Data from 2024 Student Burnout Survey conducted by Miramonte juniors Ava Moga, Zoe Schmitt and Emma Wong.
At Miramonte High School, students take an average of 7.38 Honors or AP-weighted courses throughout their high school career. Academic pressure at Miramonte has steadily increased as more seniors are accepted into Ivy League schools each year. Grade culture – the unrealistic standard to excel academically – has morphed the once magical high school experience into a minefield of exams and scores.
Many students have bought into this grade culture, selling their souls to colleges and devoting themselves only to what looks best on college applications rather than what their hearts truly desire.
While grade culture may be the motivational push some need to focus on academics, for most it only reduces students’ mental health as they enter the seemingly never-ending typhoon of comparison and self-interpreted failure.
“Grade culture at Miramonte makes you unable to cut the line between school and your personal life,” said junior Ryan Loughran.
A student burnout survey conducted by Miramonte juniors Ava Moga, Zoe Schmitt and Emma Wong reveals the severity of academic pressure students face. Out of 232 Miramonte respondents, 96.5% answered that they had experienced burnout at some point in their high school career. These students associate burnout with feelings of “anxiety,” “mental fatigue” and “giving up.”
“The work from AP and Honors classes piles on top of each other, making it difficult to manage my time and not feel overwhelmed with work,” said one anonymous respondent.
“[With AP and Honors courses], there’s more pressure to perform and more work that sometimes feels unmanageable,” said another.
Despite how rigorous classes inflict mental health issues, students continue filling their course selections with them. Grade culture has conjured the idea that a noteworthy transcript is worth sacrificing students’ mental health. However, students may fail to realize their GPA is simply not worth the sacrifices they make.
“It’s not just the transcript, it’s not just the grades themselves [that colleges look at],” said Miramonte’s College and Career Counselor Stephanie Brady. “That’s the piece of it people don’t always understand.”
“Students are more focused on obtaining a good grade than actually learning the content or finding a deeper understanding,” said Miramonte sophomore Annie Strickler.
One way to combat the mentally draining nature of grade culture is for students to pursue their true interests rather than choosing the first classes with “AP” at the beginning or “Honors” at the end.
Another common misconception among the Miramonte community is that being admitted to prestigious colleges requires grand actions like founding a non-profit organization or devoting the entirety of your spare time to community service.
“A lot of high school students get involved in volunteer opportunities or other extracurriculars solely to bolster their college application,” said Strickler.
These extracurriculars appear noteworthy until every single applicant has the same resume, and college admission officers begin to see through the “perfect student” facade. Instead of focusing on loading themselves with extracurriculars that look “good” on college applications, counselors recommend students should partake in activities they truly enjoy.
Some students are beginning to realize the high school experience shouldn’t revolve around exam scores and final transcripts. It shouldn’t revolve around college admissions, either. It’s about finding yourself, creating memories and pursuing your passions.
“We believe it’s all about getting [into college], when ultimately, it’s a stepping stone into life,” said Brady.
