<p>"SM, you make great points. If I’m doing a summer internship with a politician and a school-year internship with a local newspaper that I’ve gotten without any parent connections, are there any specific ways I can make that evident? "</p>
<p>It would be evident in your interview and essay as well as your history of creating opportunities for yourself. </p>
<p>I have served on scholarship committees, and committees selecting students for leadership programs, and it’s very easy to differentiate the students who got things via family connections and the ones who got things via their own hard work and passions. </p>
<p>I also have sons who have gotten lots of opportunities – including, like you, internships with professional newspapers – via their own hard work. </p>
<p>People who serve on admissions committees for top colleges, and people who serve on committees for selective programs tend to have been themselves people who made opportunities for themselves, so they can recognize the difference between students who got things out of their own initiative and those who got things because of family connections.</p>
<p>The ones who get things through family connections tend to do at most what they are told. The ones who get things through their own initiative go above and beyond what’s required, and speak with enthusiasm and passion about their experiences. It’s clear that they weren’t doing the activity to simply polish their resumes.</p>