There’s a couple of Your College Bound Kid podcast episodes from some time last year that talk about this very topic…leadership in ECs. Go do a search on their website and have your kid listen to it. Your kid’s and her peers’ assumptions are way off the mark because college admissions departments have a much wider view of what leadership other than “officer of the XYZ club.”
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I just learned today that D26’s application for her summer biology lab program–which we got in early!–was mishandled in some way (can’t get a clear answer, and I don’t want to be that crazy parent) and was essentially “lost” for weeks, then “found,” and now the program that we thought she’d get into (for good reasons) is full and they put her on a waiting list. I am ready to melt down (embarrassing, yes, but some of you know we also just finished the 23-24 application cycle with twins–so.many.applications. I’m burnt out.). I have some calls to make tomorrow, but I’m well aware it’s May 14th. She has a job lined up, so that’s good, but we’ve got a wrench in the works for sure. 
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How frustrating!
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Could you maybe point me to specific ones that would be helpful, if you happen to remember?
I looked through the titles of recent episodes and tried listening to this one, but it seemed to make the opposite point, that ECs have to be super impressive or AOs will just ignore them: YCBK 423: How are extracurricular activities evaluated by highly rejective colleges - Your College-Bound Kid
I didn’t see any other recent episodes that looked relevant, and I used the search function to search for “leadership” and nothing relevant seemed to come up.
I personally hate listening to podcasts or really any kind of audio format content, so normally for a podcast or recorded interview I just read the transcript, but YCBK doesn’t seem to have transcripts? (Maybe I missed something?)
Give me a few days to do some hunting (lots of family stuff going on the next few days!), and I’ll find it.
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Ap world exam done! 2 more weeks to go with a few final exams.
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We put in a Hail Mary app at a different program that might have a space (
) and she has a possible lead on an art internship. Between that and one of my S24’s not opening an important housing email for his dorm until 12 days after the deadline (why?! it’s a mystery and I wish colleges would just send the parents all the dorm info but I know that’s not happening…) I am ready for some kind of margarita. Good luck with your family visit!!!
Yes! D26 was relieved to be done after AP World this afternoon. Her overall takeaway was “eh, I think I probably passed,” but in hearing her more detailed breakdown later, I would guess that she may be underselling it a bit. But in any event, it’s done, and just a few class days are left. Maybe she has some finals too? I really should pay more attention to the school schedule.
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@tamagotchi there are transcripts on their website at Transcripts - Your College-Bound Kid 
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If you are a Parent of a HS Class of 20xx please join the corresponding group below (ONLY IF YOU ARE AN ACTUAL PARENT). This will add a special designation to your profile that will identify you as such.
Class of 2024: Parents hs class of 2024 - College Confidential Forums
Class of 2025: Parents hs class of 2025 - College Confidential Forums
Class of 2026: Parents hs class of 2026 - College Confidential Forums
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Ok, I joined. Glad to join the group… but I don’t really want the thingy attached to my avatar, or the gray words next to my name, on every post I make on this site… most of my posts are about my S23 or general posts… 
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@tamagotchi, here’s how you can remove that: Class of 20XX Closed Forums - #2 by CC_Sorin
Thank you!
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D26 doing a summer internship at state flagship with a professor on some kind of machine learning with dolphins or something.
I have no idea what it is except it’ll keep her busy. Only issue is we have to pay a driver a few days/week to take her to the university which will cost us a couple of thousand dollars. Basically it’s the equivalent of a summer camp so hopefully she learns something.
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D26 said today that she’s going to apply to a local frozen yogurt shop for a part time job. Yay! She turns 16 in a little over a week.
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D26 nailed down her nursing shadowing experience for the summer. She will be doing that, as well as babysitting and working for a week at a cheerleading camp. She has her road test for her license in three hours 
Will definitely be nice once she can get herself to her activities. S24 leaves for Auburn on 8/11 and D26 will stay behind. We decided that having her come will make it more chaotic and add to the stress and she and her brother decided it was better for her to say goodbye at home. She will stay home and attend pre season practices and take care of the pets.
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That’s great that your D found a nursing shadowing opportunity!
We are struggling a bit to find ways to fill my D26’s summer. She applied to a couple of paid internships in healthcare, but they didn’t pan out (she is technically still waitlisted at one, but it seems unlikely at this point.) And, because she is 15 yrs old for most of the summer, she’s not old enough to volunteer at area hospitals or even work a regular job most places.
At least she has sports – diving practice 10 hours per week (she’s a varsity diver) and a summer basketball league (low commitment). Plus she will participate in a nurse camp in June.
Given her light schedule, I am thinking about taking advantage of the summer to do SAT test prep. We just learned our state is moving from the SAT/PSAT to the ACT/Pre-ACT beginning next school year as the required state exam. I am a little annoyed there is no transition period, especially since my D has taken the PSAT twice per year since 9th grade and historically done well (most recently 1350 on the PSAT10). Now it looks like I will have to schedule a private SAT (is the fall too early?) and maybe also prep for an in-school ACT next spring. What are other people doing about testing?
We are going to start prep classes after fall sports end (early December) and she will do 10 weeks (one a week) and then do both ACT and SAT Feb/March and see which one is better for her. Then do a second sitting later in the spring. We did the same with her S24 brother and it worked out well. He ended up doing much better on ACT so those were the scores that got submitted.
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D26 will take the PSAT this fall and then we’re going to have her take the SAT on whatever the next test date is after the PSAT. Our state requires all high school grads to take the ACT, so our high school will have the 11th graders take the ACT during a school day some time in the spring (I want to say March?).
Honestly, we’re not going to bother having D26 do any test prep for either the SAT or ACT. The colleges she’ll probably be applying to are test optional. All of our in-state public universities are test optional and she’ll have a high enough GPA to be an auto-admit. And we won’t be targeting any tippy top fancy schools.
A high test score would make a school like UAH cheaper than in-state (AZ) for us (it has a similar major that D26 is interested in compared to U of A), but she’s already said that she doesn’t want to go to college in Alabama. An ok test score would make UNM cheaper than in-state, but they don’t have the right configuration of major that she wants at the moment and she doesn’t want to live in Albuquerque.
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We will do test prep over the summer and likely take the SAT in August and the PSAT in October. We have to look at all the schedules first though. I may have him try the ACT as well. My others both did better on the ACT. The school year gets so busy for doing prep, that I’d rather do it in June/July instead.
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