<p>The first line is: you have to do something. Then, what that something is, how you present it and what it amounts to. All the talk of “passion” and childhood, sincerity, uniquemess-- doesn’t amount to a hill of beans if it comes across as either reactive or self-indulgent. This is same as in life, with one major exception: it’s a college app. And, when the app is to a school that rejects 85% plus, you cannot expect that “you,” your personal satisfaction, and the favor you find among your local peers, teachers, admins, family, neighbors and relatives is all it takes.</p>
<p>So what if someone highlights an unusual student in some speech. What’s to be gleaned from that? </p>
<p>The uncommon EC generally does not get a kid far, in holistic, if the rest of the story isn’t there. The formula is excellence in academics and personal qualities, as evidenced by choices and commitments. Want to write how you tease your sibling? Risk the consequences. Want to tall about poor judgment? Don’t. Want to boast about a once/year walkathon? Risk competition from kids who rolled up their sleeves and did more.</p>
<p>Concertmaster is good and always will be. So is a job, even at the market or McDonald’s. Not because of their place inthe “hierarchy” of activities. But for what they can, in the whole context, show about a kid.</p>
<p>I don’t think you all understand what “fierce competiton” means. Kid after kid after kid with superlative grades and rigor, good ECs. Because they can. Because they are motivated to. What do you want at an elite? Kids who proceed merrily along or kids who “get” what stretching is about, who have tested themselves and shown both the ability to master hurdles and be resiliant in the face of defeat?</p>
<p>This sounds very nice, but it does not reflect the admissions results to the elites of the kids I knew best, not in the slightest. The kids who did best took NO risks, never studied a subject outside of the HS curriculum, never took an independent study, never did research. They did get straight As.</p>
<p>"Pizzagirl, there probably are people who are looking for a formula. "</p>
<p>Well, let 'em. They’ll never find it. Because it doesn’t exist.
What is the “formula” to being your best friend? Does one exist? Are all your best friends exactly alike in every way?</p>
<p>"I am asking why all EC’s should not be treated on the same basis, if they are equal in terms of depth, sincerity, and accomplishment? "</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter -so now you’ve boiled the 30k applicants down to (say) 10k, who are all equally passionate and accomplished in their ECs. Now what? You still only have 2k beds. </p>
<p>I really can’t believe that you don’t understand that elite colleges don’t want people who have all traveled the same path. That their mission is “creating the stew” where the violin-playing scientist gets to work side by side with the person who started a puppetry course for children (etc). Because that’s the richness that adds to life. Not two thousand violin players. No matter how sincere they are. </p>
<p>“Perhaps there is no extra benefit at all in an uncommon EC. However, the highlighting of the unusual admitted students, which you can find on a number of admissions sites and in speeches during Admitted Students Days at multiple places, does tend to give an impression to the contrary. It could be a false impression.”</p>
<p>My D is one of those who had an off the beaten track (though not weird) EC that was noted in her college’s welcome letter. </p>
<p>However, that does NOT mean I’d say to someone desiring elite admissions – oh, go do exactly what D did, that’ll get you in, they like that! I WOULD say - go find something a little off the beaten track that expresses YOU the same way that this EC expressed my daughter. Do you see the difference? Think conceptually. Not about the EC itself.</p>
<p>"
This sounds very nice, but it does not reflect the admissions results to the elites of the kids I knew best, not in the slightest. The kids who did best took NO risks, never studied a subject outside of the HS curriculum, never took an independent study, never did research. They did get straight As."</p>
<p>Your son did great, no? He’s in one of the finest schools in the country, right? This doesn’t describe him.</p>
<p>Not to mention South Carolina School of the Arts, RISD, and all of those other lower schools where future paupers congregate.</p>
<p>PG: he did just fine, but the kids I describe attended H & Y. </p>
<p>BTW, S not only disgraced me by only going to a lower Ivy, but once there he chose to major in a subject in the Humanities–wasting all those 5s on science APs and the opportunity presented by going to school in I-Banker central–and now he has applied to JOURNALISM SCHOOL and MFA FICTION programs! I’m telling you, I should rend my clothing and beat my breast with shame!</p>
<p>Consolation, from my perspective, I disagree. Don’t know what it would be about your hs, but we look for a roundedness, along with the personal perspective. Among the vast range of hs out there, simple A’s tell only that the kid mastered teacher expectations at that school.</p>
<p>I think if a kid genuinely follows their genuine interests and has the ability to tag up on the minimum stats, something about that kid is going to stand out as unique, even if they do play the violin and excel at science, and they are going to gain admissions to one of our many, many excellent universities or LACs.</p>
<p>I think it would have been a shame if we would have looked at D2, who was a nationally ranked athlete and told her she needed to go learn to play the zither, instead, even if she did end up having to give up her sport due to injury. Even though she played the dime a dozen sport better than nearly anyone in the world, it didn’t end up mattering in college admissions, but it did matter to the quality of her childhood, being on the teams, having the fun, being great at something, learning how to win and lose.</p>
<p>The other one? She cried if you made her play team sports. I don’t think it would have helped her admissions OR made her happy.</p>
<p>I mean, look at your own kids. Do you really believe you can create some sort of admissions frankenstein out of them? Would you really even want that?</p>
<p>“I can tell that some of you are not experienced string parents. The VIOLA is the strategic choice, folks.”</p>
<p>No instruments here (beyond piano lessons in maybe 2nd and 3rd grade that went nowhere) and yet two pretty decent colleges acceptances. The formula is blowing up!!! What to do??</p>
<p>I’m not sure how being a minority really helps in college admissions- unless you’re hispanic, black or native american, nothing helps- unless I’m mistaken. If being lgbtq helps, someone let me know!</p>
<p>“I mean, look at your own kids. Do you really believe you can create some sort of admissions frankenstein out of them? Would you really even want that?”</p>
<p>Two words. Amy Chua. Such people indeed believe elite college acceptance is the meaning of life. Some of the things she described fall under abusive in my book -and absolutely nothing to brag about. Moreover, going on a family trip to Europe and missing the sights to practice for hours in a hotel room is, to me, missing the very essence of life.</p>
<p>Why can’t we just frame it another way? Kids with these qualifications are “elite” students. They will take their “eliteness” wherever they go, and that eliteness will benefit themselves and others throughout their lives. And at the same time, some kids who would not have been identified as such in high school are just now coming into their eliteness, and will likewise be capable of doing great things and leading rich, fulfilling lives. (I know “eliteness” is a dumb word, but substitute whatever you wish.)</p>
<p>If I were one of these kids today (I probably was, in relative terms, in the '80s) I would hate to think that all my hard work and intellectual curiosity and everything else were ONLY valuable if I achieved the golden ticket at age 18. How demoralizing for an entire family to wail and gnash their teeth because their Suzy “only” got into Michigan. Or not a Suzy, but an uber-Suzy who was head and shoulders above her in high school achievement and still got shut out of the chosen schools. Isn’t that reaction the antithesis of telling our kids “the sky’s the limit for your future”? In a sense, it becomes a different sort of glass ceiling–more like an oppressive cloud that hovers over the shoulders of the “failed” kids as they embark on their adult lives. It’s like saying “Well, we bet wrong. You gave up so much of what could have been a fun, normal childhood to achieve the golden ticket, and now you’re no better off than the kids who got enough sleep and went to the mall every weekend and only took the SAT once and even got some Bs.” Sorry, but for my kids that would be the worst and most demotivating attitude for their parents to burden them with.</p>
<p>“I think if a kid genuinely follows their genuine interests and has the ability to tag up on the minimum stats, something about that kid is going to stand out as unique, even if they do play the violin and excel at science, and they are going to gain admissions to one of our many, many excellent universities or LACs.”</p>
<p>Keyword - many, many. It might not be HYPSM or the Ivies or the top 20 or whatever your favorite slicing and dicing is. Ms Weiss is going to Michigan IIRC. It’s hardly as though she was forced to slum it at East Nowheresville State U. She’ll figure out soon enough that a Michign degree holds no one back from nothing in this country.</p>
<p>All of this sort of reminds me of a funny story. I don’t know how others chose their ECs. Basically, I had three criteria-</p>
<ol>
<li> Make dad happy</li>
<li> Meet girls</li>
<li> I liked it.</li>
</ol>
<p>I liked volunteering, and did a lot of it in the 1970s. I don’t know how common that was then, but I got started in Boy Scouts and liked it. It was one area where I didn’t have to compete, or practice constantly. I just did it and people seemed grateful. Instant gratification. </p>
<p>Well, in Boy Scouts you had these adults that served as “counselors” and basically checked out that you met the qualifications for merit badges. So I was going for my “Scholarship” merit badge, and there was a section that asked what you did when you weren’t doing schoolwork. </p>
<p>So, blah blah, football team, blah blah math team, blah blah volunteer work.
And even though I was 14 or something what he said still sticks with me - “Well, nobody really cares about volunteer work. What is far more impressive is what people will pay you for.” I guess times have changed. Or maybe not. I think I’ve read both POV on here. I honestly don’t know. </p>
<p>But, suffice to say I still like volunteer work and I still do it for the same reasons when I have time. Not for the meeting girls reason. My wife wouldn’t like that.</p>
<p>I was staying with some poor old Alzheimer patient a few years ago so his wife could go to church and he flung his feces on me. If only I needed to write a college essay.</p>
<p>All three of my kids went to Ivy (third begins in September) and not one part of their childhoods was orchestrated. They did activities that they loved. They were all in sports but none of them was a huge star athlete. They did not play music and there were certainly no trips to Belize. They worked at summer jobs and spent time with their friends and their family. We are a middle class family in the suburbs. There was no magic formula.</p>
<p>He did, but he didn’t get in. I found out after he applied that the MFA programs he applied to typically take 1% or 2% of applicants. Most of the applicants have been writing seriously for years, sometimes decades. He just started, and his work had not been seen by a single other person. Given that, I think that the fact that he was waitlisted at one of them is a huge accomplishment. He did get into Columbia SOJ, and it looks like that is where he will be going, if the $$ works out.</p>
<p>“Genuine interests.” Passions, childhood, downtime, etc. All good. In life. You wanna apply to a 5-15% school, you had better understand they are not choosing based on your “personal satisfaction.” Nor how very, very much you just dream and drool over the school.</p>
<p>Poetgrl, you hinted we may have different perspectives about kids, in general. Not really. Seeing what large numbers of kids from across the country (and internationally) can do, have done, and how they present it, is a delight. Seeing how LoRs, from experienced educators, describe a kid’s enthusiasm, drive and, yes, real-kid-ness…the whole things is a rare privilege. As a group, I adore them. When I note mistakes they may make or ways they hindered their chances, it’s not to diss kids or our appplicants. Nor to suggest they have to be machines. These kids are at a crossroads and we want the best for all of them. But, admissions is a funnel. </p>
<p>And, even when you get all the great finalists, other needs and influences prevail. It is real life.</p>