Agreed. We're at a point where if you want to get into a top college, you have to be interesting. You must have done something unusual, ambitious, creative, or anything beyond sports or band or violin and a bunch of AP courses.
Guess what? Kids who have never had time to play are ones who have never had time to develop cool interests.
Jack Nicholson said it best (repeatedly): All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
I know enough of those who went to these so-called top tier colleges, meanwhile I took my time getting through an average college, but nonetheless exploring interests, making eclectic friends.
Most people around me were treating life like a sprint - My young self even back then knew it was a marathon.
I am not saying be aimless but don't drive yourself crazy at this altar of success - it will come, but there are life lessons you learn in your 20s - that are the foundation for a better life later.
Because the kids now, and their parents, have mostly gone through an education system that constantly hammers you on how you need to get into the top college, you must go to college, you should be taking as many AP classes as possible to get into a top college. They've had 30 or so years to be propagandized into believing it.
There was also definitely a strong undercurrent of first-generation immigrants to the US pushing their kids hard, because they had no reason to distrust the message that if you want to succeed in the US, you need to go to a top college so you can get a good job.
Guess what? Kids who have never had time to play are ones who have never had time to develop cool interests.
Jack Nicholson said it best (repeatedly): All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.