Coping with competition

Northview students feel pressured to take more rigor

Graphic by Kevin Xiang, Editor-in-Chief, & Neha Gurram, Staff Writer

Kevin Xiang, Editor-in-Chief, & Neha Gurram, Staff Writer

Ambitious students, taking numerous Advanced Placement (AP) and honors classes, earning the highest grades possible, and pursuing high test scores with the motivation to look like the ideal college applicant, fill the halls of Northview High School. However, these dreams and ambitions escalate into competition, where students start to pit themselves against each other in the race to be the best.

This competition has been around in the early years of Northview and is still highly prevalent today, with the number of rigorous classes students take, the grades they receive, and the extracurriculars they participate in all being factors used to stay ahead of their peers.

“I have a lot of friends that go to Lambert or neighboring schools, and every time you mention the school that you go to, they always have a face or reaction that demonstrates the culture that Northview has,” freshman Eshan Notta said.

Course Selection

A key area where the academic competition and pressure ramps up is in course selection. When choosing classes, students often feel pressure to take high-level classes, usually AP-level, to follow in the footsteps of their peers.

“I feel like I'm definitely getting some sort of academic FOMO,” Notta said. “I have friends that take AP calculus as a freshman. Why am I not doing that?”

The staff of Northview are widely aware of this idea and are still trying to devise how to debunk the idea among the parents and students at Northview.

“How do we ramp down this idea that we have to take 10 APs to get into college, because colleges aren’t saying that,” Principal Martin Neuhaus said. “Maybe your parents are saying that or yourselves, or maybe it’s just this idea that no one’s really saying it but it’s perpetuated.”

Notta puts the origin on culture–with Northview’s high Asian population, many students feel pressured by their families to outperform their peers. This culture has pushed Notta to consider taking AP Biology in lieu of an art class in preparation for a future art career.

To combat this narrative, Neuhaus and other administrators are trying to shine the spotlight on the arts and athletics aspect of Northview to remind students that there is more to a college application than academics. He also wanted to urge students to have fun in high school rather than constantly finding ways to outshine their peers academically.

“We’ve tried to put emphasis on arts and athletics. I’m very intentional about what I'm trying to do this year,” Neuhaus said. “You can’t just be all academics and get accepted to college.”

Neuhaus also points out–colleges value quality over quantity. Finding and excelling at a niche would be much more valuable. But Notta points to an obstacle to this exploration: Northview’s scheduling cap.

“We only have two free electives, and one almost immediately goes to a world language requirement,” Notta said. “That doesn't leave a lot of room to experiment.”

Grades

Another manifestation of Northview’s competition culture is with grades. Students constantly attempt to outscore each other on assessments and assignments. For valedictorian Vaishali Prahalad, that pressure is something she has to be mindful of.

“That constant expectation from other people is a lot to manage, but I kind of just tune people out and do my own thing,” Prahalad said. “Once you set that expectation that you're someone who's smart, it just feels like a lot of pressure.”

However, before 2014, the pressure was even more intense since Northview still had its rank system. As its name suggests, students were publicly ranked with numbers based on their weighted GPAs compared to the rest of their classmates. Due to the intensity of comparison among the student body, many would undermine the achievements of their peers. This stress to be the best did not just stop at the kids but came to the parents and the staff.

“When I started here, class rank existed, and it was very cutthroat. One of the data points we used to express that it was unnecessary if [a student] had an A for their GPA, [was they] were often times in the bottom 50th percentile of your class,” former Northview Principal Brian Downey said. “What message are we sending to that kid and to our community?”

With mental health referrals mounting, Downey successfully removed the class rank system. Yet, the pressure to get high grades remains. Lake noticed changes in the Northview dynamic where people started helping their friends on assessments rather than their competitive nature fully taking over. However, Lake still notes regardless of this new dynamic, students are still highly competitive about their grades.

“It went from a lot of students competing against each other in ways that were like really personal and toxic. In order to get just one rank above[the older dynamic] other people to now there's a whole sauce thing of people trying to help each other with getting their grades higher but still being competitive against each other and that's kind of an interesting dynamic,” Lake said.

“Everybody strives to get not even a 90, but a 95 and above, and it's like, I'd be happy with an 80 completely,” Junior Taylin Andega said.

Andega offers that students should look further than the number. For example, an 82 on a project might still be one of the highest in the class. Focusing solely on grades misses crucial context about the complexity and work put into assignments. For Prahalad, watching friend groups is a must.

“[Find] a good group of friends who will be there to support you and don't ever ask you about your grades,” Prahalad said.

SAT/ACT

Preparing for standardized tests such as the SAT or ACT also forms a significant part of that academic competition.

“I think the stress must come from people starting the prep when they're so young and being able to take it so many times. People have this push to get the highest score you can,” Lake said. “I only took it one time and I didn't really feel that stressed about it, but I didn't grow up being sent to insert test prep place here in fourth grade.”

For Northview counselor Cindy Choung, even with test preparation, the results are not as effective. After four or five exams, Choung sees students’ scores plateau. In addition, she emphasizes the relative importance of test scores.

“Colleges are looking at the SATs and ACT scores,” Choung said. “They may not focus on it as much as a student may think. For example, Georgia Tech, they'll even tell us that the SAT or ACT score isn't going to determine their placement in that college.”

Next Steps

Fixing the competition culture will not be an easy road. Andega points to the fact that Northview is already traditionally focused on academic excellence, compared to more sports-focused schools such as Chattahoochee High School. To that end, Northview’s administration has focused on building up some school spirit.

“We've focused a lot on Northview Nation,” Choung said. “I think continuing to focus on Northview Nation–the spirit weeks, all of that stuff–that's what makes high school fun.”

Lake believes that taking advantage of those opportunities is central to having a great high school experience.

“I wish people wouldn’t squander it caring so much about how their grades compared to other peoples’,” Lake said.