Re: “formed a French club that never met, but hey it looked great on her resume .”
Can I just say that in this world where so often there are external measures for determining and recording our performance, which then get attached in some form to our work ethic and character, that the Eagle Scout can, 100 % of the time, look in the mirror without flinching.
100% of the time.
I would agree that girl scouts gold award process (and I would assume boy scouts eagle project) is a very time consuming program. The project my dd did for her gold award is one the things she is the most proud of. she faced a lot of the sort of naysaying and questioning of the value of pursuing the award from wellmeaning family who just wanted her to kick back and enjoy senior year stress free. She came from a troop of just two girls so there was not alot of group support. whether it is valued by the colleges or not, what the kids learn by pushing themselves to complete these projects or accomplish these larger goals, that is really what should be valued.
@Themommymommy Congrats for your son’s dental school acceptance.
Chee hoo! So much fun finally knowing via the List of Acceptances thread. Thanks to everyone who has posted. 
@Waiting2exhale – I have no inside knowledge here. I’m likely influenced by seeing what goes on at my kids’ ultra-liberal (but no more so than the typical LAC or elite university) private high school. . . . I do discount anecdotal stories regarding admission reps who state how they do value Eagle Scout status. Their job is to promote the school, increase the number of applications, and convince anyone who might be remotely interested that they have a good shot at getting in.
I think that doing what one needs to do to become an Eagle Scout is not valued as much as many other similar non-athletic commitments of equal time and effort. I think that many of these adcomms would look more favorably on a kid who worked a couple of hours every other weekend on some political campaign, even though that probably required less time and effort.
An interesting piece of the common app is the applicant’s self-reporting how many hours a week are spent on his/her various EC’s. On some of the ‘chance me’ threads or decision threads there are posts where the cumulative number of hours spent doing EC’s are clearly beyond anything believable. But I think that there may also be some eye-rolling when some legitimate numbers are entered in that box. My son entered 22 or 24 hrs/week spent swimming. That is an accurate number if you add up his swim time, commute time to and from the pool, and two or four weekend days/month spent at meets. But I’m sure that a lot of other parents and members of adcomms think that it’s an exaggeration. My suspicion is that’s true of a lot of the different activites that our kids are involved in.
Furthermore, I think that some might look at my son’s swimming and say, “That’s great that a kid can be so committed and work so hard towards a specific goal.” But others might say, “What a waste of time, going back and forth in a pool for so many hours a week. He doesn’t do much else. He must be boring and one-dimensional.” Writing his common app essay about swimming probably didn’t help. S16 is certainly not one-dimensional, but I’m not sure how they’d know that.
My DD spent between 20 to 25 hours per week when she was involved with her sport for the last 3 years. Before that it was about 15 hours per week. She had 4 hours training 5 times per week.
I have always thought that the reason to encourage your children to be an Eagle Scout is similar to the reason to encourage your children to play the piano: these activities enhance their lives as children and adults and teach responsibility and discipline, among many other things. Our DC are all competent pianists but none is a brilliant concert pianist. And this is okay with me, because I want them to have the skill set that piano offers and I’m not worried about piano being part of their college resume. Not everything is about college admissions.
So I guess I think the “Hey, it looks great on her college resume” parent of the Faux French Club founder is both sad and troubling. I remember a similar experience: a mother in DD16’s fourth-grade class told me about how her child was taking trumpet lessons, because “trumpet looks so much better than piano on a college resume.” I have nothing against playing the trumpet; in fact, I feel that those who are passionate about playing the trumpet should toot away. We wanted our kids to be have a different sort of musical education, and this meant learning both the bass clef and treble clef along with music history and theory. These skills are more easily acquired by studying the piano. It didn’t matter that much that piano isn’t what looks good on a college resume. The trumpet mom moved with her kid when he was in sixth grade. I wonder if he is still playing the trumpet.
@carolinamom2boys, yikes, I would definitely disregard her opinion. It’s a discouraging reality that there are people like her judging our kids’ accomplishments.
@AsleepAtTheWheel , I have no doubt that some probably don’t believe the number of hours my daughter spends on extracurricular activities, be it her multiple year round sports, music, community service, jobs! I’m sure I would question it if I was on the outside looking in, lol. But it’s true. She is THAT busy. Homeschooling has allowed a bit more flexibility to the schedule, and she fills every available hour.
Take today: orchestra for an hour, 45 min of ice skating practice, violin lesson for an hour (45 min drive each way to that), 2 hours ski practice, 1 1/2 hours tutoring at Homework Club, and 1 1/2 hours at her accompaniment job at the church (choir practice night.) Totally normal day, though the activities may vary.
@EastGrad – Neighbors who live a few houses down from us have a son who took up the oboe, after his parents learned that there were numerous college orchestras who were oboist-less. There simply weren’t enough oboists to go around. The summer before his senior year he received all sorts of invitations to residential college summer music programs, as part of an effort to recruit him.
After all that he went to UC Davis, where his oboe played no role in his admission. The oboe was left at home. He now has a successful career in biotech. Go figure.
Good Grief, indeed.
That is a whopper of a schedule.
" Faux French Club founder…" Ouch!
@AsleepAtTheWheel : If the colleges looked at my son’s main extracurricular, something which he did over all of his high school years, and in the summer, both at school and with companies throughout our area, and were to scoff at the time he put in, or discount it, then that would mean they would have had to admit him on the basis of his grades, scores and recs alone. Since so much of what I’ve read here on CC indicates that it is the ECs which make or break the “something extra” a kid brings to the table, such a calculation would have made it difficult for him to be accepted anywhere.
I am not arguing with you, just stating that I hope those people in whom we are placing so much trust to fairly and with an even-temper, assess our kids for entry into their next entering class, are lying to every one of us when they hold these open meetings.
I don’t know what my son wrote about in many of his essays, but I cannot imagine the kid failing to write about things that so filled out his life, and broadened him as a person.
Playing an instrument like the oboe solely to get into college might be an effective admissions strategy, @AsleepAtTheWheel, but in terms of whole-life strategy it just seems wrong to me. (But if your child loves the oboe, as my nephew does in fact, then I whole-heartedly support him playing the oboe!!)
(You know what’s funny…said nephew, also Class of '16, also plays the piano…and the trumpet! He’s a significantly better musician than DD.) :))
Just want to add that “hope those people…are lying to every one of us,” is not a typo.
So many of us have differing stories of what we have been told, and what others have said they have been told, that the admissions reps and officers must huddle together at the end of the day with a glass of tequila and split a button or two over the big one they told “that last group during the info session/college comes to you/college in your area” group.
They must truly be working from some formula that they reveal to no one.
@GoodGrief16, your child has 10 hours of daily extra curriculars as a “normal” schedule?
Well, S had his last Mock Trial competition tonight. Another activity that has come to an end. As he sat up at the attorney’s table I just kept looking at him and thinking, “I will never see him at a table like that again.” I also wanted to remember his last objection, cross examination, statements etc… Now it’s over…forever.
In my own experience , there was huge differences in what I was told in a group setting , and what I was told one on one. That’s what took me aback. The intent at the group setting was everyone apply,apply, apply, but one on one it was more " we’re very selective" . Again, this was not an admission’s rep for the entire university, just the Honors College. Also, several of the schools my son applied to offered additional scholarships for Boys State/ Girls State recipients listed separately on their scholarship page which to me would indicate their desirability as an applicant, but maybe that’s my misperception. I would never suggest my son’s Eagle Scout status would make him a more desirable applicant than any other applicant who has dedicated a huge part of their life pursuing their passion or interest. My only hope is that it is considered and valued in the same context.
You know, carolinamom2boys, the value of the parent-sharing in this thread is simply enlightening; astounding, even.
“My only hope is that it is considered and valued in the same context.”
I second that.
I hope that for your son too, @carolinamom2boys.
@GoldenWest, not terribly unusual for her. It does sound insane written out like that. She is the only one of my kids that maintains that level of activity