What exactly are individual top colleges looking for?

TheGFG
Fri, 09 Jun 2017 15:54:52 +0000

When your child is 5 years old and you ask him or her, “Would you like to join Cub Scouts/Brownies?” s/he really has no basis upon which to make that decision, due to very limited life experience. Having never participated in scouting before makes it rather difficult for the child to determine whether or not it would be an enjoyable activity. That’s why parents essentially help set their child’s course early on. A dad who played baseball and not soccer is more likely to teach his son baseball and practice that game with him, thereby increasing the child’s chances of liking baseball and doing well at it. Obviously, this is not a rule and sometimes the child will rebel against what he senses the parent prefers. Ultimately, though, my non-driving, unemployed kid cannot on her own decide she will take ice skating lessons unless I decide to pay for it and drive her there at the crack of dawn. Ease of access considerations, such as distance, time, and money mean it is often the parent who does the choosing for the child. If I see my D is tall and clumsy, I may guide her away from gymnastics–especially since it’s very expensive. So I don’t buy that most kids are the only drivers of their bus–especially in competitive communities where Isha isn’t going to make the tennis team or math team unless she starts training at age 4.

Even older and more independent kids have a wide range of EC’s from which to choose–ANY of which they suspect would be fun and fulfilling for them. Should they do marching band or play soccer? Should they do the chemistry quiz team or the biology quiz team? Should they volunteer at the pet shelter or with the first aid squad? Should they do none of those and study instead? I don’t think strategizing necessarily means choosing something the student doesn’t like or likes less just to impress colleges, but rather selecting a cluster of EC’s they enjoy that best suit the student and his academic and career interests and therefore tell a consistent story, over others they’d also enjoy but don’t “fit” as well. If the student wants to be an architect, maybe volunteering for the first aid squad might not be the best option, but rather a club or activity related to art, design, or construction.