Here's a link to a New York Times article about the pressure on teenage girls to achieve perfection or some version of it so that they can get into a good college, have a good career, make good money, and have a good family. Of course, you can't have all of the things that go with a successful life (money, career, family) unless you get into one of the best colleges.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/us/01girls.html?ex=1176523200&en=79cd42f1c3cffa70&ei=5070
The pressure that these girls are under is enormous, and I don't know who is more to blame for the pressure - the girls or their parents (or society?). There is something deeply disturbing about this article, probably having to do with the contradiction between the girls' intense focus on NOT conforming to societal pressure to be materialistic, thin, and cookie-cutter beautiful and the comprises they make (i.e. buying $250 jeans and saying that being "effortlessly hot" is probably prized over everything else).
This, coupled with the most emailed article in The New York Times "A Great Year for Ivy League Schools, but Not So Good for Applicants to Them," makes me so thankful that I went to college when the application process wasn't so insanely competetive. Then again, applying to grad school has been pretty competetive... Which makes me wonder how the bar will continue to be raised as these kids finish undergrad and move on to grad school. Scary. Somebody stop them!
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/education/04colleges.html?em&ex=1176004800&en=1f0bd7218ce4c9f6&ei=5087%0A
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