And in lousy news, it sounds like D26’s high school graduation is going to be just before D24’s finals week at the end of sophomore year of college, so D24 won’t be able to attend in person. 
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Oh noooo. That stinks. I’ve also been stressing about next year, when D22 and D26 both graduate – from college and high school, respectively – and trying to make the logistics work, since D22 is in school about 750 miles away.
I hope somehow you can make it work!
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The best I’ve come up with so far is I’m going to be the first in line at the venue so I can be in the front row. And I’ll call D24 on FaceTime just before it starts so D24 can watch it from her dorm room.
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Hopefully it’ll be live-streamed or at least recorded. We may have a similar issue. I’m crossing my fingers still until the high school calendar comes out for next year.
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With D24’s graduation, they didn’t live stream or record it.
I hate conflicts like that! My D26 has AP tests that directly conflict with my oldest’s graduation from Tulane this May. She has requested to take one of the tests on the make-up day, which means we will make it (just barely) in time for the actual ceremonies. But I am super bummed to miss the days leading up to it. NOLA is such a fun (and yummy) city. My husband is going earlier in the week w/ grandparents.
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I made a parent account on the Common App last night. S26 is going to be gone all summer as a camp counselor at sleep away camp, and so I thought it would be good to look at it. Someone I know suggested that we work on the activity list now.
I am now more confused than ever. First, for most of his colleges, there doesn’t seem to be anything that asks you to specify a major or program. He’s probably going to apply for some music therapy programs that have auditions requirements, and some guaranteed entry bachelor/grad programs in OT that have additional requirements, so it seems like the school needs to know that he’s applying for these specific programs.
In addition, he’s a kid with lots of little EC’s. They add up to a cohesive narrative, but we’ll need to combine them to get it down to 10 entries. We had some ideas about how to do so, but now that we’ve seen the actual form, I’m not sure how that will work.
For example, he’ll have 4 summers as a camp counselor, at 4 different camps. I thought we could make one entry for “camp counselor”. But the form asks for an “organization”, which makes that tricky. The form also distinguishes between paid and volunteer work, and he’ll have some of each.
I had also thought that perhaps he could make an entry that was swim teacher/coach, and include his summer swim team (which he’s coached both as a volunteer and then for pay) and the two pools where he’s taught lessons for pay, and the Special Olympics team he coaches as a volunteer. But again, that’s mixing organizations and volunteer/paid.
My other question is about whether things like sports teams at school, and music ensembles at school count if he got school credit for them. His school requires students to play a sport each season, and he has a mix of JV, Varsity, interscholastic, and intramural sports. Does he list none of them? Just the JV and Varsity ones? He’s also in music ensembles that are classes during the school day, classes that appear on his transcript but practice outside of school hours, ensembles that practice at school but don’t appear on his transcript, private lessons during the day at school that don’t appear on his transcript, and things outside of school. Which of those does he list?
Do any of you who have older kids have thoughts on these?
My D24 didn’t have your son’s problem (i.e., more activities than there are spots for in the Activities list on the Common App), but if I were in that situation, I’d probably start off by:
- make a big master list of everything
- include dates & # of hours per week for how many months from each school year
- then take a step back from it and see where there are common themes or trends.
- for the sports he’s played each season, if they’re the same sport each different season, then that might help. For example, football every fall, basketball every winter, baseball every spring…then started out as JV, moved to Varsity in grade X, interscholastic in grade Y. That sort of thing.
- definitely put the swim stuff down. It adds to the story of ‘He’s involved in the community, contributing to the world outside of just himself.’
- re: the 4 summers as a camp counselor - I’d put all of those as 1 activity, say it was a mix of volunteer & paid work. For example, maybe it started out as volunteer, and then moved to paid last summer. Start by listing out each camp organization’s name, then see how you can compress that. And then in 1 of the essays, he could use something he learned out of all of the camp counselor experiences.
- if he spent time outside of school hours doing music stuff, that should be considered as an Activity, too.
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Popping in from the class of 2025 group. Re: how to deal with all the activities - some schools will allow you to submit “additional supporting material”. If he doesn’t have one already, you may want to help him put together a resume, particularly if he’s had a number of jobs or volunteer things that you can’t squeeze into the common app space. You can also list things like major music performances or athletic achievements etc. Even if he doesn’t use it for college applications, having the resume format set up and ready, with the job and volunteer stuff pre-loaded, will have him a leg up for when he wants to start applying for other jobs, working with professors, or other things.
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We included marching band, even though it’s a class for credit. It’s a lot of time outside of school hours, so should count. S22 asked at his U of Michigan tour and they said include it too.
My daughter had a lot of little activities that she did on her own or with friends. Sewing projects, animation projects, etc. We put down “home based activity” for those for the organization. I think you could be general for camps too.
I’d combine the camps into one and just say it was different places and a mix of paid and volunteer hours.
I generally agree with the list from sbinaz, and I would add that classes like choir and band that require extensive time and energy outside of school hours should definitely be counted as Activities for Common App purposes. For my D22 and D26, school choir with all its attendant competitions and concerts was a major activity (probably will be #1 for D26). I also agree with others that a resume might be helpful in your case for colleges that will accept it.
ETA: If you have “smaller” activities and habits that are part of the kid’s life but more informal or harder to quantify, I would just use bullet points in the Additional Information section. D22 did this for things like “I have hundreds of writing utensils in my pen collection” and “I decided to design a graphic logo for my school’s online Covid academy that my high school superintendent actually ended up using.”
The college town is adorable --very small -but super cute. Restaurants, bars, and some cute clothing shops.
I really liked the school - wish it wasn’t in Ohio (given the current state of the world) -but the faculty were delightful and the students seemed really happy. Beautiful health sciences building.
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I have a S20, D23 and D26. For each, we created a spreadsheet containing all the honors (numbered 1-5) and activities (numbered 1-10). It is a good way to organize and prioritize the list. Then your son can just cut and paste into the CA.
I would definitely include choir and sports, and make sure to highlight any leadership roles. With respect to choir, I would also note whether any of them were audition-only.
I think schools are used to seeing the many creative ways kids have used to cram honors and activities into the limited spaces in the CA, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Many schools will allow your son to upload a resume. He can also use the “additional information” space (note that it now has a 300-word limit) to flesh out some of his ECs.
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How much would the Ohio factor give you pause? Because it’s one of our biggest reservations – esp that area of Ohio.
That said, we live in GA, and my D22 is in school in TX (albeit a very blue area), so I don’t know that I can reasonably express concern based on the politics of the region alone.
We’re touring on Tuesday, but on paper, it seems like such a great fit.
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Good luck to all of those who are sitting for the SAT today.
Our D26 sat for her first attempt in May and will sit for her last attempt in early June.
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Thanks! Just dropped D26 at the testing center. So many kids streaming in….i feel anxious for all of them!
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To everybody’s kids who are stressing out about test scores, just remember that you are more than a number and there are a ton of great schools that will accept you without test scores.
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Waiting for her to come out! Doing brunch and some shopping after. She was nervous on the drive here. This is attempt 2. On attempt 1 her calculator was in radians (oops) and sent her into a bit of a tailspin when she realized halfway through and panicked. Hoping to get her math score higher with a clearer head.
SAT will be at school next month and hoping that’s her final attempt. Her top choices aren’t test optional and while her score last time was decent, it wasn’t enough for her top choices.
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This happened to my D26 on her first one too! She said she couldn’t figure out why the numbers came back so weird with nothing matching an answer. Figured it out, but definitely set her back.
Ours just got back from her third and last time no matter what! 
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Good luck to all the test takers! Hope they get a score they’re content with.
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