I need some advice. Thanks in advance.
My daughter is interested in Electronics Engineering major and has designed an electronic device using Arduino and a mobile app to assist players in practicing a sport she has been involved in for a long time. She assembles the electronic devices at home by soldering components onto a prototyping board herself. She has successfully sold several of these devices to her teammates, who have found them to be very helpful. She believes that this experience could enhance her college admissions. A friend has suggested the idea of establishing a formal business (LLC, website, etc.) to give more weight to her college applications. Now, the question we have is: will establishing a proper business help her, or is it sufficient to mention it in her application?
My S got his mid-year report card and his lowest grade was a 90 (honors pre-calc). All his other grades were over 95. Meanwhile his grades for 9th and 10th averaged to an 85. No C’s, just a smattering of B’s. He didn’t care eniugh to do more than the minimum until this year — he was immature and didn’t understand the importance of academics. Ah, frontal lobe lol. I am really happy he’s got things figured out now and he is fully confident he can keep achieving at this new level.
My question — is this something you would address in the application?
This is my son too- a straight B/B+until this semester where he has a few As. I think it is pretty common, particularly with boys. He won’t be addressing it in his applications. My son won’t be applying to any super selective schools, but an upward trend is certainly seen in a positive light.
A lot of the admission “how do we look at a transcript” videos and podcast talk a lot about liking to see upward trends in grades throughout high school. AOs look at lots of transcripts and understand what a transcript is saying for most issues…it would have to be something pretty out of the ordinary to need to explain it to them.
Something that might warrant an explanation would be heavy absences in a semester where grades also dropped. AOs might want to know what happened that semester and how it was resolved.
Here is what we think happened. He is a recruited athlete and one of the coaches he reached out to said your times look great but don’t come back to me until your grades are better. That made him realize that people are actually judging him on his academics. I am trying not to let my brain go to what could have been if he had started this earlier, I’m just glad he finally figured it out.
And honestly he could be doing even better than he is now but he wants to live a balanced life. He’s told me he has no desire to spend every moment trying to be val or sal. He likes working a PT job, working out, and participating in his sports at a high level. And he likes sleep. lol
No need. S23 did not try before junior year, his GPA gradually increased to a 3.34 UW/3.78 W by application time. He had plenty of options for what he wanted. I think many students progress in this fashion.
This is 100% my kids. Some kids can get straight As and be the team captain and work. Kudos to them. My kids just weren’t that competitive. They all did their sport at a high level and either left or will leave high school blessed to have had very positive sport experiences. D25 is a solid B student. Its just who she is. She’s kind and polite. Shes a hard worker (she works on days when she doesn’t have dance practice or competitions). She will find her way. Im not worried.
Anybody applying to summer programs? We are in the thick of it. One turned in during finals (ugh) and 3 more due before the end of January. There is little motivation here. We go back tomorrow and it feels like the break was not enough. I’m hoping there is little homework or teaching these last 2 days of the week and DS can get his act in gear to complete this weekend before it ramps up again next week. It feels like applying to college, these summer apps are very comprehensive.
I really can’t blame him, my motivation really flags in the coldest, grayest part of the year aka January.
No summer programs here. D25 just wants to learn a third language. I tried to sell her on a 3 week language camp for her current foreign language and she turned me down. Hope your DS can dig deep and maybe more activity will actually lead to more activity. It is what happens for me!
We have kids 5 years apart, with D25 being the oldest. So, we are often dividing and conquering and this summer scheduling is the worst. When D25 is at a competition, D30 (you read that right) has her activity. Our summer is one big juggle with D30’s (our kid who wants to be in everything) big year-end performance for dance, her favorite theater camp sessions, and D25’s language class and sport camp. I don’t feel like my kids are over-scheduled or are super go-getters, but this leaves us literally 3 weeks out of 11 of summer with no overlap of requirements, one of which is the week before school starts that D25 has told me in the past is the worst week to travel because all her friends don’t travel that week and meet up, hang out, etc. I just want one week of a family vacation.
We’ve used Outschool for both my kids for different languages. I couldn’t sell them on GOING anywhere to learn anything but doing it over Zoom was a compromise they could take. We even squeezed classes in while on the road for vacation!
Happy New Year, all! D25 is starting auditions for summer ballet intensives, which will take up a big chunk of the summer. My new job required all vacation requests for 2024 (aside from holidays) to be submitted last August , so I’m just praying that we can find some time together with D25 and S27. I’m with @kirroyalemum --1 week is all I ask!
My S25 (and his little brother) grew spending two weeks and eventually a month at a sleep away camp on a gorgeous lake a few hours away. My husband was unsure of this decision way back when, but it has been the best gift we have ever given either boy. No girls, no electronics of any kind. It’s like Lord of the Flies meets the Parent Trap.
The boys come back so happy, well rested and just better versions of themselves in every way. They love it. S25 was asked back as a leader in training for a month last year, and this year made the selection as a counselor. It’s very competitive and he feels pretty honored to have made the cut. I’m very happy for him, but it’s a full 9 weeks. He will have zero time for college applications until late August, but it’s worth it. And this year he gets paid, instead of us paying for him to attend!
My D25 asked if she could apply for a summer music camp but she’s just got too much on her plate. She’s spending almost 3 weeks in Europe with her exchange student and traveling with her class. Plus marching band starts with meetings late July and goes to full day camp for 2 weeks in august. Doesn’t leave much time for anything else. I’m not even planning a trip out to see family like we’ve done every year since she’s been born. On another note my DH is already having anxiety thinking about her stomping around Europe and the idea that she wants to go to college across the country even though she hasn’t applied, gotten accepted, or is even affordable if she is accepted. All based on a 16 year olds having a meltdown after a really embarrassing thing happened to her at school in front of a much older male teacher. Fun times at the Steele house.
My DD was nominated by her school for our state’s Governor’s School. It runs the entire month of July at the state flagship. The acceptance rate is only 15-25% given the year so I don’t expect much to come of it. The application is intense though–two 1000 word essays and three 250 word essays. It is going to make college applications seem easy. (she also needs two teacher recommendations so she gets a dry run at that).
A bit frustrated that they don’t announce acceptances until April which really makes planning for the rest of the summer hard. Luckily, her summer employer has been understanding.
She also elected to forego her normal summer camp experience in order to apply to a college program on her major. She was accepted to that at one of her top choice colleges so she will be doing that as well.
