Well - with a freshman right now at Vanderbilt and a junior in high school in the thick of several APs and honors precalc, I can totally relate to what you are saying… Our older one sacrificed a lot of fun in high school to get most of the top school acceptances that he wanted. Now that he is a freshman at Vanderbilt and its really not been a great experience so far, my younger one is seeing that and is relaxing a bit and we are telling him “do not sacrifice your happiness right now- for some perceived happiness in the future that may or may not happen”… We want him to be balanced and still have time to see friends, exercise and play guitar and if that means he has less top 20 or top 30 choices when he is a senior, so be it… In fact he asked if he can apply to Vandy and at this point we told him “NO” because we are not happy how they have handled the freshman class that is currently there… Yes - there is a pandemic but they are essentially enforcing a police state on campus, the kids are lonely, isolated,and terrified of getting in trouble… It’s not a good experience and we know of other students that have already gone home after being there just 5-6 weeks. So my biggest takeaway right now for the younger one in high school is “things change, nothing is guaranteed and make sure that while you strive to get into a university you want, do not sacrifice your happiness now only to be possibly disappointed once you get to said university”…