<p>I just finished Alexandria Robbins's book The Overachievers. The book really resonated with me and her journalism was superb and really placed this whole college admissions game and it's unnecessarily cutthroat environment into perspective for me.</p>
<p>I was just wondering - have any of you read this book? What do you think about it?</p>
<p>I was skimming throught it at the bookstore and when I read the description of one of the example students - Audrey, I think - I felt like it had been written for me. I stood there and read every single Audrey entry and each time I was surprised with how closely Robbins had captured that type of student. I didn't finish the whole book, but what I read was incredibly accurate.</p>
<p>Yeah - I didn't see myself as any one character, but an amalgamation of them. Audrey was definitely a character I see in a lot of people I know, along with the other kids depicted in the book.</p>
<p>I'm curious now--can someone describe this Audrey character?</p>
<p>She basically was a character that always freaked out about every little thing. Very precise, methodical girl who wanted to do everything on 2 hours of sleep.</p>
<p>gonna read it!</p>
<p>I'm definitely an overachiever, but I need my 8 hours (MINIMUM) of sleep each day. Bedtime is around 10pm at the latest.</p>
<p>I just don't know how anyone can get anything done without a full nights of sleep.</p>
<p>Wow....i'm gonna pick that up tomorrow.</p>
<p>hmmm... I guess this is why I'm not going to get accepted anywhere... defin. not me... If I'm sleep deprived... it's usually not caused by perfectionism...:(</p>
<p>That's the whole thing though - the book is really a total rail against perfectionism and the stresses it puts on your body, mind and soul. It puts it all in perspective because these kids hit rock bottom and somewhat come back stronger. Of course Audrey can't totally shake of the shackles of her perfectionism, one comes to understand their limits.</p>
<p>So does it say anything about "normal" kids being able to get accepted to their top schools...or do we have to be brilliant, hit rock bottom, and then persevere?</p>
<p>Yes there is a "normal" kid who in a quite amusing passage brings his Calculus textbook to a Metallica concert to do problems during the crappy opening-number. But I guess that's not 100% normal. There is also a kid who is happy to go to the state school, but the high school community in general aim for the Ivies and name brands. It definitely is though about the overachievers and primarily focuses on their stories.</p>
<p>haha....I brought a book to a party once.</p>
<p>I do sometimes. I wait for people to get drunk and high and then I go into another room and do homework or study cause I don't really want to be around them anyways. =]</p>
<p>Haha. I haven't read The Overachievers, but I did read Pledged by the same author and it was really amazing. At first I thought it was going to be a stereotypical "sororities are evil institutions" book, but it was really just fresh and honest and allowed you to kind of...come to your own conclusions. So I like Alexandra Robbins and I think I'm definitely going to read that.</p>
<p>Has anybody else ever thought that there are kind of 2 kinds of people: those that are really affected by little sleep and those that can get by just fine? I usually sleep around 4-5 hours a night, if that, and I'm always fine and I'm not grumpy or anything. My sister, however, can't sleep less than 8 hours a night without being an irritable mess all day long. That's weird to me.</p>
<p>Hmmm... I don't know many sorority grls, but the frats I know are all pretty sweet&smart... I really don't know where people get the GreekHouses=axis of evil theory... I mean, I'm sure some of them are, but most aren't really stupid at all...</p>
<p>Yeah....I can't run on less than 6 hours of sleep...</p>
<p>I wish I could sleep 4 hours and be completely active, but it just doesn't work for me. You are lucky. :)</p>
<p>The Overachievers is written about kids who go to my overachieving school. I knew some of them when I was a freshman. I knew AP Frank, they really called him that. Walt Whitman HS, where I go, is really scary. Its hyper-competitive, with the highest average SAT scores of any school in the state. Its a public school, but its in one of the richest (and highest concentration of PHDs) zip codes in the country.</p>
<p>What you've gotta remember is that Alexandra Robbins had an agenda to push. Personally, I don't think she exaggerated, but she picked unfair examples of kids. Tons of kids at our school (~10%) every year go to Ivy league schools without being basketcases. I'm going to Harvard next year.</p>
<p>I saw AP Frank in the Yard once (recognized him by his facebook photo). I obviously didn't bother him, but I thought it was cool.</p>
<p>whats his real name?</p>