@VickiSoCal Sounds like she is just being under confident. The G.S. Leadership and leadership at her job as a lifeguard ARE very good leadership positions and nothing to sneeze at. Working as a lifeguard & swim instructor takes a lot of leadership & responsibility. What does she think a leadership position for a H.S. student involves?
Certainly better & more authentic than leadership many kids put down, claiming to be president of a club that does 3 things a year.
My son’s only leadership are as a CIT at his wilderness camp. For the schools he is applying to I’m hoping its enough, at least to write something about for his two Insight Essays.
@CA1543 , so sorry to hear that. You know my view on this, how PSAT and new SAT has better curves for math than reading and writing, so the math kids suffer!! I am sure you geeky son will do great in college admission process though. Not many kids have national award at sophomore year!!
@VickiSoCal You can tell your D that leadership is about qualities, not titles and what she’s doing - instructing, coaching is very much leadership. She is imparting her knowledge and skills to others. That counts!
@VickiSoCal — is she worried about how the activity page of the CA looks?
My older son did not have a lot of leadership roles either and after his first run through at filling in the activity page, the white spaces looked gaping to me (in Print Preview). While he was a year round swimmer on a local team, HS Varsity team, and summer club team, he never achieved anything noteworthy. Great stats for summer swimming but nothing more than say 12th place at States for HS swimming and even less with the year round team, but I decided that he had to fill the white spaces with accomplishments, so he listed 12th place at States and whatever his summer awards were. (The summer ones meant more to me as he swam with that team for ten years.)
I STILL have not looked at this year’s CA but assume the activity page has not changed much in three years, so I guess my advice for your D would be to think of the accomplishments she can list. Not everyone is a leader, and the things she has done sound impressive to me. It may just be a matter of writing them down and seeing in black and white.
I agree with @midwest67 so much that I wish it was possible to like the post numerous times. Most schools have tremendous opportunities available for the students that seek them out. My personal POV is that it is complete hogwash that great opportunities exist at only a mythical few schools.
By spring, they just want decisions made so they can move on. By the time they get to campus, they are usually excited and happy with where they are.
She was filling out the brag sheet from her guidance office and it had 5 slots for leadership, 5 slots for service, 5 for summer activities, so on. I think she thinks if she doesn’t have 5 in everything it looks very white!
@VickiSoCal --OK, that makes sense now (brag sheet). Tell her that many students (including my own) have nothing for employment or very little for volunteering, and she has those covered in spades.
It is the CA Activity section where she needs to focus her energy, IMHO.
@VickiSoCal Tell it’s more about the quality than quantity. Plus have her fill out things in more than one box. (Lifeguarding is service, & leadership and a job.) And remind her that one really good leadership activity (such as the job lifeguarding/swim instructing) is worth more than filling out boxes.
Very frustrated with my DD’s College Counselor (CC). She told my DD yesterday that she didn’t need safeties on her list because she could consider Georgetown to be one so was she going to apply there early. When my daughter responded that why would she waste her early round on a school considered to be safe and that she was thinking along the lines of Princeton or Yale for the early round, the CC responded - “Oh, you are one of those…”
My S17 has one leadership position, but it’s with a group that he’s been involved with for all of high school. But his few clubs and activities are commitments on his part, with many hours for each. Remember that the CA looks at total hours spent on an activity.
My son17 doesn’t have a lot of leadership either, he’s a soccer referee on the weekends where he is the head ref.
He was a captain of his sports teams as a freshman, but not since. He is involved with DECA and Model UN, but I don’t think he does any leadership stuff with them. Maybe this year.
For volunteering he does some tutoring and runs a food drive for a sports team. That’s about it.
He does have a lot of dedication though Has stuck with sports and club sports teams, summer teams, and has been a member of Deca and Model UN thru high school. A lot of time spent on those.
He’s not trying to get into tippy top schools, I think he will be fine. I’m not worried about it.
@TimEnchanter I think your perception of USC’s surrounding area will depend on what exit they have you take to get to the school. Just having gone to a few games at the adjacent Coliseum, the exit for that looks a little south of what you might take for USC and goes through some rougher neighborhoods. That might give a very different impression than if you take one exit north that comes out right next to the campus.
@TimEnchanter@CA1543 agreeing with @youcee that your perception of USC will be heavily influenced by which side you come at it from, but also where you’re from. I’m from OC and never considered USC area particularly sketchy. My kids have grown up in Stepford so their idea of sketchy is a neighborhood with an unmowed lawn.
Here is a recap of last night’s “My kid has no clue and is driving me crazy” conversation:
My insecure (and seriously stressed out) D was crying last night that she didn’t want to visit any of the safeties on her list. We have a problem that any school within driving distance she knows some kid that goes there that is either “weird” or “mean” or whatever else and insecure teenage girl feels. Which in her mind translates to ALL “weird” or “mean” or whatever kids go to X school. I was/am hoping a campus visit will alleviate her fears of this but she doesn’t want to visit.
And to make matters worse the schools that are matches and reaches that she says she likes are all pretty far away. (and we won’t visit unless accepted). She says now she is ok with the distance from home, but knowing my insecure kiddo, I am worried that might be a problem come spring.
Leadership is far more than heading a club. Once you get out of that mindset, I think most kids can reflect and realize they’ve been leaders. The fact that CA asks for traditional position-based leadership is why essays are important. For example, lifeguarding, refereeing, swim instructor are actually more traditional leadership. For those positions, focus on the description of duties. Family commitments are another good example of leadership, eg taking care of younger siblings. The kids on CC that claim positions in 10 school clubs give the wrong impression. Quality over quantity. Leadership like everything should fit into the student’s personal narrative and therefore won’t be just about leading a bunch of clubs. Even with club positions, the question is what did the student really do.
I’m still waiting to hear for GA. I was feeling super stressed and bummed about it probably being 219, then realized when I went to lunch that my wallet was missing.
I spent ten freaked out minutes searching for it, and when I finally found it I realized in a weird way that I wasn’t really that upset about whether she makes it or not. If she does it may mean more scholarship money for some schools. If she doesn’t she’ll still get in. It’s not a make or break thing.
Sometimes a good dose of relativity is just what one needs. =)