Penn is my alma mater, at least for grad school, and as a teaching assistant, I saw some of those pressures in the kids there. One poor freshman came to me in tears because she was on track to get a B+ in an intro course. She was so nervous that it would ruin her chances at med school and that her father would berate her. I was really taken aback by this. She was deserving of a B+ based on her performance, and she never came to review sessions or office hours, until the final. I felt badly for her, especially about the fact that she felt she would sorely disappoint her father with a B+. I tried to be of some support with, "Look, if the worst thing that happens during your four years here is that you get a B+ in this class, you'll have no problem getting into med school." I really wanted to give her some perspective on it. She ended up getting a solid B+ because that was what her performance level warranted. I had no say in the final grade, it was up to the professor. I just hoped that her parents would be supportive of it as well. But, if she got that worked up over an intro class, God bless her when/if she did go to med school.
It's a shame that kids feel these extreme pressures. It's a shame that some parents put these pressures on kids. It appears that the girl in the story had a loving, supportive family, and she was lucky for that. They tried, and my hear goes out to her family, especially because they tried. Kids, thrust into a new university environment, particularly those that excelled in high school, are so vulnerable to self-imposed pressure. It's also a shame that her running, which I am sure she enjoyed in high school, seems to have also contributed to those stresses. I hope this story does open some parents' eyes to another kid with these problems, and that they are able to help their child through it.
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