A different kind of rank inflation-and a question

Parents Forum
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<p>With all this talk about grade inflation, another kind of "rank inflation" came to mind. I've seen several posters list martial arts as EC's complete with belt rank. Most of these posters seemed to have a strong background in their art and seemed to be qualified (judging from time spent training). However, it concerns me that colleges may be caught up in the "ooh, shiny" nature of a black belt without realizing that all black belts aren't equal. Less than qualified martial arts schools (sometimes known as "McDojos") exist solely for the purpose of making money, and thus will very quickly promote a student as to maintain their interest, regardless of the student's actual abilities. A student who trains for a longer time at a tougher school may have a much lower rank than an equally (or less) qualified student training at a McDojo. I'm worried that the rush for hooks will lead more and more students to choose the easier (and seemingly more impressive) way out. Of course, I realize this is bound to happen in a lot of activities, but I just wanted to comment on it.</p>

<p>My second, totally unrelated, question ironically regards how adcoms might view an award. I recently participated in a Japanese speech contest, made the finals and earned fifth place. It was my first time participating in the speech contest, and the teacher was very happy with how I did. However, I realize fifth place will not look all that great to adcoms, so I was wondering if it was something that might hurt me more than it could help.</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

<p>In honor of it being Friday, I will end this posts with two random Joan of Arcadia quotes:
"Technically, everything is mine." -"God" defending his right to shoplift to Joan</p>

<p>"There will always be more surprises"-God to Joan</p>

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<p>I think you should mention any award. So what happened with Italian? Did you abandon it for Japanese?
Yes, surprises ALL the time.</p>

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<p>I've always been an advocate of being oneself. Who cares what the adcom thinks? Actually, I should say who knows? We do care, but for most things at the late HS stage, there's not enough time to make a radical difference.</p>

<p>I should add that my observation with my D's class last year, regarding who did and did not get into the ivies, was that for regular admits (no athletes etc.), it was almost entirely the SAT/GPA combo. ECs did not seem to make any huge differences.</p>

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<p>Wolfpiper:</p>

<p>The black belt itself can be used as a sign of dedication to an EC, rather than achievement. While adcoms will be impressed with spectacular achievement, they also care about students who follow their passion, be it music, languages, or sports. Do mention the award for Japanese. It IS impressive. Well done.</p>