Long time listener, first time caller here, with a question about ECs.
I have a S26 and am just starting the college search process and it’s early days for reading and learning as much as I can. I am reading a lot about ECs and IMPACT, and that impact matters as much, if not more than, what our kids are actually doing.
I am having a hard time envisioning what impact looks like for my son’s main ECs. He is a soccer referee for local and national games and tournaments. He shows up on time, does the best job he can do, and leaves. He’s very low on the ladder, and works primarily with established adult refs. He can’t re-invent the wheel here. He doesn’t have input, let alone impact.
He volunteers at a Boston area teaching hospital. Again, low on the ladder. Shows up on time, works with adults who are paid full time in the position where he volunteers. Does what he’s told, goes home. Can’t innovate, can’t offer suggestions. Where is the impact there?
Thank you very much for reading this far and any advice. I’m unclear if impact has to be measurable or effect actual community change. My son dedicates about 15hrs/week to reffing and volunteering but works alongside adults doing this as their full time job. Why would my son ever be expected to have an impact in this scenario when there are full time employed adults on site? Grateful for your insight.
Impact can be consistent participation in an EC over a period of time. Your son has shown, and it sounds like he will continue to show a commitment to the soccer refereeing that he does. That IS impact!
That sounds like impact to me - you can’t have a game without refs. So even something like “refereed 40 games locally and nationally” is a kind of impact in itself. I don’t know anything about soccer so I don’t really know exactly what refereeing involves but I imagine something like mastering rules, troubleshooting game issues, ensuring rule compliance, mediating conflict among players, making difficult decisions based on best judgment, ensuring fair play, etc. I’m sure there’s a lot of responsibility and a number of skills that goes into what he does.
So what does he do?
Impact doesn’t necessarily mean discovering a cure for cancer. Sometimes it really is just showing up and doing a job. But you can drill down into what specifically his job involves and discover that it actually does take both skill and responsibility - both of which are good things to be able to demonstrate.
This helps people. This helps a very wide range of people from a very wide range of backgrounds.
Again, helping people.
One point of ECs is to get out of the house and do something, and hopefully do something constructive. Another point is to work with people. Another point is to show the ability to commit to something over time.
If you read the “applying sideways” blog on the MIT admissions web site, you will get another perspective that I interpret as “do what is right for you, and do it well”. Interacting with other people, respecting a wide range of people from a wide range of backgrounds, and helping people are all good things.
And no, our high school students are not expected to be winning a Nobel Prize, nor inventing a cure for cancer, nor even filing patent applications.
I also think that our high school students are under massively too much pressure and stress. It sounds to me as if your son has found good, constructive ECs that do not stress him out. This is good.
It sounds to me as if your son is doing well. I cannot predict whether this will help his application to Harvard or MIT, but it should help his applications to multiple very good universities.
A responsible and dependable volunteer makes a huge impact! To put a number to it, he can say that he referees 50 games in a year for 80 teams serving 1000 children. He can also add the estimated demographics of these children.
Showing up on time and following direction seem to be simple and easy; however, consistently doing it is hard and impressive.
My two cents is a lot of colleges get a lot of applicants who appear to have checked a lot of EC boxes, but they suspect a lot of those are actually relatively insubstantial activities the applicant did just to check a box. So, they are trying to communicate they want activities to actually be meaningful. And particularly if you do something like, say, start your own club, non-profit, or so on, they want to see that what you did actually mattered, and did not just give you another thing to put on a college applications.
I do not think this is a concern for activities such as having a real job, volunteering for a well-established organization, or so on. Refereeing is a great example–you don’t have to explain what impact a referee has, colleges will already know that. Same thing with volunteering at a hospital.
So I think the general reason you are struggling to apply this notion of impact to these activities is these types of activities are not what gave rise to this concern in the first place.
Like everyone else so far, I think your son is demonstrating a lot of impact with his ECs thus far. As you’ve noted, he is learning accountability - showing up on time, mastering the rules, etc. - and holding others accountable - refereeing. As for his job volunteering, that is fantastic and he is impacting others in innumerable ways each and every time he visits.
To deliver impact in the way that you are imagining (and I am not saying that it is necessary here), but think about - or better yet have your son think about - why he is reffing and volunteering. Specifically, why soccer and why this particular hospital. Why these specific activities?
Then, if he wants to go deeper, and have a connected theme for his ECs or an EC throughout his time in high school, perhaps he could run a clinic for refs or host a clinic for the teams in a local pee wee league as to the rules of the game and how to use the rules.
For the volunteering role, is he wanting to do something with medicine in his career, or anything to do with delivering healthcare? There are many ways that he can take the next step in his roles at the hospital to gain additional exposure to careers / or create impact. Just be persistent, show up, be cheerful and helpful, and ask for responsibilities. Demonstrating those skills will be deeply appreciated by the hospital staff and will be rewarded. As for impact, what if he created a volunteering pathway from his school to this hospital to engage more kiddos in this process. Doing so would demonstrate leadership and other skills.
That said, doing what he is doing thus far is fantastic.
And further to NUM’s point, the activities your son is currently doing could have a significant impact on whatever campus he winds up on. They need referees for intramurals, they need volunteers for dozens of activities on campus. He has demonstrated a capacity to excel at the very things that colleges need (and likely do not have enough of).
My D25 dances and works. That’s it. No other clubs. No other sports. She is on 2 teams and competes year round and simply doesn’t have time for other things. I have no big concerns she will find a college that will take her.
Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to respond and educate me about impact. I was definitely thinking that impact had to be something measurable like an amount of money raised, or people directly taught or recruited, or systems overhauled/improved. The good news is that these two ECs are very important to my son and he will stick with them through graduation and who knows, maybe beyond. It didn’t even occur to me that he could ref while in college.
I’m very grateful for all of your kind and encouraging replies.
I’ll also add here that these two activities would make some interesting unique essays. The activity itself is not as important and the emotion is conveys when it comes to the essay part. I am sure he has had some interesting experiences over the years in both activities which would be great essay topics.
The hospital where my children volunteer has a junior volunteer board, he could ask if there are any leadership opportunities in the volunteering structure such as training new volunteers, organizing activities, etc.
Gives it his best. Keeps the game flowing. Kids are having fun and enjoying their game.
Sounds like tenure and impact.
For many schools, ECs don’t matter. And for many they do. There’s no right or wrong.
Gives 15 hrs a week in two great activities and makes a positive impact. Not everyone “leads” in title. He is leading by his participation, volunteerism, and teamwork.
Schools - that both care and don’t care about ECs will be lucky to have a young man like this.
He’s doing this for him - not to get into a great college. And that’s nice to see.
Alright, I will bite. I agree with @tsbna44 and others: 1) Your son’s ECs are fine and 2) Depending on the school, they may or may not matter too much.
So now the question is what is his aspiration or the family’s aspiration and how resourced are you to support that?
Turning those activities into (seemingly) impactful ECs take some imagination and a lot of effort and resources. I am being a bit tongue and cheek here but you will get the gist.
Your son could start a league with his friends for refugee kids and organize free clinics through the med center to scan for brain injury. You could use the 7 degrees of separation to find him some corporate sponsors and network to get him on your local TV station’s evening news. The nice reporter lady or a friend of a friend helps him meet the local councilman or MA state rep/senator who is very proud of him and issues some form of commendation – a letter etc. Voila – now you have a superstar kid with a passion project and with some tutoring and work he can get 1500 on standardized tests and 5s on 6-8 APs along with 4.4 GPA and class rank in the top 10. The last barrier to entry is ability to pay. If you can come up with 50% or more of COA and willing to do ED, I will guarantee acceptance into a T20 school.
Are you willing to play the game? I am surrounded by parents that are doing it.
I get that you’re taking this out to a hyperbolic place, but my immediate knee-jerk reaction from your very first sentence is just no. No, my fifteen year old is not going to be able to convince anyone in any position of authority to arrange for brain scans at Boston’s largest teaching hospital from his current volunteer position as a wheelchair pusher. If that means his future school is T300 or T400, I guess it is what it is.
I worked with a NP years back. Her daughter volunteered at a Pediatric Oncology ward. She fund raised and made back packs and care packages for the kids who recently checked in. Small gesture but very well received.