@Gatormama if only watching Disney shopping hauls on YouTube counted as an impressive EC, my d19 would be able to get into any college.
Fast Wifi or data speed is up there with Food. :)) I guess Wifi is more important since he can cook. He might try reroute his dorm thoughâŠ
I donât get the multiple extracurriculars either. My daughter was in XC in the fall and is track this semester. She joined two clubs, but basically never goes to either clubâs meetings because her sport takes up too much of her time.
I was listening to a podcast where the guest was talking about doing a side project they are passionate about in addition to ECs. Iâm confused by that. My daughter runs, goes to school, and studies. Thatâs it. She has no time for anything else, much less start a âpassion projectâ
@gusmahler I know, right! School until 3:00. Practice until 6:00. Dinner, shower and study until 11:00. Not sure where the passion project fits. Oh, and sometimes S19 so tired on long run days that he falls asleep on the couch as soon as he gets home. I canât imagine going to school all day, running nine miles, and then doing four hours of homework!
Our D21 will be worse. Ballet from 5:00 until 9:30 every night plus all-day Saturday rehearsals. Not super clear when the homework will get done for her. 
My DS16 is an Eagle Scout, was on Academic and Science team and team captain, and volunteered at the Science center. He did just fine and was admitted to all 5 schools applied to , offered high merit . He didnât spend hours upon hours participating in ECs that didnât interest him. DS19 is also a Scout, participates in Academic and Science team and Youth in Government because he enjoys these things , not to pad a college resume . I encourage everyone to go on the Common Data Set for schools that their students are interested in. It will tell you how heavily they weigh ECs. I can tell you that you may be very surprised . For example , Clemson does not weigh ECs hardly at all except for the Honors college. Iâm sure thereâs quite a few others out there just like Clemson.
@carolinamom2boys Iâve heard the same thing about ECs. Find the one or two that you love. Your sons have very impressive ECs that require tons of dedication.
I think schools just like to see kids who donât do just âschoolâ. Having outside interests make any candidate more interesting. And, your point is well taken, many schools will admit students based on GPA and standardized test scores. ECs may not even be part of the equation.
We had Spring Break last week. I took D19 for a tour of the University of Arizona. In addition to the regular tour, we toured the Honors College and also the SALT program, http://salt.arizona.edu/. Normally I wouldâve waited a year to do a tour like this, but I felt that D19 needed some encouragement and a confidence boost that she has options and can succeed somewhere. D19 has ADHD, dyslexia and depression/anxiety issues. It was a positive visit. She liked the support available through the SALT program but was especially intrigued by the honors college. Right now her GPA is not really competitive for the honors college though. Her unweighted GPA is a 3.5 and the average is 3.8. But it gave her motivation and started the process of showing her some options. I was interested to learn that 90% of the freshmen in the SALT program are from out of state.
@Corinthian A lot of honors colleges accept kids after their Freshman year too, if they have the GPA and show some ambition and interest in the program. Good luck to your D
Actually, the reality is even more soâthat reads like:
Everyone on this forum, after all, needs to step back occasionally and repeat several times the mantra âCollege Confidential is not a normal placeâ.
Thanks @RightCoaster. I ran some âwhat ifâ calculations and I think that sheâd have to get all Aâs from here until graduation to get her unweighted GPA up to a 3.8. I donât want to tell her that because it would stress her out too way too much. And she doesnât have many ECâs either to help with an honors college app. But I know sheâll get in some good options.
@dfbdfb Thatâs something I have to remember also. My daughter is basically a lock for top 25%, but will need to get straight As to have a chance to get top 10% (this after being #4 in her school in Arizona).
But, based on her GPA and her projected SAT/ACT scores, sheâs a lock for any school out of the top 50 (according to prepscholar.comâs site, at least). ECs only really matter at the very top schools, schools that we canât afford anyway (we will qualify for zero need-based aid).
@Corinthian, you mention your daughterâs unweighted GPA. Thatâs something thatâs always confused me. When you see a stat that says so and so college has a 75th percentile GPA of 3.70 (or whatever), are they talking about weighted or unweighted GPA
ECâs matter at some schools. Ones that advertise holistic applications. Private Universities and LACâs in general may look at them more.
In general, I have found the whatâs important to each school, question posed in the CDS to be relatively accurate in our case. My S17 has strong ECâs, lousy test scores, decent rigor and a so-so GPA. Fabulous LORâs and a decent essay (but not exceptional in my opinion). While he did not apply to any reaches (for financial reasons), the amount of merit offered by his schools would indicate that some definitely valued his ECâs more than others and rewarded them accordingly with merit offers, others were clearly more stats based and his offers reflected that too. In general he did better than his stats alone would have indicated he would, merit money wise. âCharacterâ is another intangible measured in the CDS as an evaluation criteria. A school may be able to gleam character by the picture painted between the essays, LORâs and ECâs.
Most large state schools are stats based only and to a large degree, those ECâs may well be irrelevant. However I completely disagree that they only matter at the very top schools. How much they matter will vary greatly.
@gusmahler thatâs the big who knows question. It definitely varies by school, there appear to be no ârulesâ as to what and how schools report gpa. Clearly if you see a school that shows an average gpa over a 4.0 you know they are using a weighted number. Iâve found that if you look at the whole picture presented, GPA and average test scores, you get a much better idea how weighted or not that gpa number is. If the GPA is high but the test scores are notâŠthat shows one picture. It may also show up as the reverse.
Remember that stats are only part of the picture. Even if a student has the stats to be in the top quartile, if it is a school with a medium or low acceptance rate, no one may be a âlockâ. Every year there are a LOT of kids who are turned down by schools they thought were safeties, or at least a match.
@gusmahler I mentioned unweighted because the admissions representative at the University of Arizona honors college presentation specifically said their âunweightedâ average GPA was 3.8. I agree that it can get confusing though, but I think for things like CDS reporting schools use unweighted because itâs hard to compare different weighting systems.
A lot of schools will state on their admissions pages that they like to see kids with things like A-/B+ average, or a mix of Aâs and Bâs . That way you know the standard they are considering regardless whether your school weights or not.
Bear in mind too that schools may well take UW GPAâs and do their own recalculations to level the playing field for rigor.
@eandesmom you are right each school weighs thing differently. That why it helps to look at the CDS for the most accurate info.
What is a CDS?
The place where ECâs can help is for scholarships. Not the automatic ones but the ones where they want to hear about a kids âleadershipâ skills⊠When DS13 was applying for scholarships that came up a lot.
@eandesmom good to know that the CDS info seemed accurate! Iâve been concerned mostly about showing interest and if schools track that. I think both of our kids may end up applying to schools that look a little like safeties that turn kids down when they donât show interest. Iâm sure our S19 has no idea that showing interest is even a thing, but we will need to make sure that heâs doing that for certain schools. It will take a little time on his part so knowing the info on the CDS is correct will help us decide which schools he will need to focus on and which schools donât really count that into the equation.
@gusmahler Common Data Set, many schools post them. You can also utilize collegedata dot com web site for info