Yeah, listing community service for the common app is tricky impossible. I mean, my daughter has one small monthly community service project that she does that goes down as such on the common app, but most of the rest of her community service comes through her youth group at church (they spend about half their time on service projects of various sorts), but that gets placed under the religious heading. Also, there’s no place, it seems, to say that you’ve done N hours of community service on various projects your family or friends or even you yourself have decided to do as a one-off thing—it appears to not count unless it’s a sustained, regular commitment, even if it was answering a desperate one-time call for volunteers to do a specific thing.
I’m not happy with that section of the common app, no, not at all.
S’s community service will come in the form of Boy Scouts, what they do for community outreach via FRC, and one school club that does community service in conjunction with a local police department. No NHS, no volunteer thing every week, absolutely nothing over the top. He hasn’t started a non-profit, tutored at a Title 1 school, etc. He is just an average, regular kid. His community service hours will have to be tallied up over the course of a year, not weekly or monthly. We will make it fit into the CA!
@eandesmom The Kentucky thing is actually through an organization called Appalachian Service Project, or ASP. Big organization. Our trip is organized through several churches in the community, but anyone can go whether they are church members or not.
@Tgirlfriend Have your S ask at school, or ask friends, or look in the local paper? Opportunities vary widely based on your location I would think. Make it something he would enjoy. The taps thing would really be cool I would think, too bad that didn’t pan out. I agree with others, though. Don’t sweat it.
Interesting, @dfbdfb. I haven’t created a CA account yet. Waiting for D to do it finally. Maybe I will create for fake-kid and poke around.
There is a section on the common app where you can add your kid’s resume. That is where my son will make note of service stuff he’s done through school. He’ll also be able to go into more detail about clubs, interests, hobbies.
@2muchquan …@RightCoaster…@dfbdfb. Thanks everyone…We are trying to get everything lined out before school starts back up. Getting recommendation letters and such. Thank goodness we are done with standardize testing. Now it is just filling about scholarship applications and College applications. We are in Texas so I think we do the applytexas.org webiste for most of the Texas based colleges then we have a few colleges outside of Texas he is looking into pending results in September. I think we are going to talk to the local Funeral home to see if they would like for him to play his trumpet at military funerals in the fall. Maybe that will get him some community service.
Go to a fairly decent college (in this case, name brand is important).
After graduation, get a job in their admissions department.
Simultaneously work at night tutoring kids at one of the big “test prep” companies.
After 2 or 3 years of experience, quit the college and the test prep company.
Start your own college consulting and test prep business. If you’re good, you can charge $100/hr or more in many major metro areas (especially “mania-high” areas).
In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, pose your own question or choose one of our past prompts. Be original, creative, thought provoking. Draw on your best qualities as a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic, sage, citizen of the world, or future citizen of the University of Chicago; take a little risk, and have fun
This will be my son’s “take a little risk” essay prompt:
Why does University of Chicago send me so many mailings and brochures (10 or 15 at last count) when I really have very little chance of getting accepted?
I heard U Chicago is known for grade deflation. With DS interested in applying to med school, we are thinking of eliminating schools that are known for grade deflation (U Chicago, Princeton, Cornell etc…). Any thoughts?
@srk2017 Contrary to popular thought on CC, I don’t think students at elite institutions that have grade deflation are at a disadvantage when applying to either medical or law schools. (personal experience and observation)
FYI, word is Princeton no longer has grade deflation.
@canypava Ha, yes, she has improved by grand jetes! And come to think of it, ballet taught her how to sew as well - all those elastics and ribbons… The teaching has been great for D (her class is 6-8 year olds) as it has kept her connected to ballet even as the girls who were going the pre-professional route have passed her by in some respects. She still loves it, even though it doesn’t/can’t occupy the space in her life it once did.
Someone else mentioned mowing, and, yes, my D can run a lawnmower. I actually sold her on the idea of mowing as a feminist act, and that seemed to work bizarrely well.
Count me among those who feel like PE is supposed to be about participation and not skill level. Agree that it should probably just be pass/fail.
QOTD: Our school also has the profile up on the web site too. They don’t do numeric ranking, but do give distribution of averages of the graduating class by percentage (like, 7% have a 95-100 unweighted average, etc.) They also list what AP classes are offered, how many students took how many AP exams (though they don’t list how many passed, lol, as I think the rate is pretty bad - the grade inflation here is not inconsiderable.) It was an interesting read.
2 days late and I am 20 pages behind…
Just want to say that I was wondering who is the new humorous poster until I realized it was @2muchquan changing avatar.
@2muchquan thanks for posting the UChicago prompts. I love them! (Not sure what that says about me). S may or may not apply there, but my guess is he’ll be intrigued by the prompts. H has done research on idioms, so that one will probably spark some fun family conversations if nothing else.
Our school profile gives the “average” (I assume mean) GPA and ACT, and explains how GPA is calculated (trad’l 4.0 scale, unweighted, all classes counted), but no percentiles of any kind, and nothing to help Ad Comms interpret S’s GPA in context of his courses. It does explain about the AP/DE opportunities available, but doesn’t give a sense of the number of AP/DE classes that students typically take. We’ll be relying on GC letter (a bit of a wild card) to explain everything. Feeling the lack of perceived control!!
So frustrating to hear about the various PE grading/requirement stories. Those mile times would have killed my grade (and I’m a recreational long distance runner… endurance/perseverance should count for something too, shouldn’t it?) Thank goodness our school seems to emphasize personal improvement, attitude, participation, etc. in PE grades, as D and S would also struggle to make those mile times, or to get a good grade if fitness testing performance (as opposed to effort) were graded. D19 is currently doing a couch to 5k program of her own accord over the summer, so she’s willing to try, but definitely not a natural athlete (nor is S).
My boys hate shopping. I buy two sizes of clothes and shoes for them, bring home to try on, and return the rejects.
I don’t like shopping either. My mom and sister used to shop and stock my closet. Thus, I did not develop, umm, fashion sense.
A friend said he started to shop for his own clothes not long ago. His mom and sister used to stock his closet too (when they visit.) The same for his wife. Neither wanted to shop for clothes. So he decided it’s time to shop for his own clothes. I don’t know who shops for his wife’s clothes.
I never cooked a thing not even top ramen before getting married during grad school. DH’s mom worked late so he knew how to cook, how to do household chores including sewing, ironing, etc. Good combination. :))
My mom, on household chores and cooking, well, you will get to do it for the rest of your life. Why start early? I guess my mom thought I would become a stay-at-home-mom-housewife. Her dad did not pay her elite college tuition instead he paid regional/community college tuitions for her brother and her male cousins.
