Have you ever heard your parents lecture you about your upcoming summer plans, or why that extracurricular would look amazing on a college application? It almost feels some parents are the ones trying to get accepted into college, not their children.
Some parents are overly obsessed with college and need to understand that this college pressure can cause more harm than good in students. This constant college craze needs to stop, before high school becomes a rigorous experience aimed only at getting accepted into the best colleges.
Parents encourage students to enroll in summer programs at the start of middle school that will supposedly give them an advantage in college or give them high school or college credit. Parents are urging their children to start SAT preparation and summer internships earlier, transforming their childrens’ summer vacation into two months of just working towards college. They constantly enforce the importance of getting into a good college, to the point where students feel stressed just after hearing the “c” word.
This is dangerous because the student may lose interest in other activities or hobbies they used to find enjoyable; their only reason to start a new activity quickly becomes buffering their college applications. Some students could gradually lose their true personality over the course of high school because of the constant stream of work and activities they have to keep up with and perform well in.
This “college craze” of obsessed parents eventually rubs off on their children, and the whole family becomes so intent on getting into an elite college that one forgets to enjoy the once in a lifetime experience of high school.
Some students these days seem to think that after they work hard and get their acceptance letters senior year, they have accomplished everything they need to in life, and that the battle is over. What these college-crazed parents fail to tell their children is that college isn’t the end of the road; the journey continues far after the college admissions process.
After getting into college, students have to work hard to get into another good college for a master’s degree. Even after that they have to work to landing a substantial career to support themselves in the future.
With this college obsession, high school can all too fast become a vague memory of studying and stress when it could have been a time to enjoy youth and learn to become a more responsible and independent person.
High school is supposed to be four years of making mistakes and learning how to fix them, not four years of compiling an endless list of impressive extracurriculars and summer courses. Parents need to give their children room to grow and develop their interests and passions.