According to Harvard Magazine, the acceptance rate for Harvard applicants in the class of 1989 was 16.1 percent.

Today, for the class of 2028, that number stands at 3.6 percent.

And the total number of students enrolled remains almost the same, while the number of applicants only continues to grow.

This growing scarcity of spots at prestigious schools breeds unrelenting competition.

Competition fuels ambition.

And ambition, when left unchecked, can harden into obsessive perfectionism.

Still, the school’s role isn’t to reject ambition — but to channel it.

While school life can be easily simplified to a zero-sum game, measured by grades and test scores, the school tries to build a culture that values both achievement and fulfillment, without sacrificing one for the other.

“I think that St. Mark’s does a good job of thinking of everything as an infinite game,” sophomore Eugene Wang said.

As a college preparatory school, the culture exists within a unique bubble — a bubble that comes with built-in expectations.

A bubble full of students boasting remarkable achievements.

A bubble where students may feel pressured to match or outperform their peers to fulfill the great expectations set by their parents, by their community and especially by themselves.

“I think everybody realizes the social push is on the side of competition, and often the parents are sending their kid to St. Mark’s primarily for college admission,” Malcolm K. and Minda Brachman Master Teaching Chair Martin Stegemoeller said.

These social norms bring inevitable pressure, but despite a high-intensity environment, many students, including junior Nathan Tan, agree that the school community helps to offset that stress.

“I think we’re taught to be supportive of each other no matter what, even in the midst of college stuff,” Tan said. “Have I felt that (pressure)? Yes, and I think everyone has, because of the caliber (of students) that St. Mark’s has. Any school will ultimately have that, but I think there are things that the school does and that the people do that can help manage that.”

And while it would be reasonable to assume that competition is fiercest between classmates, Stegemoeller has seen students become more supportive of each other throughout the entire process, even amidst the initial stretch of looming deadlines.

“It’s competitive against the whole crowd of people applying, not just here (at St. Mark’s), and that’s different, I would say, as a benefit of the school’s efforts in character and leadership,” Stegemoeller said. “I think if you go back 20 years, there was a lot more competition among seniors.”

In fact, instead of a cutthroat atmosphere between students, Tan believes that openness and collaboration serve as cornerstones of the community.

“They don’t really keep secrets here at St. Mark’s,” Tan said. “Whereas in some schools, everybody’s very secretive about their activities and awards and things that they’re applying to because they don’t want other people to apply to them.”

Despite the potential downsides of an overly-ambitious mindset, Wang feels that peer pressure can be a good driver of innovation and encourage a healthy competition between students.

“I don’t think (the culture is) very toxic,” Wang said. “I think most teachers do a really good job of setting a goal for each individual student, and just helping everyone learn at their own pace.”

For Stegemoeller, helping students balance college aspirations with deeper fulfillment is a key challenge.

While students rarely struggle to seek achievement, he has seen many struggle to find purpose beyond grades and accolades.

“I’ve never met a student who needed help understanding succeeding,” Stegemoeller said. “It’s very natural, but thriving can be much tougher. Some kids get it very quickly, partially depending on how they were raised. Others, it takes months.”

That distinction between success and fulfillment often stems from how a student’s ambition is directed.

“There is a distinction between ambition and doing things just for college, just for the numbers,” Tan said. “I think St. Mark students are very ambitious in general. They want to accomplish as much as possible. But I would say we have the good recognition of having ambition towards something that you’re actually passionate about.”

Similarly, Wang believes that choosing certain clubs and extracurriculars based on college potential alone leads to a lack of passion, limiting what students can gain from the experience — both on a personal level and for applying to college.

“I think that some people definitely do them for the college apps,” Wang said. “And I can see the appeal in doing so. But the key thing to realize is if you do it only for the college app and not because you actually enjoy the subject or whatever you’re doing, then you don’t really get a lot out of the club.”

He believes that devoting significant time to classes or clubs that spark curiosity will naturally lead to growth, influence and leadership opportunities.

And while students will ultimately always feel pressure to build their college résumés, that drive and passion can coexist in harmony.

When ambition aligns with genuine passion, purpose and impact, the result can be both successful and meaningful — with college serving as an authentic byproduct rather than the sole objective.

“Students are inevitably going to do things just for college apps, though, and I think it’s not worth it to hyper-fixate on getting into college,” Tan said. “I feel like if you actually do things that you are good at and that you are passionate about and that are making an impact, then college will naturally follow, and you can tell a genuine story about what you’ve done.”