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09-11-2006, 11:00 AM
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#1 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 12,666
| The Kids Are All RightAre alarmists right about kids and the college-admission crisis
A review of The Overachievers, by Ann Hulbert, on Slate. com http://www.slate.com/id/2149081/?nav=tap3 | 
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09-11-2006, 11:17 AM
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#2 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 3,737
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I loved the picture. 
I wish someone would, just once, start an article like this out differently, Instead of:
"As if panic at the ordeal of getting a child into a selective college weren't bad enough..."
with this:
"As if panic at the ordeal of getting a child into a decent college that they can afford without financial ruin weren't bad enough..."
**sigh** Why do I always feel like I am the only one with this problem? If only ALL I had to do was stress about my kids merely getting into the schools they want to go to...
Anyway, sorry for that hijack (temp insanity) --
I sure am glad I don't live in a culture like the one described there. Blech. I liked the "findings" though - "None of the seniors ends up with the options he or she started out thinking were essential—and none of them collapses, or connives against anyone else. They accommodate energetically and commiserate wryly, looking ahead together rather than bitterly licking their wounds. They're models of maturity.."
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09-11-2006, 11:51 AM
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#3 | | Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 737
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Definitely a different point of view than what is often expressed on this forum!
Do any others who have read the book share the reviews point of view?
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09-11-2006, 12:02 PM
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#4 | | Super Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: New Jersey
Posts: 4,058
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What a wonderful characerization--this makes me want to read the book more.
I got a similar message from reading "the Gatekeepers." Some kids got exactly what they wanted, some had too many choices, some seemed not to have nearly what they thought they wanted. Yet all seemed to end up with options they can live with,and all seemed like real kids with real lives. Maybe, like so many times, reality doesn't fit the boxes that the headline writers want it to.
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09-11-2006, 12:10 PM
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#5 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Olympia, WA
Posts: 9,676
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(deleled...)
Last edited by mini; 09-11-2006 at 12:24 PM.
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09-11-2006, 12:11 PM
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#6 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: AL
Posts: 2,954
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This book I might actually want to read.
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09-11-2006, 12:20 PM
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#7 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Texas
Posts: 1,685
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I agree, great article that really makes me want to read the book. It is nice to see that kids are still being kids and not the media described "college crazed" students. I know that kids at my son's hs are definitely more concerned about homecoming and having fun senior year than they are about padding their resumes for college admission. Of course, most kids around here are pleased as punch to get into the state flagship U's.
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09-11-2006, 12:39 PM
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#8 | | Super Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: New Jersey
Posts: 4,058
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The thing I noticed about my S and his friends senior year was how unfailingly supportive they were of one another. There was no sense of competition whatsoever. When someone got a college acceptance, everyone was overjoyed; when someone got a denial, they commiserated together. Maybe it's just because we're not a "top" school district, but I tend to think students aren't that different no matter where they are.
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09-11-2006, 12:40 PM
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#9 | | Member
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 510
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I read the book and enjoyed it so much I went out and read Pledged. I now plan to read her book on Skull and Bones
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09-11-2006, 12:45 PM
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#10 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Texas
Posts: 1,685
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tom, I will say though that I read pledged and she described something that happened at my college while I was there that absolutely did not happen, so take it with a grain of salt.
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09-11-2006, 12:46 PM
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#11 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 5,476
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Garland, I agree that my kids' experience has been that they support each other a lot. However, both kids went out of their way NOT to compete too much with close friends (a choice made by the kids in Robbins' book, too), so that there were only a limited number of head-to-head competitions at schools that would not likely take a lot of kids. Where that did happen, there could be some definite wariness.
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09-11-2006, 03:20 PM
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#12 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 242
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I've read the book. Hulbert's review is overly rosy. For example, at least one of the students she follows cheats.
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09-11-2006, 04:28 PM
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#13 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 3,737
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mini: WTH? | |
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09-11-2006, 11:26 PM
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#14 | | Member
Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: TX
Posts: 848
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I'm with you, weenie. D applied to various schools, and we waited to see the FA before she finally made her decision. The school she chose costs us much less than the safety state u. No ED for her!
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09-12-2006, 10:03 AM
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#15 | | Member
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 328
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I have been struggling to read this book for over a month and so far I have missed what the reviewer is talking about. One kid, who is at Harvard, has an overbearing mother. Another of the top students is losing her hair, another had a project stolen. I did not see these kids as enjoying their senior year , so I must be missing something. Maybe it is apparent in the second half of the book
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