Are students caught in the race to get ahead?

Are kids today suffocating under the pressure to succeed — stuffing resumes, cramming in athletics, activities and awards and panicking about their futures? They're being called “overachievers,” and critics say, they're the result of an educational system that isn't about learning anymore — it's about getting ahead. Alexandra Robbins, author of “The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids,” went behind the scenes of America's high schools to report on the growing culture of overachievement and what it's doing to our children. Here's an excerpt:

Chapter 1
July 20–September 1

Meet the Overachievers
Julie, Senior Perceived as: The Superstar

On the surface, Julie seemed to have it all. A straight-A student without exception since sixth grade, she took a rigorous high school curriculum that had included eight Advanced Placement classes thus far. Walt Whitman High School’s most talented female distance runner since her freshman year, Julie had co-captained the varsity cross-country, indoor track, and outdoor track teams as a junior. School and local newspapers constantly heralded her athletic accomplishments. An aspiring triathlete, Julie was president and co-founder of the Hiking Vikings Club (named for Whitman’s mascot), a yoga fanatic, a member of the Spanish Honors Society, and a big buddy to a child at a homeless shelter.

As a freshman and sophomore, Julie was one of three elected class officers and, as a junior, co–sports editor and co–student life editor of the yearbook before she quit. To top it off, she was a naturally pretty sixteen-year-old with a bright, mesmerizing smile, cascading dark blond ringlets, and a slender figure that she was known for dressing stylishly. Her friends constantly told her that boys had crushes on her, though she rarely picked up on those things. She was currently dating her first real boyfriend, a family friend headed to college in the fall. There were students at Whitman who revered her.

NBC VIDEO Tips for overachiever kids, parents Aug. 8: The "Today" show's Ann Curry talks to Alexandra Robbins, author of "The Overachievers," about how many kids today suffer under the pressure to succeed and how education is not about learning but about getting ahead. Today show

Julie had earned her summer vacation. Junior year had been stressful, both academically and socially. She took eight academic classes the first semester, skipping lunch to squeeze in an extra course. Socially, she began to question whether she belonged in her tight-knit clique of fourteen girls, a group other students knew as the River Falls crew, even though only a handful of the girls lived in that suburban Maryland neighborhood. Though Julie had known many of them since elementary school, she didn’t feel comfortable opening up to them. Even in that large group of girls, she still felt alone.

Throughout her junior year, Julie’s hair gradually had begun to thin. In June her concerned mother took her to the doctor. After the blood tests returned normal results, the doctor informed her that thinning hair was “not unheard of among junior girls, as stress can cause hair loss.” Julie told no one at school about her ordeal. She was able to bulldoze through junior year with the hope that, if she pushed herself for just a little while longer, she would have a good shot at getting into her dream school. She had wanted to go to Stanford ever since she fell in love with the campus during a middle school visit. It seemed natural to her to aim high.

One summer evening, Julie was buying a striped T-shirt at J. Crew when she heard a squeal. A Whitman student who had graduated in May was bounding toward her. The graduate didn’t even bother with small talk before firing off college questions: “So where are you applying early?” Julie demurely dodged the question with a polite smile and a wave of her hand.

The graduate wasn’t deterred. “Well, where are you applying to college?”

“I don’t know,” Julie said, keeping her mouth upturned.

“Where have you visited?”

“Some New England schools,” Julie said, and changed the subject. So this is what the year will be like, Julie thought. Endless questions and judgments based entirely on the name of a school. Julie hadn’t decided where she would apply. She wondered if the pressure simply to know was going to be as intense as the pressure to get in.

Julie’s parents had hired a private college counselor to help her work through these decisions. Julie was excited for her first serious meeting with the counselor, who worked mostly with students in a competitive Virginia school district. Julie had been waiting for years to reap the benefits of her years of diligence. At last she felt like she could speak openly about her college aspirations without fear of sounding cocky.

Normally not one to saunter, Julie glided into Vera von Helsinger’s office, relaxed and self-assured. She crossed her long, tanned legs and politely folded her hands in her lap. After mundane small talk with Julie and her mother, Vera asked for Julie’s statistics and activities. Julie listed them proudly: a 4.0 unweighted GPA, a combined score of 1410 out of 1600 on the SAT, good SAT II scores, a 5 on the Advanced Placement Chemistry and English Language exams, and a 4 on the Government exam. When Julie told her college counselor about her extracurricular load, triathleticism, and interest in science, Vera proclaimed her “mildly interesting.”

Julie handed Vera a list she had taken the initiative to compile from Outside magazine’s annual ranking of top forty schools based on their outdoor opportunities. Julie’s list began with Stanford, Dartmouth, Williams, Middlebury, the University of Virginia, UC Santa Cruz, and the University of Miami. Vera asked, “Is there anyone else at Whitman who has the same personality as you?”

“No,” Julie said in her typically breathy voice. “I consider myself an individual.”

“Well, Taylor is kind of a do-er,” Julie’s mother pointed out.

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