“My kid did a very expensive sport (now his career) that was not recruitable,”
This is sort of the double standard adcoms have, they’re ok with expensive year-round sports that could cost say 10K a year (club fees, travel etc.) that a family spends for 5 or 6 years as these tend to start in middle school, but get turned off by a 5K-7K summer program for three summers? 60K vs 15K, the irony is not lost.
“that if the summer endeavor cost anything significant, it may be a turn-off to AO’s and at the least it wasn’t going to count for much (even if it fit the student’s interests ; and if it were free, only then it would be an impressive amazing activity).”
I have also heard this, but there’s a difference between turned off and not going to count for much or provide no admissions boost as a poster said was on the MIT website. There’s a big difference between being neutral to the summer activity vs. being negative to it.