<p>I agree that LPS can be a real pressure cooker. In one of the best school district in my area, students, parents and teachers are obsessed about academics, or should I say test preps and elite colleges. Students feel pressure about taking honors history… because 40% of student body go for AP history. They don’t have much breaks during summer because they have to go to private SAT prep schools.</p>
<p>@classicalmama, I know from bitter personal experience - as I’m sure do others – the poisonous and lasting effects of junior high. Kudos to you for recognizing your son’s pain and finding a way out of it for him.</p>
<p>I am tempted to “like” almost everyone’s comments! As so many of you already said, I saw my child start drowning in pressure in 7th grade. And not from me! Now that he’s at BS, I agree that it’s less stressful than our LPS.<br>
On Friday I was driving my 6th grade daughter to lacrosse with 4 other girls. The 4 other girls started discussing National Charity League, and how they are signed up for next year because it looks good on their resume. I asked, “Do you mean college applications?” They said yes. I asked if any of them were really interested in NCL and what they do. <em>Crickets Chirping</em> They are 11.<br>
Now I am wondering if I am “hurting” my daughter by not signing her up? These things drive me crazy. I’m assuming that I can help her find something she can “authentically” enjoy and that she’s still be able to attend college somewhere decent without NCL on her “resume.” (Not that there’s anything wrong with NCL)</p>
<p>Oh man, junior high (a.k.a. middle school) will be remembered. And not in a very positive light, if in any light at all.</p>
<p>How does 6th graders even know the word “resume”? I assume its from their parents pumping this stuff into there heads. And there is nowhere on the common app to put middle school activities so no worries there. ;)</p>
<p>A kid having the word “resume” in his/her vocabulary at a young age may be an indication of a job-seeking parent rather than a Tiger parent.</p>
<p>I liked that a few kids I interviewed for S1’s school brought a resume. It made the session more productive & efficient.</p>
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<p>@SevenDad LOL, this is just a fancy title for someone who’s trying to fix a broken gene causing cystic fibrosis by using a gene therapy technology called zinc finger nucleases… most likely in cells on petri dish or mice. There is in fact an ongoing clinical trial, using the same technology, to intentionally “break” a normal gene in a way to make people resistant to HIV infection.</p>
<p>I wonder what proportion of these fancy-sounding research projects is done by high school students. The nature of modern biomedical sciences requires extensive collaboration, advanced skills, and an amount of time that goes way beyond affordable by high school students. One of last year’s prestigious Davidson Fellows scholarship winners (with $25K prize) had an equally fancy-sounding research project title. But when I checked for publication, the student was listed as the fifth author among ten. And I am very familiar with the type of contributions such an author would make.</p>
<p>My guess is that they let students use “shared” data for science fairs or competitions, but when it really counts (i.e., peer-reviewed publication = grant money = promotion…), we get to see how much contributions students have actually made. </p>
<p>Leafyseadragon, do you think NCL looks good on an application? The mothers I know who do it with their daughters seem to do most of the work–setting up activities, transport, donations, etc. I think it would be on the top of my list for “parentally-back application arms race” items. I’m only a parent, but I’d think a child who sought out things that interested her, rather than her mother (and all her friends) would be able to speak more convincingly about a true commitment to community service. </p>
<p>@SharingGift: All of the titles seemed to be of that ilk in my quick scan. And I am also suspicious about how much of the work is truly done (or how much of the experiment conceived/designed) by the high schooler in question.</p>
<p>@GMT: Sorry, but 6th graders thinking of how to pad their college resume is a culture I want to “opt out” of…regardless of it’s the result of job-seeking parents or Tiger parents…</p>
<p>I’m starting think AO’s are soon going to be looking for the teens from the past. The ones with sleepy part-time summer jobs. Teens who spend the summer at the beach or pool when they aren’t babysitting or waiting tables. Throwback teens from a slower time. </p>
<p>It’ll be the next big thing. Classes will be held in how to be slovenly. Books will be written about the joys of idleness. Eating junk food and watching bad tv will replace high-powered internships or traveling the world. ;)</p>
<p>6th grade might be a little too early, but I felt around entering high school would be a good time to start compiling a list of major activities and accomplishments, whether you call it “resume” or whatever. It would come handy when applying for internship, competitive summer camp, or college. Just my thought.</p>
<p>@SharingGift: I agree…but the “6th grade resume-building” thing is just another example of pushing kids to do too much too early, IMO.</p>
<p>Along with “teens from the past,” I’d like to see a trend toward little-known colleges where the coolest school you could select was the one no one has ever heard of. So, at the next social gathering, you could say, “Yes, Bobby is off to St. Giraffe’s and Susie is deciding between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,” and your audience would be jealously thinking, “Dang, I’ve never heard of those. We need to up our obscurity search.” But, I guess that would just degenerate into a new type of arms race. :(</p>
<p>Pops2017: to take your sarcastic comment at face value, maybe. </p>
<p>Or, possibly, colleges have found that students carefully packaged according to the “Hernandez Plan” aren’t as resilient and adaptable as “normal” teens who’ve had the advantage of growing up without hothousing? </p>
<p>I find the thought of planning sixth grader’s activities with an eye to college admission to be…aberrant. But that’s just me. It does hinder students from changing as they mature. (For those who don’t know, I’m referring to the sort of approach to packaging applicants apparently offered by Michelle Hernandez. If you Google her name, you’ll find her consultancy.)</p>
<p>aside for @SevenDad on science fairs…I’ve judged a lot of science fairs and lets just say that the kids that win something like Intel or Google are typically putting in an effort level of a beginning grad student. And yes, there are ways to tell if they are doing the work themselves! Those fancy titles reflect the fact that the top fair projects are often done with professional mentors who give students access to resources they can’t just get at school or at home. Anyway, it’s loads of fun to talk to ALL of the students and I try my best to give them encouragement and constructive feedback.
So yes, they are generally “authentic” on various levels, but they’ve had special coaching and access too ;-)</p>
<p>Michelle Hernandez is the college admissions ratrace anti-Christ >:) >:) >:) </p>
<p>@tomtomclub: “special coaching” does not sound all that authentic to me! ;-P</p>
<p>@GMT: Or a prophet, depending on who you ask, right?</p>
<p>Evolving discussion on this thread reminds me of the book titled, “How to Be a High School Superstar: Revolutionary Plan to Get into College by Standing Out (Without Burning Out)” by Cal Newport. The title is undoubtedly cheesy, but the proposition was sound. </p>
<p>Basically, the author recommends, instead of identifying and developing so-called “passion” into one of those sought-after hooks, that a student deliberately allocates a significant portion of his/her time for relaxed, unstructured exploration of what might interest her (by chance) and becomes a genuinely interesting person in her chosen area, irrespective of college matriculation. I doubt that spending the summer at the beach would count toward relaxed, unstructured exploration, unless marine biologist is in the picture. 
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<p>I can imagine how much college AOs would love to have a conversation with someone who’s genuinely interested in and knows a great deal about her work despite it would never come close to curing anyone with any disease. The danger of action-packed, tightly-scheduled EC or whatever anyone does outside classroom is even when she happens to come across something she might love, she just can’t afford to try it out and she would never know what she misses. I guess that how we join rat race or lemmings run. How sad… </p>
<p>I’ve read the Newport book and liked it. One thing that does come into play is the parental network/luck…IIRC, he gives the example of one student profiled in his book who does research with a neighbor/parent friend who works in some field the kid is interested in. That can’t happen if they don’t have that neighbor/friend.</p>
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<p>This can mean that a grad student spends years reading primary literature, creates a reagent through countless trials and errors, and finally builds an experimental test model, which the high school student comes in for the summer, gets briefed on what’s this fancy project about (so he/she can present alone at a science fair), and execute it one shot… or two.</p>
<p>It’s not that the high school student steals credit, it’s more of symbiotic: the busy grad student would have an array of experiments to perform under stress of competition (There’s not a lot of glory for the second place in science.) and be happy to sub-contract part of his/her research project.</p>
<p>I would look any publication with more than two authors (meaning a professor and a student) with a grain of salt.</p>