When Your Key Strength is Not What Schools Want to See

Applying to College
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Colleges want to see students who work hard. Makes sense. No arguments from me on that. That was me as an applicant so many years ago.

But what if that is not who your kid is? What if one of your kid’s key strengths is doing fairly well but with less effort? Should the application avoid addressing that “skill”? (While I think having a strong work ethic is certainly preferable, I do think that there are positives about being able to do fairly well without committing tons of time. Again, not what I would necessarily wish for him, but he is who he is.)

To put the question in context, my kid goes to a competitive private prep school. His school’s gpa is on a weighted 5 point scale, and they don’t calculate unweighted. He has a 4.83. His school doesn’t rank, but he is somewhere in the top 25%. He takes a rigorous course load. (Senior year will be all APs. So far, he has 5s and 4s.) He has a 1530 on SAT. He has a possible hook - he is a “spikey” kid in that he has an EC he does really well at (while he works harder at that, he certainly would be even better if he put in more time). He is not a leader in a traditional sense.

To me, it is a mini miracle he does as well as he does without more effort. Goodness knows I would have to put in much more time than he does to get the grades he does. But, it seems that this type of student profile is not one that colleges are looking to admit. To me, it can be viewed in two different way - as someone who does not have a good work ethic; or someone who has the ability to do a great deal in a small amount of time (which in the working world is a good thing). I get the sense that schools mainly see it as the former rather than the latter.

In case it matters to the answer, he has adhd (inattentive type); has since he was little. He does not get accommodations - not in school; not on testing. He does sometimes take his medicine. Likely the reason he developed this “skill” is because he can only focus for so long. He needs the pressure of a deadline that is right up on him to be able to focus. For that reason, he does all his homework the morning it is due. He says if he tries to do it any earlier, he will spend tons of time but not get it done.

FWIW, the school on his list that is hardest to get into by the numbers is Emory.

So, in summary:

  • Should his application try to address this characteristic or just avoid it?

  • How much of a hindrance is a weighted 4.83 on a 5 point scale likely to be for a place like Emory?

(Note that I have looked at the school’s Naviance charts, and if I were just going by that, he would be ok at the schools he is applying to. The trouble is, the top 25% of the students at this high school are gunners. So, I strongly believe they will have checked far more boxes for college admissions than my kid, apart from grades and test scores.)

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I would personally avoid any mention of his lack of work ethic b/c that’s exactly the kind of kid who sometimes flounders in college when they are suddenly faced with an increased workload and a class full of peers with the same natural intelligence AND an incredible work ethic.

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If his course load is rigorous and his test scores are clearly at the higher end how will colleges know how hard he worked to achieve them? Is it more his lack of ECs or leadership roles you’re concerned about?

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Could he not write an essay about his ADHD and how he has overcome that by doing his work early in the morning…? I’m not sure he has a poor work ethic, he has a condition that makes it more difficult for him than someone without ADHD.

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I would think that for a kid like your son the letters of rec will matter. If they imply he lacks a work ethic, that isn’t great. If they say he has impressive natural talents and get things quickly, that’s much better.

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No expert here. On my first kid applying to college myself, but I would not mention the strength/drawback at all. His grades and scores are what they are. Looks like a 3.86 weighted on the standard 4.0 scale if I did the math right. The test scores are excellent. I’m sure plenty of schools would love to have him.

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And I actually have a kid like that who does not have ADHD. Straight A’s, full IB, 1590 first and only try on SAT (only studied a tiny amount for math, none for language part- 0 wrong on language part). He did track, XC, Boy Scouts and some volunteering, but was never captain, co-captain, or made Eagle Scout. Almost never saw him study, mostly just reading for fun or hanging out. And how did he do on college apps? Not even wait listed at any privates (all very competitive though), and accepted by every public (UCs and Michigan), and if they had it he got honors at all of them. So public colleges are the way to go, they lov numbers. He’s at UC Berkeley and still getting straight As (applied math/computer sci major) even though he appears to be lying on the couch reading his kindle most of the time (he’s been home during covid). So I would not say these kids necessarily bomb when they get to college. And he’s the least stressed kid I know. So I guess there are some benefits to the chill attitude!

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Looks like your son has very strong grades/rigor and an outstanding test score. He will be very attractive to many good schools. I would not, however, mention his more laid back approach to school work - it can’t help and could hurt. Let his results speak for themselves.

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@vpa2019 Good question. I think my concern is partly that by lurking on CC, I have gotten the sense that a weighted 4.83 on a 5 point scale is not great. Plus, it just is a part of who he is. So, if it weren’t about “packaging” oneself, it would be part of his application. But, I am a realist, and know that how you market yourself really matters. Which is why I wanted to see what others thought. Thank you!

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@buckythedog Very interesting. He does not have big, public U’s on his list at the moment (although he has visited some). The reason is just the fear of falling through the cracks. Will think on this.

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@Thorsmom66 thank you!

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His stats are very competitive! Don’t let the uber elite profiles you read here on CC effect you. If he’s shooting for an Emory, it sounds like you’ve thought through realistic targets :slight_smile:

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@Parent1A thank you - appreciate the input. And it is that impression from schools that I am a wee bit worried about. I hope that he will be ok in college. I don’t think the workload college is as much the concern here (most grads from his school claim they feel college has a lower work load than the high school). But I am concerned about his ability to stay organized to even know what is due. That has already been a bit of a challenge.

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@Search2022 Thank you!

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Consider the Oxford campus of Emory. My son sounds a bit like yours (he also has ADHD) and we felt Oxford’s smaller size was a good introduction to college. It has turned out that way. My son had a great 2 years, but has struggled with distance learning so took last semester off.

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@cinnamon1212 Thank you - that is useful info. Were there other schools in the application process that you thought were a good match for this kind of kid?

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We were focused on smaller schools. My son’s high school only had 300 students, so a 2,000 student liberal arts school was a step up in size for him. Because of his profile we weren’t sure how he’d do with admissions, so he applied to 10 schools. Davidson, Colorado College, Emory, Macalester, Skidmore, Denison, Hobart, Lewis and Clark, Rhodes and Furman. I give the list in case any of them might appeal to your son.

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Thank you! Skidmore is on our list too. Emory is the largest school we currently have on the list.

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IMO the whole thinking on this is upside down! There’s working hard and working smart. There’s doing what you need to do to please a HS mindset and doing what you need to do to achieve your goals.

I can’t think why a kid who does really well w/o working, and who does not have a ‘work hard’ mindset would want to go to Emory, a school that is famously chock-a-block with worker bees and “gunners”.

This focus on being “hard working” (esp as a strong selection criteria for colleges) makes me wonder if your prep school is a parochial school, as ime they are the most likely to emphasize the value of hard work for its own sake. Not all colleges want worker bees as students, and plenty of colleges value the high achiever who does not tie themselves to the study desk.

Does your son have a strong area of academic interest- a subject that he really enjoys for itself? If so, consider the UK, which suits crammer grasshoppers > steady ants.

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With high grades in challenging classes, an essay on how he conquered his ADHD is likely to sound like bragging. And it doesn’t sound at all interesting either.

No OP, he should not advertise his “skill.” Wondering if this is a serious post.

ETA: He should aim for academically rigorous colleges where he will be truly challenged. Cornell comes to mind. Reed, Carleton College, Swarthmore. He will soon learn that coasting isn’t sustainable in some environments.

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