Surprisingly well-written. The Overachievers offers a nice balance of real-character narrative and analysis, illustrative vignettes and statistics (and the anecdotes match the statistics, rather than being selected to misrepresent the broad picture, as I've seen done elsewhere). Most of the anecdotal illustrations focus on a fixed group of young people followed for about two years' worth of discussion, but that is itself balanced by interspersing the stories of other youth from other places in the United States. More balance can be found within the analysis: some aspects of overachiever culture lead to negative outcomes like excessive stress, unsupported focus on name-brand colleges and even preschools, and so forth, while other aspects lead to positive outcomes like an ability to rise to challenges, mastery of academic and/or sports skills, and more. Both sides--and more neutral in-betweens--are presented clearly.

Along the way, I even learned a little about what college recruiters really seek, as opposed to what the popular myths suggest they seek, and was glad for the inside info. Finally, Robbins ends the book with solid, specific advice for everyone from parents to students to high school teachers to colleges, which I appreciated.

The descriptions are eloquent and detailed, bringing people and places to life, illustrating the big ideas and statistics so seamlessly that I was often too caught up in the story to notice that I was simultaneously absorbing the background data.

Overall, I was very impressed; Robbins is an insightful, skilled storyteller, freely admitting that she was (is?) an "overachiever" herself.

This was an enjoyable, worthwhile read. I'd recommend it.

This is the third book I've read by Alexandra Robbins, the first two being Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities and Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis: Advice from Twentysomethings Who Have Been There and Survived (Perigee Book). It follows high school overachievers (and one college freshman) as they maneuver through the pressure of shooting for straight A's, high SAT scores and the college of their dreams.
The writing style and structure of this book is very similar to Pledged. She intertwines the stories of the students with commentary and statistics to try to ground the stories of the individuals in a more representative context of statistics and nationwide coverage. Unfortunately because of this, the book coverage feels like it's a mile wide and an inch deep. The author follows so many students that it feels like we only scratch the surface on their motivations and emotions. It also becomes just too many characters to care about, especially since many of the students receive far less coverage than the others and each person's story is told individually. Also, if you're really interested in what happens to these students you might feel like the portions of the book that pull back to talk in more detail about key trends will get in the way.
By the same token, if you're interested in the broader perspective on overachieving teens you will likely disappointed by how much of the coverage is devoted to individuals stories and how little research she sites that identifies that what she is talking about is truly a national epidemic. As someone who works in consumer research I would have expected her to include more meat here. Yes, she does do interviews across the country in addition to her in-depth coverage of the students of her former high school. However, these interviews are still very qualitative in natural and lack the sound statistics to really quantify this issue. She goes on to cite her recommendations for what changes schools will make in the end, but it seems kind of simplistic if our overall cultural emphasis on success and perfection doesn't change. One could argue that overachieving kids is just a byproduct of what's going on in our culture as a whole.
All this said, I still found the book very interesting. It was intriguing reading the characters' stories and how it brought back for me my own high school experience. A lot of the content in their stories wasn't just about overachieving but also about relationships, insecurities, and the challenges of being a teenager. However, I did wish she had dug into a fewer students stories more deeply and peppered in stronger statistics to make the case that this is a bigger issue at a national level. It also might have been better if she'd chosen to primarily follow students at a high school other than her own as it comes off as a bit pretentious, especially when she talks about how exceptional the school is. Overall it's a pretty good book, but there's still room for improvement.

"The Overachievers" is a fascinating investigation into the lives of some of America's top students - the kids who want to do it all and oftentimes do, but at great personal cost and for dubious reasons.

Alexandra Robbins befriends and follows several students from Whitman High School in Maryland through one school year as they try their best to score perfect 1600s and 2400s on the SATs, be accepted into Ivy League schools and pad their resumes to impress the admissions officers with tons of extracurriculur activities (one student she interviewed had SIX typewritten pages of extracurricular activities!).

Robbins intersperses research and interesting facts with her stories of the students and discusses the unhealthy obsession with perfection and how the true values of education (knowledge, exploration, wisdom, self-discovery to name a few) is often subverted in the name test numbers, be they SAT, ACT or No Child Left Behind tests. She correctly notes tha honesty and any actual learning is routinely sacrificed for the GPA points due to widespread cheating, especially by the good and even great students. I've been teaching for 19 years now and I've never encountered so much cheating (and plagiarism) as I have in the last three years. It's rarely the weak students - the ones that outsiders would suspect. Nope - it's the good students - the ones with so much riding on maintaining super-high GPAs that they cannot afford even one off quiz.

The students ring true to me. I know kids like she's profiled here - the flirt, the Slacker, AP Frank, the Meathead, the Superstar. They come from a variety of homes and financial situations (though most are upper class - money does not seem to be a worry for most of them).

I hope that Alexandra Robbins turns her talents to documenting other groups of kids in schools someday, but in the meantime this is a fine and thought-provoking introduction to the modern American high school.

LOVE this book and would recommend this to everyone!! Everyone I know who has read it has found some part applicable to themselves or their friends in high school! Informative and engaging - a must read for all students!!

thia book is great the author has some great points and the book gives you the information in an entertaining way. however there is some bias and you can see the author is only showing you the negtive aspects of an overachieving world. again i think thtat the book is great to read but one must take it in without buying into every word she says. overall an informative book well worth reading