<p>Here’s is my nimrod: End of Junior year: 3.4; 1580; very rigorous schedule for 3 years; However, slipped from 3.6 to 3.4. Never cracked the SAT study book I bought him. 3 years baseball. A few hours of volunteer work at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thinking about joining Decca his Senior year. However, a million hours working on his car; a million
hours fishing; a million hours in the gym working out. Stays out of trouble; not one traffic ticket; overall very responsible kid. Not a metrosexual. Not the club type. Doesn’t like to sit around and yap. Conservative political attitudes (like his dad). Just an all around no-nonsense guy. Top choices; University of Washington, Gonzaga; Western; U. of Oregon.</p>
<p>So, how does this kid sell himself in an enviroment of increasing “multi-cultural” clap trap;
and touchy feely community organizing resumes? This is a serious question. He has got to get his foot in the door, past the liberal gate keepers. Thanks for any response and insight.</p>
<p>But seriously, the best thing he can do at this point is improve his numbers. At this point the GPA pretty much is what it is, but it’s not to late to retake and improve the SAT, or try the ACT.</p>
<p>You say he is “an all around no-nonsense guy”. I hope he is no-nonsense enough to see beyond the “multi-cultural clap trap”, “touchy feely community organizing resumes”, and “liberal gate keepers” pablum you’re spewing.</p>
<p>Maybe if you stopped caring so much about who is liberal and who is not,and stopped being so ignorant you and your son would have an easier time with life in general. There are other people in the world besides white hardcore Christian Americans and that’s really important to understand. If a college sees on your son’s application that he is totally against that, they’re not going to like him very much.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you want to raise him as a true 'MURIKIN with conservative views, you may as well make him drop out of high school right now so he can become a professional Nascar fan and have a happy life with his cousin and inbred children.</p>
<p>As is true with most liberals, you are guilty of the very type of narrow-mindedness that you accuse others of possessing. How do you know the OP is white and Christian? Only whites can be conservative in your world? I happen to be a black man attending an Ivy League institution who is extremely conservative politically. There’s nothing in the OP’s post that could possibly lead a rational mind to conclude that he’s against all non-whites. Your conclusions reflect your own ignornace and bias. Grow up.</p>
<p>Firstly, if your son emits this extreme anti-liberal attitude when he’s attending college, he’ll most likely be heckled pretty badly. So that’s something to look out for.</p>
<p>Anyway, I’m guessing you’re from the Pacific Northwest. Have you looked at small schools like Whitworth? It’s a conservative Christian school, I don’t know if your kid would be into that. If he wants the whole “<3 football, PAC 10” thing then he should try out the ACT. There’s a good chance that he could get accepted by U of W provided that he can get his scores up. U of O would probably not be a good fit. It’s a very liberal campus, with much weed-smoking and underage merriment. U of W is moderately liberal but there’s still a strong conservative presence.</p>
<p>Hi, I agree his best option to get in the school he wants is to raise his test scores.
Though I’m sure there’s a school for him even if he doesn’t. Just might not be his top choice.</p>
<p>Tell him to be himself. Work on essay ideas about what he is really passionate about. Cars; the outdoors/fishing, etc. If he knows what he wants to study and can make a connection to his EC (because working on his car and fishing are his main ECs)–then it gives the admissions people an idea of how he thinks, how he ticks and how he might apply his interests and be successful at their school. ie, maybe he’s interested in mechanical engineering or something–or maybe something in the environmental sciences? Or exercise science?</p>
<p>Personally, I am moderate and my daughter is very liberal–but I would never have been able to glean her political leanings from reading her essays. They were really about how she’d grown from work experiences she’d had, not about her stance on any issues. </p>
<p>There’s nothing on the application that asks if you are liberal or conservative, though if one displays an arrogant or unpleasant attitude it will be likely to turn anyone off. So–tell him to be himself, be positive, and talk about what makes him excited about life.</p>
<p>Time out. Didn’t mean to start a firestorm. My son’s #1 choice is University of Washington.</p>
<p>So, from what people have said he will have to:</p>
<p>1 Improve his SAT by at least 200 pts. to have a chance</p>
<ol>
<li>His application essay will be key. He won’t have a mile long list of ECs for reasons which I have already stated. He won’t be able to play the diversity card either. He does believe character is primary. I like the suggestion that he sell himself in a positive way. He works hard, he loves the outdoors, he has always taken on a challenge, he can tear an engine apart. He wants to be an engineer. We shall see what happens.</li>
</ol>
<p>“So, how does this kid sell himself in an enviroment of increasing “multi-cultural” clap trap;
and touchy feely community organizing resumes? This is a serious question. He has got to get his foot in the door, past the liberal gate keepers. Thanks for any response and insight.”</p>
<p>Most colleges accept student overwhelmingly based on the students’ stats and – for public universities – their state of residence.</p>
<p>Most colleges won’t care about what your son thinks about diversity, etc., but they will care about his SAT score, which is average. Since your son is not a candidate for the very top colleges in the country-- and those are the ones that most care about things like ECs, etc-- what will be most important for him to do will be to apply to some colleges where his stats are at least at the average for student whom the college admits. </p>
<p>Whether he does ECs, etc. just isn’t going to matter to the kind of colleges that he’s likely to be applying to. Maintaining and even raising his stats senior year will be important. Due to the weak economy, public schools are being flooded with very strong applicants who include some who in better economic times would be choosing more expensive, private schools, so also make sure he has safeties.</p>
<p>Due to his stats, U Wash. is a reach, and if he’s not a state resident, is even more of a reach.</p>
<p>I think for U of Washington, his GPA and SAT scores are the most important at this point. He doesn’t necessarily have to improve by 200 points on the SAT, but even just 20, 30 points on each section may help.</p>
<p>Does he have good relationships with his teachers? Maybe someone who may know his talent with cars? Teacher recommendations are quite important as well.</p>
<p>He can start a gun factory, and that’ll shine on his extracurricular list. No kids have ever attempted to make one. That’s a fact! ^^
Any way, Washington is hard to get in, he needs to get in to the target range (SAT and GPA) before he can really “sell” himself. Or else, he’ll get denied at the parking lot and not being able to sell his stuff at the vending booth.
There are other shortcuts, however, like recruited atheletes, any sorts of hooks, which can push one’s chance of admission. This, however, is often rare.
P.S. The all-around kid image is getting more blurry each day. Finding a passion and pursue it till the end is definitely a hook. Then convey it somewhere in your app. Hehe</p>