Overachieving

[Shatter590]

So Im reading this book called "The Overachivers" and im finding some interesting facts about stress and the desire to succeed among high school (and younger) students, sometimes going back to preschool admissions and the desire to go ivy.

Any thoughts?

[Dan Hollister]

Back when I was as early as 8th grade, I had my sights set on Berkeley and Stanford even though I had NO CLUE what I wanted to do with my life.

Eventually I figured out what BS it was, failed out of high school, didn't go to college, and now I live in LA and get paid to make movies. So all those people forcing that stress on me (and everyone else) can suck it.

Not that what I did was smart. I still wish in a lot of ways that I hadn't slacked. I'd probably go to Berkeley in a heartbeat if I could. But I think the stress is totally unnecessary. People have heart attacks from stress. Stress literally kills people. And while I don't think it's going to literally kill anyone that young, I think that growing up with stress makes you think it's normal. It trains kids to think stress is OK and then when they grow up they keep doing things that are way too stressful for them.

[Juliana101]

The problem with overachiever's is that they brag about where they went to college and their grades and stuff.

My dad was a poor boy out of Norristown, PA and applied to only one college, Penn State. After being accepted, he got his degree in Business Logistics and began working for a Newsweek. Newsweek PAID for him to go to Graduate school at NYU.

After graduating from NYU, he got a job with a company called KPMG (Now named Bearing Point: see Phil Mickelson) and over the years he became the top 5 in a Fortune 500 company.

I'm going to Penn State now, and he says that the problem with kids and college these days is that they all want to go to the best possible school, so much so that they are willing to put themselves in debt and they STILL may not get a job.

He also says that the problem with kids who go to school like the Ivy's is that they are too busy bragging about how they went to an amazing undergrad school, but it doesn't change the fact that about 99% of them are kissing his ass.

[unwritten]

I honestly wish I was not lazy in high school. I regret not going to a better college. But, thats life I guess.

[unwritten]

The problem with overachiever's is that they brag about where they went to college and their grades and stuff.

My dad was a poor boy out of Norristown, PA and applied to only one college, Penn State. After being accepted, he got his degree in Business Logistics and began working for a Newsweek. Newsweek PAID for him to go to Graduate school at NYU.

After graduating from NYU, he got a job with a company called KPMG (Now named Bearing Point: see Phil Mickelson) and over the years he became the top 5 in a Fortune 500 company.

I'm going to Penn State now, and he says that the problem with kids and college these days is that they all want to go to the best possible school, so much so that they are willing to put themselves in debt and they STILL may not get a job.

He also says that the problem with kids who go to school like the Ivy's is that they are too busy bragging about how they went to an amazing undergrad school, but it doesn't change the fact that about 99% of them are kissing his ass.

I love hearing stories like that. When a person comes from almost nothing and makes something of themselves. It's what motivates me.

[Juliana101]

I love hearing stories like that. When a person comes from almost nothing and makes something of themselves. It's what motivates me.

Yeah, since he had a background like that, I get literally no help when I finish college. I think it will make me a better person. He always says the underdogs are the ones who succeed.

[unwritten]

Yeah, since he had a background like that, I get literally no help when I finish college. I think it will make me a better person. He always says the underdogs are the ones who succeed.

Yep. I had no help as well. Though it sucks owing 30,000 foir college (after all the free money I received from the gov't) it will definitely make me, and is making me a better person.

[Juliana101]

Yep. I had no help as well. Though it sucks owing 30,000 foir college (after all the free money I received from the gov't) it will definitely make me, and is making me a better person.

Definitely, just work hard and everything will work out.

[cal1082]

one of the largest problems i see in the classroom is kids simply being lazy. A majority of these kids who are on "special" education plans are simply lazy.

[unwritten]

one of the largest problems i see in the classroom is kids simply being lazy. A majority of these kids who are on "special" education plans are simply lazy.

I also saw a lot of kids whose mommy and daddy paid their way for college being complete retards.

[cal1082]

I also saw a lot of kids whose mommy and daddy paid their way for college being complete retards.

true, but i'm talking more on a junior high, high school level.

i'm amazed at how many kids dont know how to even use a book, or the fact that they dont even look at the book before asking for help

[PaulsRightNut]

I'm already in college and I'm almost done, and I still feel a huge amount of pressure from my parents to go and do better things. blah.

[Dan Hollister]

The problem with overachiever's is that they brag about where they went to college and their grades and stuff.

Don't blame the overachiever for overachieving. If you don't like what the overachiever is saying, then don't listen. The fact is that too many kids are pressured into overachieving in the first place, and don't have much of a choice. So while I agree with you about your father's humble beginnings and the meaning that has to you, I still find it offensive that you think bragging is the big problem.

Bragging isn't the problem. The problem is parents and teachers creating a generation of workaholic stressed-out grades-obsessed zombies who will end up living their entire lives that way and then teaching their kids to do the same thing all over again.

[Juliana101]

Don't blame the overachiever for overachieving. If you don't like what the overachiever is saying, then don't listen. The fact is that too many kids are pressured into overachieving in the first place, and don't have much of a choice. So while I agree with you about your father's humble beginnings and the meaning that has to you, I still find it offensive that you think bragging is the big problem.

Bragging isn't the problem. The problem is parents and teachers creating a generation of workaholic stressed-out grades-obsessed zombies who will end up living their entire lives that way and then teaching their kids to do the same thing all over again.

My deal with overacheiver's is that I went to high school with a lot of them. My high school was a private high school that you had to test to get in, and all I would hear about is how great they are at sports/school/women/SATsetc.

Hearing it for 4 years straight gets to you after a while, especially when you have no reason to brag.

[Dan Hollister]

I went to the richest high school in the heart of the Silicon Valley. Trust me, I heard the bragging. I'm not saying it's not annoying, I'm just saying the mental health and wellbeing of these overachievers - and their future kids - is in many ways threatened by this overachieving attitude, and I consider that to be much more terrifying than some bragger.

[savestheday129]

The problem with overachiever's is that they brag about where they went to college and their grades and stuff.

My dad was a poor boy out of Norristown, PA and applied to only one college, Penn State. After being accepted, he got his degree in Business Logistics and began working for a Newsweek. Newsweek PAID for him to go to Graduate school at NYU.

After graduating from NYU, he got a job with a company called KPMG (Now named Bearing Point: see Phil Mickelson) and over the years he became the top 5 in a Fortune 500 company.

I'm going to Penn State now, and he says that the problem with kids and college these days is that they all want to go to the best possible school, so much so that they are willing to put themselves in debt and they STILL may not get a job.

He also says that the problem with kids who go to school like the Ivy's is that they are too busy bragging about how they went to an amazing undergrad school, but it doesn't change the fact that about 99% of them are kissing his ass.

You going to Penn State - Main Campus?