# Toxic race for college overwhelming stressed-out teens > Source: > Published: 2026-07-07 20:30:01+00:00 **Getting your** [Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...*Editor’s note: This story is part of the annual Mosaic Journalism Program for Bay Area high school students, an intensive course in journalism. Students in the program report and photograph stories under the guidance of professional journalists.* Sarah Kim’s experience at Cupertino High so far has been a go-go-go race for academic perfection. A rising junior, she knows it’s only going to get worse. “It’s really easy to get caught up in academics and the pressure,” she said. “I guess I will try to focus on one thing at a time.” At high-achieving schools like hers, the campus culture can turn into an echo chamber where Advanced Placement classes, standardized test scores and Ivy League aspirations dominate hallway conversation. Many students like Kim know the pressure is unhealthy but go along with it anyway. Alexander Kendrick, a rising sophomore at Santa Clara High School, agrees. He said many students measures success on where they are accepted to college. “A lot of kids, they care about the name more than what they get from it,” he said. Data that the AIM Ideas Lab collected in 2025 from more than 270 students reveals that nearly 60% of students felt overwhelmed on a weekly, if not daily, basis. “The State of Youth Mental Health in the Bay Area” survey found a common pattern: juniors and seniors in high school reported peak levels of stress, typically caused by intense course work and college applications. Recent Cupertino High graduate Atrisa Raghozar reflected on how this dynamic shaped her high school career. “It’s really hard to not compare and think, ‘What if I could have done things differently?’ ” she said. “It’s just something that’s always going to be embedded into my brain.” Students are burning themselves out as they sacrifice their well-being for the sake of prestige. Students say the toxic culture of “academic validation” is leaving a lasting impact on them , even after graduation. Kim tries to take a more positive, mental approach. “For me, I don’t really want to be caught up in a comparison trap,” she said. “My friends and I are all doing different things, and we all have different mentalities.” When college decisions finally roll in, the culmination of years of pressure can lead to burnout, especially if things do not go according to plan. For Raghozar, the rejections and disappointments altered her mentality and motivation entirely. “I couldn’t go outside for days. I skipped school for a few days,” she said. The ingrained culture of comparing college names makes it difficult to shake feelings of dissatisfaction. Throughout her four years, Raghozar found herself caught in a cycle of pushing to stay on the academic curve built in her school. The pressure to excel has followed Raghozar beyond high school to her new playing grounds as an incoming freshman at Scripps College in Southern California, a prestigious school to be sure – but not on the radar at Cupertino High. *Kayla Lee is a member of the class of 2028 at Cupertino High School.*