They're off to college ... will they still make music?

Sam is a senior at Walt Whitman High School in a suburb of Washington, D.C. As a student in one of America's best high schools, he is at the top of his class with an outstanding record of academic achievement, excellent study habits and an unusual array of extracurricular interests. Like Sam, the seniors at Whitman High are facing the most stressful year of their young lives as they struggle to choose a college and compete with their peers for admission to America's most prestigious colleges. Sam and his classmates are obsessed with choosing the right college, improving their GPAs and SAT scores and writing impressive essays for admissions applications. Sam is relying on his extraordinary list of experiences that include teaching English to teenagers in China during one summer and an internship at the U.S. Supreme Court during another summer to make his application especially impressive to admissions officers at Ivy League schools. Included somewhere in the mix of interests and talents is music study. Sam has taken piano lessons for 12 years, but the hectic schedule of senior year takes a toll on his practice time. This multi-talented high school senior is one of several students portrayed by Alexandra Robbins in The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids. (1) Robbins explores the increasing pressures facing high school seniors and how parents and teachers can either be a part of the problem or help students find a healthy balance in their busy lives.

In a few short months, a cohort of overachievers will graduate from high school and become freshmen on college campuses around the country, where they will mingle with other overachievers. Many of them have had years of music study and are preparing now for senior recitals and spring choral, band and orchestra concerts. Some will choose music as a major; others are hoping to include some type of musical participation among the broad range of new opportunities that will be available to them. Although they are members of the generation known for its ability to multitask, many of them will discontinue music study due, perhaps, to a lack of time or a lack of opportunities for musical amateurs. Even ...