“D2 is a lot more high strung than D1. As a parent, I am constantly telling her to find ways to cope with her anxiety. A lot of our conversations often with me saying, “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” She copes with her internal pressure by exercising a lot and getting very involved with few ECs she does on campus. I talk to her often to make sure she is in a good place. She views me as a safe place for her to have her melt down”
Exactly. This is a personal thing. I guarantee there are kids at East Nowhere State U who are just as anxious about doing well in school.
Well, it seems to me that this young man might have been better off if he had had his melt-down someplace else besides an article that will remain attached to his name forever.
My son got home from Columbia yesterday (just finished junior year like the author of this article). So I decided to ask S if he knows Zach Schwartz. S says, no, who is he? I say, he’s a Columbia student in your class and he wrote this article about how everyone at Columbia sucks. S says (smiling), well he obviously never met me.
In all seriousness, my son’s experience at Columbia couldn’t be more different than Zach’s. Even making allowance for artistic license in the picture of Columbia that Zach paints, he clearly has not found a path there that suits him. Part of the problem may be his expectation that Columbia would be nirvana - no school can meet that kind of expectation. Part of the problem may be that Zach seems to be a high-stress individual inherently. Columbia (or other schools like it) may not be the best place for someone like this. But I also have to believe that he could have found a way to have a better experience there if he had tried hard enough
I guess the good news for Zach is that he only has one more year to go. In contrast, my son is feeling sad that he’ll be heading into his final year. He’ll definitely miss the place when he’s done.
For a kid who takes adderall, Percocet, and caffeine to get accepted into Columbia, and then gets angry because college kids want to discuss the existence of god while smoking pot seems more like he might be depressed and is lashing out at his environment rather than his biology.
Also for a kid to not be sure if he should have gone to Columbia vs OSU vs art college sounds like he does not know what he wants. Now, who can he blame about that? I’m sure he will find someone.
I would say that at Harvard, when I went there at least, there was too much reliance on competitive extracurriculars to provide a social outlet. Various half-butted initiatives to provide a true common social space - such as the failed Loker Commons - only testified to the lack of seriousness with which the administration viewed the problem.
That is the only specific case where my experience jibes with the writer’s, but I think it is a serious one.
I do confess that, had I been offered weed as a freshman, I probably would also have used it as an opportunity to debate the existence of God. So…guilty as charged, I guess.
This quote was referring to high school! Clearly this kid had some issues prior to attending Columbia. All-nighters in high school? Twice a week? Narcotics just to get by?
That’s a bad thing?
But…he just said this:
Well, clearly he wasn’t ready! This is a cry for help if I have ever heard one. Hopefully someone close to him recognized that and he is getting the therapy he desperately needs!
I’m a junior in high school. I’d be more content with a top 70 public school that has great football, great academics and friendly peers. I refuse to apply to an Ivy, even if I could get into one. The article assured me that I would not like ivies as I hate competition.
Anyone who goes to any place in the world expecting it to be perfect is in for a rude awakening. Appreciate and take advantage of the good, learn to make the best of the bad.
I wasn’t really a fan of the article, but I think the author made some valid points. I didn’t go to an Ivy League school, just a peer, but people were generally stressed and this affected the campus environment a bit. People were constantly under pressure to take the most classes, get the highest grades, be president of the most clubs, and get accepted to the best internships, and later jobs. Where this pressure came from, I have no idea, I certainly didn’t feel very much of it. But if I wanted to do something like go to a concert on a Tuesday night, I’d have a difficult time as people would rather study.
The author would be surprised to find that some of those issues are even worse at generic midsized state institutions, especially those used as safeties for the students wanting the IVY’s. AT least this is true for NY public schools. These are often (not always) students without genuine academic interests or passions but who were motivated only by grades in high school and sought respite from academic pressures by hanging with friends in the malls, between weekend parties of course. These are not the students who did amazing things in their spare time or were adventurous or innovative or creative. They are often students who were screened out of Ivy League schools. They still have no interest except collecting A’s for “med school” or “finance” whatever. So their engagement in class is limited to 'Is this going to be on the test". But they are still fiercely competitive with each other-it’s just that the peers are at a lower level. Their desperation about grades guides all college decision making. An A- will set them off and a B+ initiates whine alongs. Many students at SUNY, for example, feel they are at a mediocre college so they have to have even higher grades cause SUNY isn’t opening any doors And they are probably correct.
This is certainly not unique to the Ivy League, I think many kids in top 100 schools have had this kind of ups and downs through college. It really depends on 2 things - the major and the kid’s personality. Kids who major in liberal arts will probably have an easier time than kids who major in STEM, pre-med or finance. And kids who are in general more relaxed will also likely have an easier time than kids who are more neurotic/perfectionistic/competitive. Perhaps in the top 20 schools there is a higher concentration of gifted kids who are in general more perfectionistic and tend to get more stressed out.
Something tells me those who intend to get into investment banking will have a better chance getting a job by partying and schmoozing with the right crowd than acing all their tests.
I don’t know if the author’s identity is authentic. If so, after the words get out, he would have trouble getting a job or into a grad school. No employer would like to hire such a person.
@jdschooled5, in my Ivy experience, there was almost no competition whatsoever. Everyone was fully confident in getting what they wanted upon graduation (e.g., a high-paying or very interesting job, or a ticket to another degree), and so people were pretty chill.
Most top tier firms require minimum 3.5 GPA to get an interview. I don’t know about other schools, but at my kid’s school it was pretty hard to get 3.5.