Charlene Dupray was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" by her classmates at New Hanover High School in Wilmington, N.C., in 1990. That honor has been hanging over her ever since.
Even though she went on to graduate from the University of Chicago, travel throughout southern Europe, the Middle East and the Caribbean as a cruise-line tour director and pull down a six-figure salary in executive recruiting, Ms. Dupray, now 38 years old, says, "I have been constantly evaluating my success and using that silly award as a benchmark."
More high schools are eliminating senior-class polls, a long-standing tradition for graduating classes, in part out of concern for their effect on recipients. Research suggests most winners of the most-likely-to-succeed label will do well later in life, based on their academic ability, social skills and motivation. Less is known about the psychological impact. Some former winners of the title say what seemed like a nice vote of confidence from their classmates actually created a sense of pressure or self-doubt.
"Being noosed with 'most likely to succeed' is like lugging an albatross to every job interview, new relationship or writing endeavor," says Blake Atwood, 30, of Irving, Texas, and a copywriter for a law firm. His 80 classmates at his Lorena, Texas, high school bestowed the label on him in 1998. Recalling these expectations just deepened his self-doubt during a six-year period after college when he wasn't working in his chosen field, as a writer, he says.
