Undergrad the new High School?

The Child Trap discusses the idea of "hovering parents" who take the responsibility of guiding their children to the extreme. The vast presence of these type of parents is undoubtedly alarming. They give the impression to their children that the world is going to end if they don't have an 'x' number of extracurriculars and AP courses to list on their high school transcript. Looking back on hindsight, I have come to realize that the years of being reckless and carefree are over. I did not have to work as hard as I did in order to get into a decent college. I spent so much time being paranoid about how my one less than perfect test grade was going to affect my grade in the class which would ultimately alter my GPA etc. I could have prevented a huge portion of that stress if I just knew what I know now about the grand scheme of college admissions. 

When I was in the process of finalizing which college to attend, a good family said to me, "the undergraduate education of your generation is like the high school graduation of your parents generation, and your graduate education is like their undergraduate education." This idea made me really ponder the pressure parents put on their children during high school. In reality, a student can get mediocre grades, go to a state school, then really buckle down there and come out with a killer GPA that will make for stellar marketability to employers and/or graduate admissions. This was the exact case of my neighbor. He LIVED IT UP during his high school career. He went to every sporting event, hung out with friends, and partied all the time while maintaining a B- average. His parents worried all the time that he wasn't going to succeed or get into college. They would take his car away or threaten his privileges, yet he still managed to block out their nagging and alleviate the pressure. He got into Rutgers (NJ state school) and worked hard there to eventually earn access to med school right out of undergrad. He survived through med school, and is now serving his residency at Jefferson Hospital. His success proved the different importance high school plays in the lives of students today in comparison to students of our parents' generation. The effort many parents push their children to put into high school can be explained by the fact that they have this misconception that if their child doesn't get into an Ivy League school for undergrad, their path to success is severely hindered. My neighbor is living proof that that idea is nonsense.