I’ve been away from the thread so I am just catching up. Congrats to all with good news about acceptances and accomplishments! And for those still working towards deadlines, may any struggles with websites end in your favor.
My DS has hit a bit if a wall. The euphoria of an early acceptance, fun college visit and Thanksgiving break has worn off and the reality of projects due and exams just a few weeks away is weighing heavy. It is going to be a huge exercise is self-motivation to gather the energy to get his last Honors application done by 12/8. I am bracing for some late nights and the resulting crankiness.
AsleepAtTheWheel as your S with swimming, my D was on a highly competitive outside soccer team (besides JV and Varsity school soccer) for over three years (8th to mid 11th grade) practicing 3x per week, private training 1-2x per week (which was necessary for most of the girls to maintain a viable and playing roster spot), games and scrimmages each weekend (many which were 2 plus hours distance from home) for 9 1/2 months out of each year (she had off the month of September (to give the girls time to devote to school soccer without over doing it and possibly causing injury) a couple of weeks in December (for the holidays) and a couple of weeks off in either July or August (for vacations) depending on tourney schedule. If some adcomm doesn’t believe the amount of hours in those 40 weeks a year I would gladly show them the gas receipts, training bills, hotel bills from out of state tourneys LOL. Sure a few or the girls did not train as much and as a result did not play as much or make it onto to tournament rosters. But the huge time and financial commitment made it so only those truly wanting to play stayed on the team. No one was there padding their college resume. So I find that adcomm’s remark about her D starting a french club that never met strange from our perspective. My D finally decided that the time commitment was becoming too all consuming (and the camaraderie that she loved and once glued the team together was giving way to backbiting and very snarky behavior) and she wanted more time to devote more time to her other EC’s, social activities and to possibly pursue some new EC’s. It is documented in depth on her application (in activities and as an additional essay) and I now wonder if some adcomm will not believe the depth of her commitment to that prior passion. It will be interesting to see the application decisions as they come in and wonder how it was judged.
@carolinamom2boys I too hope that these adcomms take the time effort and energy put into becoming an Eagle Scout (or similar pursuit) and do not poo poo it as contrived (like that french club). If not…what a sad state of affairs it is? These kids DO put in so much into their important activities. To have them poo poo’d is too sad to consider.
@lvmjac1 My son has quite a few other ECs on his resume that most admissions personnel would recognize and value, so I’m sure he’ll be fine. None have the level of commitment as scouts.
On the subject of extracurriculars…
D has…well, not much. Very not much, though not for want of maternal nagging.
S has enough for both of them and a few other kids, but it’s nearly all music. Which would be great, if he were…y’know…intending to be a music major. I’m hoping that schools are serious when they say they want pointy kids, because this one is a stiletto. We added up his music commitments and they’re roughly 40 hours any given week. He does it because he enjoys it, but it will be interesting to see if university changes any of that. I would think it would almost have to, just insofar as time management needs will change.
Weirdly, S wrote only peripherally about his ECs in most of his essays. His reasoning was “mom, they know I’m a musician, I need to tell them other stuff”, which made sense at the time. So for example, on one that gave a choice of “favorite author, composer, or moviemaker” he wrote about H.G.Wells. D, on the other hand, wrote her only required essay (most of her schools didn’t want one) on her relative lack of ECs and what she’s learned from spending a year in one club, a semester in another, a year in a third. I wish she could have sent it to more schools; it was a great essay.
DD’s EC is very focus on writing and editing. 3 hrs of daily transportation between home and school and mountains of homework do not let her take many EC choices. She dropped swimming and flute at the end of 10th grade. She did not do well on both. Anyway, my wife wanted DD continued swimming believe it is important to keep excise and I wanted DD continued flute because one of my regret is no instrument lesson during young years. Anyway, DD did not like both and that’s what it was. She did not mention anything about flute or swimming in her application thinking it’s irrelevant.
I wish college admission is more focused on academics leaving EC more personal but so many qualified students.
@carolinamom2boys In this area there is a lot of overlap between boys who want to be engineers and Eagle Scouts, so in that context it might not seem unusual. But “not unusual” shouldn’t mean valueless, either. As someone else mentioned, just the qualities that one either has innately or develops by going through the long process of achieving that rank should say quite a bit.
And I say this as someone whose son never made it past Tiger Cubs!
The comment about starting a French club that never meets really struck a cord with me. I know for a fact that there are at least 3 clubs (probably many more) that were started because kids wanted leadership on their resumes. These clubs don’t meet, unless you count friends hanging out after school. Don’t accomplish anything. But… they were started and now have given the students not only additional activities (named to show interest in their fields of study) but leadership/ founding a club as well. As much as this irks me, here’s a thought. If the adcom is any good, they will note that no where on their recs will it say all the wonderful things these kids have done in these clubs or what obstacles they’ve overcome to found them or continue them. Hopefully the disconnect will be noted.
In regards to adcoms not having a clue about the importance of something like Eagle Scout and making remarks like ‘everyone is one’. My S went to an highly competitive engineering summer program. It was free to the families because the sponsors wanted these kids. There were 88 students last year. They are supposedly the best students in their field in the state. Princeton generally accepts 25 or more (out of the 88 - not a bad percentage) of them each year. An adcom at a highly selective school once told me ‘Oh, everyone has that program on their resume’ What? No they don’t. But… from his perspective, his top candidates in that field probably do. Yes, its a shame that their hard work and efforts are undervalued at times, but if they did it for reasons other than college apps, then there was really nothing lost. If they did it for their college apps, then they lost a lot more than just their time.
@petrichor11 regarding spikey kids, my S is probably one of the spikiest kids ever, I was worried about that too. (he ended up at his dream school) I also met lots of parents on these boards last year whose kids were just as spikey. Some into music, video game design, robots, whatever. Each of those kids got into schools that were high on their lists and made them very happy. I remember thinking, ‘how can that kid get in there, he has no ECs related to his field of study, don’t they say they want depth of commitment?’ That kid with just music ECs got in almost everywhere he applied, and he aimed really high. Your S will find exactly where he fits and his music will show them exactly what he’s willing to do for something he loves.
I totally agree with what most of you are saying. My son’s extra curricular activities were things that he loved and as a result, gave him great confidence and leadership skills and some even kept him in great shape. They were all done as benefits for his interests and his growth as a young man. If the admissions officers don’t see the value in them, then so be it. He will end up somewhere that is right for him. Where he goes to college really isn’t the defining moment in his life (though there are days that we think it is…). Being a quality individual is what is important to him and to me.
@NYDad513 The colleges my son is applying to seem to be more focused on academics. It’s when he’s trying to get into the Honors programs that ECs are evaluated. So many different rules it’s hard to play the game effectively
DD ends up not putting some of her EC on application first not to dilute the important ones, and second because not enough room on application. Since her sport was such a big part of her identity for almost a decade, this ends up in one of her supplement essays for most of the schools. Being president of one of her clubs that is really important for her as a female in STEM also ends up as one of her supplement essay. Her 15 hours per week job gets listed as well. Everything else, including presidential position in another club and few cabinet positions in few other gets left off of her application most of the time.
@AsleepAtTheWheel My D is a swimmer too, so I KNOW how much time they spend in the pool. And like your S, she wrote her essay about swimming. I only wish she would continue, but she is a D3 level swimmer (she could be good at that level) who is applying to more D1 schools. I am trying to get her to consider water polo–her other sport is soccer and it seems like a good fit.
A lot of colleges admit by numbers/ academics. There are relatively few that are holistic but those few are the ones that are the dream schools for a lot of kids.
My son made Eagle Scout back in Feb. He has been in the scouts since he was a Tiger and he loves it. He doesn’t turn 18 until Mar so he is busy earning Palms now. He only has about 5 ECs but they are all pretty long term ones. I’m glad for holistic admissions because while his GPA and test scores are in the ballpark for the top schools he is applying to there will be plenty of kids with higher numbers in both areas.
My oldest daughter had only about 3-4 ECs. She was a 4 year rower (20 hours a week) at her high school and in the IB program. Those 2 things took up 90% of her time. Her GPA was very good but her test scores were meh for those top schools. She got in anyway.
Full disclosure: my kids do fall under URM. I tell my son he is on “the minority report” because of all the targeted emails he gets.
D has several EC’s both in school and out, that take up a lot of her time. Like most of you have seen, not much space on the apps for all of them. The lady who ran the college tour she went on last year suggested adding a resume to her apps, and that’s what she’s been doing. We seem to be having good luck with that so far.
D did start a club last year, but it never took off. She wrote about it as an example in the short essays for on school when asked to describe a failure and what she did to overcome it. As it turns out, while she couldn’t drum up enough interest to sustain the club, another student is going to try again this year, inspired by D’s effort.
@sseamom The difference between your daughter and some the other kids I’ve seen on CC, she formed a club out of interest , not to pad a resume for college apps.
Just got a text from DS16 with a picture of an email informing him of his 3 rd acceptance. This has always been his first choice in the past , but is tied with another one of his acceptances he recently got. We’re just waiting to hear about Honors for both.
