<p>""But honestly, yes, you need to stop reading the chances forum! It’s nothing but the blind leading the ignorant down paths of clueless irrelevance. "</p>
<p>Really, why do they even exist? And, not entirely a rhetorical question. "</p>
<p>The chances forum exists to keep all the lunacy in one place.</p>
<p>I agree with rhumbob. Why would you make a comment that all boards are “stupid”? This message may have been sent to your son and so he has learned to keep to himself. Sad (IMO) because I think everyone has something to offer the community at large and it doesn’t have to be by leading others.</p>
<p>"ucbalumnus, I believe she was speaking metaphorically. "</p>
<p>@Kdog044, I believe ucbalumnus was speaking facetiously…</p>
<p>Of course everyone is familiar with the phrase. That doesn’t make hurling it around any less disrespectful. Surely on a forum about higher education we can imagine ways of articulating a problem without reaching for racialized phrases. mom2collegekids managed to do so (queen/worker bee comparison)…</p>
<p>Oh well. Carry on :)</p>
<p>Just to keep it straight – I don’t think OP said “all boards are stupid”. In her first paragraph, she used her own husband as an example of someone who would rather come home to his family after a hard day than “sit on some stupid board.”</p>
<p>In the second paragraph, she referred to “the chances board” (here on CC).</p>
<p>From the little info she gave about her child, I don’t know if “Indian” is jumping out at me as his most salient character trait. I want to know more about the kid who “loves academics”. </p>
<p>I never liked the “you’re either an Indian or you’re a Chief” polarization. How are chiefs made chiefs? Is it an elected or appointed position? Is there animal sacrifice involved? Is there a clawback provision?</p>
<p>Sorry…</p>
<p>
But how does it keep escaping to the other forums? :(</p>
<p>^ It happens, but I see the mods working feverishly to keep it in check.</p>
<p>Sorry. I didn’t consider the colloquialism racist since chiefs are Indians. We can change it to worker bee if that would be better. As for not liking the boards… I meant like hospital board or chamber of commerce or rotary or something like that. My husband doesn’t like things like that. I, on the other hand, am very involved in the community. Too much so to my husband’s point of view. Family is everything to him. My son is a lot like him. My husband is a great doctor with a great beside manner ( all I ever hear is how wonderful and nice he is…and they are right. He is the nicest man on the planet. ) But he lives for being at home on the tractor or camping in a national park with our family.</p>
<p>My son got a 34 on the ACT and a 5 on AP Stats and Gov, 4 on Chem. He made A’s in Spanish I and II last year at our community college. Next year he will take Spanish 3 and 4 at the cc and Eng I and II at the cc. He will also take AP Economics, AP Calc AB, and AP Phys B. </p>
<p>He has played piano since 2nd grade. He is involved in our church youth group. He has gone to the church leadership camp each summer. ( REally leadership in name only…just a summer camp.) He is involved in the audio-visual team at our church and that is his main extra-curricular. He runs the service once a month, now twice since one person quit. He also ends up running the power point for all adult choir concerts and children’s choir concerts, including all the extra rehearsals that go with that. He ends up running it for Christmas Eve and Easter and such as well. Sometimes he has to come up with original slide shows or movies for the services. They like him because he can add slides and take them away so much quicker than the adults that run it and he anticipates our words nicely as well and keeps the slides going at a good pace. He likes it because it deals with computers and is behind the scenes. But in the world of college confidential that sure isn’t much of an EC. He didn’t cure cancer or anything. </p>
<p>He wants to major in computer science. He is looking at Baylor, TCU and LeTourneau.</p>
<p>My huband doesn’t want him to get a job ( he didn’t have one until he finished residency…his job was school) , partly because he doesn’t want him to miss all of the travel and mission trips that we do.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, he’s been to Honduras, Ethiopia and Ecuador on family mission trips.</p>
<p>I think his chances at Baylor and TCU are excellent with his stats. I wouldn’t worry about his ECs.</p>
<p>His A-V work at church sounds like a major EC to me. It demonstrates multiple competencies, responsibility (leadership), commitment (leadership), the ability to work with many different groups - lots of good qualities. He needs to describe it accurately in his applications. Excellent stats, too! I think he’ll do well applying to the schools he’s looking at.</p>
<p>^ Wow, you sorta hid his light under a bushel in your original post! His ECs are more than fine and show an array of talents and impressive maturity and personal development. Baylor’s gonna like him and will probably give some attractive merit money. And as between BU and TCU (don’t have any personal experience with LeTourneau), Baylor sounds like a far better fit…but I hope you’ll encourage him to do overnight visits so he can decide. The were key to my kids’ decision-making process.</p>
<p>It sounds like your son DOES have some good ECs! I wonder if some of this is kind of how if you see a kid every day, you don’t really notice how much he has grown, and then Grandma sees him after 6 months and raves about it. We tend not to notice the familiar. Also, there might be an element of modesty, kind of like "well, all I did was . . . "</p>
<p>My daughter’s GC wrote a letter of recommendation for her for a summer program, and my daughter and I were both just blown away by it. Every word of it was true, but it was written in a way that just made it sound so much more impressive than what we would have said. I’ll bet those people at the church who work with your son would rave about it him, so think of the way THEY would describe his contributions.</p>
<p>I think his stats make him a good match for those schools!
Is there somewhere he can do some volunteer work this summer? Nursing homes, libraries and hospitals are always looking for volunteers. </p>
<p>Or if you know other home schoolers can he start a book club maybe?</p>
<p>Mission work, especially something that doesn’t sound like a glorified vacation are excellent comunity service ECs. I also think the schools you listed will appreciate his efforts.</p>
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</p>
<p>they always lose in the old Western movies?</p>
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<p>Why in the world would he have to do something that is NOT him? We love to sell the concept of best fit when looking at schools. Well, here is a newsflash … there are plenty of schools that look for candidates that fit the description given by the OP. The key here is to prepare a compelling application that reflects the student honestly and accurately. </p>
<p>From my vantage point, the counselor (read OP) has been given the hardest task here. But this a case where there won’t be a “clueless” GC to blame. </p>
<p>Fwiw, I would focus on the small “slices of life” that makes your son a special human being. I would also focus on the special gift that a homeschooled student received, and how he took advantage of the opportunity. I am pretty sure that the description of academics and curriculum could be presented in a different format or form. </p>
<p>Be honest about him, and the “system” will reward him (and you.) There are no reasons whatsoever to start playing pretense games. None!</p>
<p>I’m surprised no one has mentioned Florida State.</p>
<p>^^^LOL
It took me a split second :)</p>
<p>
Not always
[They</a> Died with Their Boots On (1941) - IMDb](<a href=“http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034277/]They”>They Died with Their Boots On (1941) - IMDb)</p>
<p>Look at it this way–there has to be someone to lead for all the “chiefs” in all the colleges around the country. Not every college student is a leader. I think that being on CC in general gives people the wrong impression about what college applications are really like. It is a RARE school that admits only those that saved African villages from starvation single handedly, the rest of the mortal colleges would be happy to accept your son.</p>
<p>My S#2 is a similar worker-bee type. Actually more of a lone-wolf.</p>
<p>I’ve always thought it would be amusing to read a college essay based on the actual EC life of such a student: (a little forced) Volunteer Work, (a lot of video games), Theater (audience member–attended a few plays to get extra credit for English class), Community Recycling Project (took bin to curb weekly), Quiz Bowl (watched it on TV). Plus, a list of stuff he quit or failed at: piano (dismissed by teacher for lack of talent), track (came in last at every meet), work (fired from fast food job). Colleges want “diversity,” right? Is there any space for a lazy, passive, no-talent quitter? ;)</p>
<p>I wonder what it is actually like to go to a college with “all leaders, no followers.” (Narcissist hell?)</p>