(MONEY Magazine) – If you are wondering how the pressure of college admissions is playing out at even the best schools, you need look no farther than Shaker Heights High, outside Cleveland. If guidance counselors at this highly regarded public school had their way, students would apply to only five carefully selected colleges: one ''reach,'' two in which they have a fifty-fifty chance of acceptance, and two ''safeties.'' But increasingly, Shaker High seniors are just saying no. Last year almost one in five of the 377 college-bound seniors hedged their bets by applying to seven or more colleges, proportionately nearly twice as many as in 1985. Notes director of guidance R. Jeffrey Lewis: ''There are a lot of cases of kids applying to as many as 14 schools.'' Clearly, the college admissions angst finds its firmest footing at upper- middle-class schools like Shaker, where the most ambitious students -- and the most college-conscious parents -- tend to be concentrated. ''The kids here have always been competitive, but these days they are even more focused on the future,'' says Lewis. Often students' first question about a college is whether it will help them get into a desirable profession or graduate school. ''They are worried that their choice of college is really going to guide what happens to the rest of their lives,'' he says. Shaker High does what it can to make sure its students are primed for the push on college. Lewis heads a department of eight guidance counselors, each of whom has access to a computer service that matches students and colleges and to a laser-disk reference service, which allows students to visually tour colleges without sending for the schools' videotapes. In addition, the school gives free PSAT and SAT prep sessions after school and employs a private financial adviser one day a week to help families complete financial aid forms.

The colleges, for their part, are pitching the Shaker students more aggressively and more cagily than ever before. The junk mail starts to arrive as early as spring of junior year; then in October and November, an average of six college reps visit Shaker each day to chat up seniors. A growing number of institutions have also begun to bring Shaker alums back to the school to wave the college pennant for their former schoolmates. And in March, representatives of a record 140 colleges and universities packed Shaker Middle School for its 1989 college night -- an increase from 110 schools in 1985. Shaker students do their best to keep cool in the face of all the heavy breathing. Senior Phillip Turner mocks the sound-alike sales copy on the colleges' direct-mail pieces. ''They must all hire the same traveling salesman to write this stuff,'' he says. Another senior, Michael Zamore, shakes his head at the plight of a friend who applied to a dozen schools: ''I mean, if she gets into half of them, where is she going to go?'' he asks. But then, Michael has it easy: he has already been accepted at Brown. Inevitably, though, the anxiety does sometimes leak out. ''You get pressure from everybody -- the school, parents, friends,'' complains junior Amy Schonfeld. ''I know it sounds irrational, but I'm worried that if I pick the wrong place I won't have any friends and won't get a job.'' Still, Amy tries to be philosophical. ''I really think that my parents had such a good time at college that through me they are looking forward to going back,'' she says. The tough part, she adds: ''They want to go to Duke.''