<p>My Son applied to eight colleges and was admitted to all eight with merit aid. To this day I have absolutely no idea whether his ECs had any impact in his admissions. We needed the merit aid to be able to afford a private school, so his grades/scores were above the top 25% of applicants at all the schools to which he applied. Because of this, I bet his ECs had nothing to do with his admissions. (I do know a boy [with fantastic grades and scores] who was admitted ED to Duke with zero ECs.)</p>
<p>The moral of the story is to do the ECs you love, because there’s a good chance they will have no impact on college admissions.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Dance is SO GOOD for their self-confidence. When I was between the ages of 11 and 16, I wanted to crawl under a rock most of the time. My dancer daughters have never gone through that incredibly awkward geeky stage. You see some of those junior high aged dance company girls in real life and they’re skinny and have braces and their ears stick out, but they carry themselves with incredible confidence!</p>