Narrative Racism

On smooth, evergreen lawns, blankets are spread and youth stretch out on them, laughing and mingling, or reading a book with expressions of Zen-like interest. Picturesque; this is the portrayal of college to the outside world, an image that students find will all too soon give way to the reality of what college has come to be – likened to a pressure cooker, where pressure is applied to the students in the hope that when the timer rings, they'll be prepared to perfection for their future careers. This pressure comes from many sources – lest the students turn out too rare – and can be classified into three main types: academic, personal, and environmental.

Academic pressure is without a doubt the most common pressure faced by students today. Examples of academic pressures are course workload, the number and frequency of tests, and the maintenance of a good grade (Ong and Cheong). An overwhelming majority (87.5%) of the students we interviewed named some form of academic pressure as the most serious pressure they are currently facing. This is proof that most students are constantly striving to "do well", ever haunted by visions of their final grade being anything less than an A – an occurrence that has grown increasingly unacceptable of late (qtd. in Clouse 494). It is little wonder that academic pressure ranks

so high as a source of college pressure; academic learning is, after all, what college is all about.

Another major source of pressure is personal pressure, which can be further divided into two – internal and external personal pressure. These are closely related, as students tend to respond to pressure from other people by intensifying the pressure they apply to themselves, in an effort not to be left behind (qtd. in Clouse 495 - 496). As suggested in the study by Ong and Cheong (2007), the personal pressures faced by the students are a representation of their struggle to adapt, as well as their "lack of interpersonal skills" as they find themselves in an environment which necessitates close contact and