<p>Daughter is a rising senior in a large public school (class of 582) with large IB population (140ish) and also medical magnet program. (She's in IB.)
With all these high achievers in the school theres a lot of competition for leadership positions and a VERY shy person such as my daughter is at a big disadvantage in these popularity contests. Add to that we live 14 miles from the school and she had 2 little sisters in other schools in opposite directions with Mom in nursing school at the time, so after school clubs/activities just were not possible because of transportation until daughter got her own car Junior year. (No activity busses.)</p>
<p>Being an IB student since 9th grade, her course load is basically dictated and is as rigorous as they come. Her only "B" was in an IB Theory of Knowledge class and was given as a "mind game/lesson" to get her to come out of her shyness and participate more in discussion. ARGH!</p>
<p>ECs
Varsity Diving 10th grade - Districts 4th, Regions 9th
Varsity Diving 11th grade Districts 4th, Regions 6th (broken foot 1st half of season)
Mu Alpha Theta 9th grade
Humane Society Volunteer - 75 hrs
Hospice Volunteer 120 hrs (so far)
Spanish Honor Society
School Committee Member that tracks volunteer hours and informs students of volunteer requirements
Summer job at Panera Bread between Sophomore and Junior year. </p>
<p>She will do Varsity diving again in 12th grade and there is the POSSIBILITY she may make States. She is spending this summer diving with her club coach 6 days/wk (three of them twice/day), volunteering for Hospice, and helping out (working for?) her Dad doing documentation/technical writing for his CAD software business. </p>
<p>If you want to know her other stats:</p>
<p>SAT I 2220 CR 760 M 740 W 720
SAT IIs Math II 730 Chem 790
GPA 4.791 Weighted 3.977 Unweighted
High School does not rank students. </p>
<p>Everything looks fine. So, has she come out of her shyness? I'm wondering how she will participate in class discussions in college if she's so shy.</p>
<p>I'm an IBer too! <em>hugs IBer dad</em> I feel her/your pain on transportation... my school has cut activity buses, too.</p>
<p>The key is not whether those ECs are in and of themselves "good enough." The key is how will she present herself? In her interview, essays, and teacher/counselor reccs, admissions will be looking for mention and advocation of her ECs. An EC without explanation beyond "hr per wk, wk per yr" is nothing. This is also because colleges are aware of popularity contests; usually the popular people get elected, put it on their resume, but don't elaborate on their participation. So they lose out. Those who might not always have tons of leadership but do display some sort of passion/initiative somewhere will write about it, talk about it, get their teachers/counselors to write about it, and then colleges pick up on that and essentially verify that EC.</p>
<p>Her GPA isn't bad, though you're lucky it's not ranked. I would suggest that she retake her SAT I... since IB SL scores came out a while ago she should be able to put those on her app if they're good enough (6,7).</p>
<p>Her ECs are only as good as she presents them. So guide her in presenting them well.</p>
<p>BTW, just out of personal curiosity, how did she take TOK junior year?</p>
<p>Could she be recruited for diving? Have you contacted college coaches yet to see if they might be interested in her? Diving could be a great "hook" to supplement her good stats.</p>
<p>I don't think she should retake the SAT's. I mean, if you guys want to spend that much time and money to get a 2300 or so, but that's only 80 points. I got a 2260 on my SAT, and if it's good enough for Swarthmore, it's pretty much good enough for the Ivies.</p>
<p>Agent of Sense, I was suggesting that the scores were good enough, and so there's no sense in thinking what they should do if the scores weren't enough, because they are! I looked at the average SAT scores for Harvard on the College Search on collegeboard.com. I don't know how accurate they are, but the statistics suggest that the applicant's SAT scores are good enough such that she won't be looked down upon because of her test scores.</p>
<p>Oh. Well as long as she's doing what she loves to do and is very involved in them, then she is doing enough. I wish that people would stop worrying whether their activities are good enough and just do what they love to do (and nobody should have to tell 17-year olds that) and put whatever that is down on the application.</p>
<p>Oh, I get what you're saying. Okay. Yep. I was struggling between UChicago and Swarthmore, but Swarthmore gave me like over $20,000 more per year and I was really flattered because even though I applied regular, they sent me my acceptance letter early and said that they wanted to let me know early! It was sooo neat. And plus, I think I prefer the small size.</p>
<p>Wow, that is so cool! I was deciding between UChicago and Amherst!
Liberal Arts Colleges all the way! yeah! Though, UChicago will always hold a special place in my heart.</p>
<p>Ealgian -
Everyone takes TOK in Junior year here. They take all of their IB tests Senior year. She did take a few AP tests this year (Calc 5, Chem 5, Eng Lit 3). The school wouldn't allow them to take the AP Physics test because the school district wouldn't pay for it. (ARGH!)
No, she has not come out of her shyness at all. Actually, I don't think she will have a problem with thoughtful college discussion. The thing about the TOK is that certain people would monopolize every discussion and others would simply speak with nothing of value to add just to "participate".
My daughter won't speak unless she has something worthwhile to say, but is also too shy to fight for control of the conversion. She likes to think before speaking, but by then the opportunity has passed. It's frustrating.
Which brings me to the point of interviews. I can't see this as a good thing for her.</p>
<pre><code>What would she do if her EC's weren't "good enough"? She probably wouldn't aim so high in her college choices. Honestly, she doesn't think her EC's are good enough. It doesn't help any that she couldn't even get into NHS because she had no leadership position. (The school was strict about this and required proof). Not good for the ego. I just don't want her to miss out because we mistakenly thought she wasn't strong enough.
</code></pre>
<p>No, she won't be recruited for diving. Even if she were good enough, she wouldn't want to. Her diving goal is to make it to States this year. Maybe she will, maybe she won't.</p>
<p>Actually, diving is not what she "loves to do". What she really loves to do is maintain a very high level character in World of Warcraft. But I don't see that impressing too many Adcoms. (It doesn't impress me at all!) The diving just sort of "happened" in order to claim she has a life outside of school and WOW. She does not love it. Sometimes she downright hates it. She is however, the type to commit herself fully to something when she has established a goal and her goal is States.</p>
<p>What would she do if her EC's weren't "good enough"? She probably wouldn't aim so high in her college choices. Honestly, she doesn't think her EC's are good enough. It doesn't help any that she couldn't even get into NHS because she had no leadership position. (The school was strict about this and required proof). Not good for the ego. I just don't want her to miss out because we mistakenly thought she wasn't strong enough.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think you've missed the point of my question. If the posters here responded that her ECs weren't strong enough, would you seriously not at least aim at some "higher" schools based on fit? Would you really let these posters on CC determine whether she's good enough, or rather, the actual admissions committee? And I repeat, if you aim high, it should be based on FIT, not just because the schools are Ivies. I don't know if you are considering the Ivies just because they're Ivies or because you've searched them but remember, there are eight schools in the Ivy League, ALL different. That's eight out of hundreds of other post-secondary schools. Don't epitomize the Ivies as the pinnacle of college education. Don't think of the Ivies as the ultimate standard of "uberness."</p>
<p>I think dchow08 summarized my point very well:</p>
<p>"Oh. Well as long as she's doing what she loves to do and is very involved in them, then she is doing enough. I wish that people would stop worrying whether their activities are good enough and just do what they love to do (and nobody should have to tell 17-year olds that) and put whatever that is down on the application."</p>
<p>If her activities are good enough for her, then stop worrying about whether she's good enough for Ivies because it's not the pinnacle of etc. etc. You can even turn her passion for WOW into a passionate essay. It's just a matter of how you spin it. Like, an essay wouldn't be, OMG I love WOW! But it could be incorporated in a unique way that can make her stand out. It's not just about ECs. </p>
<p>Of course, if she doesn't think her ECs are good enough for her, not for college, then that's a different problem altogether.</p>
<p>I would advise your daughter to pursue her interests, and if she has no interests other than World of Warcraft, to go out and find new interests. Quite frankly, if she's not that interested in her extracurricular activities, then I would say that her EC's aren't good enough for the very selective schools. Now, if she did what she liked to do and was involved in what she did and got something out of it, that would impress me.</p>