published, conducting elaborate scientific experiments. And, in the process, they sacrifice time they should be spending, as Marilee Jones, dean of admissions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says, in sleeping, eating and "just staring into space."
The system needs to change, and parents, colleges and educators at all levels must initiate the changes, encouraging students to have more balanced, normal lives. Because, if success takes the joy out of life, is it really success?
