<p>kmh2078
I understand your point, but what you are trying to measure is already measured in the other part of the Wrtiting section, except spelling of course. And if spelling really needed to be measured, it would be very easy to test in a non-essay format.</p>
<p>Some coaches may be understanding, but others will bench you or kick you out of your starting spot for missing practice for any reason, even illness. Also, what happens if the club meeting conflicts with a game or meet, which it inevitably will since athletic scheduling is varied? And how about if the club meeting is the day before a game or meet? My son's coaches all had firm rules about not missing practice the day before a game/meet or you wouldn't play. Thus, the conflicts would have been so frequent that club membership would have been a farce--not a true involvement. I guess some coaches would tolerate a once-a-month absence. How good of an athlete you are could factor in, as could which sport it is. A runner can make up a missed workout more easily than a soccer or lacrosse player can make up a missed drill or scrimmage. At our HS, the girls' coaches are definitely more flexible.</p>
<p>B_B, I know what you are talking about too.</p>
<p>was your daughter rejected from said LAC?</p>
<p>It's really a shame that just being a terrific, reliable, skilled "team player" for four years, maybe even on a regional or state championship team, isn't enough to satisfy college admissions. You also have to be captain. Or so it seems to the kids. And really, there should not be more than a couple of "co" captains, so on a large team, most kids will not make captain no matter how much leadership potential they have. So applicants exaggerate or lie. Or the coach "rotates" the captain job throughout the season so that everyone can claim captain. And on many teams, there isn't all that much to the captain job anyway. It's sad, really, how college admissions hysteria has blinded so many of us to the point where we can't see the forest for the trees.</p>
<p>Everyone has the same 24 hours. My son is not a genius, but is very, very smart and has good stats, eg. national merit scholar finalist, AP Scholar. He's taking all AP's, as he did last year (total of 12), and is a 3-season athlete (which involves summer practices). He reads various periodicals to keep up on current events. He also works on weekends, since he wasn't lucky enough to have been born into a privileged family, plus attends church regularly. So just how many hours are left for him to comfort AIDS babies, do advanced research on the DNA of mutant flies, or otherwise impress adcoms? And let's not forget a well-rounded person should preserve familial ties by being present for a family gathering now and then.</p>
<p>When I see resumes of some of these super-kids I can only conclude they either never sleep or are serious exaggerators.</p>
<p>to the op: ur probably jealous that ur friends daughter got into a better school than ur daughter.</p>
<p>btw: who cares!! many of my friends bs-ed their applications (president of several clubs, played instrument, put down they are mexican) and they got into their dream schools (probably because of this) and i dont really care. trust me it will catch up to them in the long run.</p>
<p>Obviously if anyone objects to something it must be a result of jealousy or bitterness.</p>
<p>GFG....colleges are not looking for quantities of ECs. They are not interested in someone who says they belong to 10 clubs. They are looking at the depth and breadth and commitment level of whatever particular EC interests a kid has developed over a long period of time. They are looking for achievements in those areas of interest. It need not be community service. Colleges are fully aware that athletics take up an extraordinary time commitment and level of devotion. They don't care which activity the student picks but that the kid picks what they are interested in, not what is meant to look good and that they were engaged in a significant capacity over a long period of commitment and have accomplished things in those areas of interest.</p>
<p>It is not always about how many hours there are in a day, but also it is about when those hours are scheduled. If your fall sports team practices from 3:30-5:30 every day after school and competes on Wednesday evenings, you can't be in the play because play practice is also after school, but you can still be in the local youth orchestra because they practice at 7pm on Tuesdays...until your winter basketball practices begin at which point you're out of luck with the youth orchestra because the basketball team practices from 5:30-7:30 and the youth orchestra practice is half an hour away, plus you're all sweaty from basketball. And just try juggling some of the club/traveling sports with anything else -- half the time you not only don't know what time your next practice is, you don't even know which day it is because the coaches are juggling their own schedules with finding gym/field space. One activity like this can make full participation in anything else almost impossible.</p>
<p>It's easy to forget that the college the kids go to will neither make nor break their happiness and/or success in life. I sometimes ask my kids to list the people they most admire (among personal acquaintances, not famous people) who are successful in their fields or just as parents or scout leaders, etc., then ask them where they went to college. The reality is that the vast majority didn't go to Ivies or top 10 LAC's, and it certainly didn't hurt them. Perspective is always important.</p>
<p>Sometimes it is difficult to draw the line between embellishment and truth...and it's very easy to see why people would lie. I often find myself jealous of the high schools where every kid interested in science is able to perform independant research projects to enter Intel or Seimens while I only volunteered at a lab at a local hospital where I was not able to do my own research. Obviously the other kids look better by far...and everyone knows that many of those kids get a little too much outside help on their projects.</p>
<p>I took out one of those books that are supposed to help you put together your application (bad idea) and it was clearly written for people from affluent families with abundant opportunities. Straight out, it said that if your parents were rich business tycoons or something similar to tone it down and make it seem like they were just average. It may seem obvious that the college would be able to tell that they were wealthy by tax/asset information but there are many ways to get around telling the truth on that too. It almost encouraged you to lie.</p>
<p>Something else that also bothers me is people who do overnight volunteering trips and are able to rack up hundreds of hours by including the time they sleep, eat, and not actually volunteer.</p>
<p>Yes, such great points everyone. I have another example that is not quite as extreme. My roommate has been to ONE tennis game and maybe THREE practices all season, yet he still considers himself a member of the team. I attend a rigorous residential school, but think it is absolutely not fair that people who are not "official" members of the team can still put that on their college applications.</p>
<p>It is fine to craft an essay and have teachers, parents, and peers make suggestions, and this course of action is both sanctioned and encouraged by colleges. It is NOT fine to have someone else write the essay for you. Sad as it is, college admissions officers really do not have the time to check with everything. But as they have been working there for years, they are generally aware of bogus such as Who's Who and National Honor Roll. I doubt they consider NHS that much either. Though extracurriculars are stressed, many laundry lists are, as my friend once put it, "a smorgasboard of mediocrity." Unless you hit something in the prestigious or unusual range it is very unlikely that any of your extracurriculars will impress the officers.</p>
<p>In the end the essay does make a huge impact. And if fluent writing is not a person's strong point, no matter how many edits and rewrites the college essay goes through, it will sound at best mundane and at worst disingenuous. Good writing will make the admissions officers nod and smile and experience the "chill-down-the-spine" as they read it. This is critical if you are at a public school with no noticeable relation to the big schools, as the words will imprint themselves on the admissions officers' minds and distinguish that person. SATs, GPA, and recommendations aside, the essay will make or break the application. </p>
<p>Make it a point to keep cliches out of essays as the admissions officers will roll their eyes when they read the same line for the tenth time. </p>
<p>"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"--Matthew 16:26</p>
<p>I wholeheartedly agree with the West Point way of life, as it promotes honor and humility at the same time. The problem is, not everyone agrees with this ideal, and many choose to play quick and dirty. It would be unthinkably fantastic if honor was so highly regarded by everyone, but the reality is that most of the world runs by corruption and under-the-table deals. Virtue is rare, even at places such as Harvard and Yale (Veritas, Lux et Veritas, yet many of those who are accepted will be the ones who brought the bogus to the most extreme level without being caught).</p>
<p>Be proud of your sons and daughters if they have ever brought up the question of honor on college applications--it tells you they are growing up the right way.</p>
<p>This really sucks... I worked my ass off in high school and won some pretty nice awards and these kids all get them for nothing? How willl the adcoms distinguish the authenticity of my awards versus theirs?</p>
<p>I guess with certain schools where 50% of kids apply to HYP the adcoms can be more fastidious in their checking but I doubt they will be able to maintain close scrutiny at other schools... </p>
<p>Oh well, life ain't fair... my belief is that people who will succeed will succeed no matter what...</p>
<p>When my high school senior daughter was cut from a varisity sports team to make room for "more talented" freshmen and sophomores, I cried.</p>
<p>Then she took that experience and crafted it into a great college application essay. That essay had everything: humor, character strength, a great story, even Macbeth like illusions to washing away the stain of dissappointment. A year later, my daughter credits her acceptance to every college to which she applied, along with generous merit scholarships offers, to that essay.</p>
<p>My point? My daughter was not a straight A student, nor did she have perfect test scores. She didn't even manage to play four years of a team sport, let alone hold a leadership position in one. Yet her very honest college applications still showed her to be the bright, engaging, sincere and enthusiastic young lady she is. And I think those qualities are more important, in college and in life, than any manufactured leadership position.</p>
<p>I, for one, am tired of "leadership". I have been told that my daughter must be the head of something or she's doomed. She got to be head of something but I think it's very overemphasized. And what about all the institutes of leadership? I thought you get to be a leader by being very good at something (in addition to other qualities). I.e. does leadership exist in a vacuum? Anyway, maybe if everyone is captain, this criteria will lose it's primacy.</p>
<p>One of my kids said he didn't understand all these "leadership" positions people were going after (or creating) -- he thought he was in school to learn a thing or two and that some day after he'd learned a thing or two, then he might lead some other people, but until then, he really didn't feel comfortable going after leadership roles just for the sake of leading. He did get appointed captain of his varsity wrestling team senior year, but it wasn't much of a job. When he got to college, he did all sorts of things that would be considered "leadership" -- he lead a discussion group for a course there, he worked at a paid job on campus with a team of programmers and led a few projects, was the social director for his dorm senior year...this stuff sprang naturally from his growing collection of knowledge and experience, he didn't go out looking for it. I don't like the idea of people going around looking for opportunities to "lead" without having developed a repertoire of skills and experiences in the area first. But that's what some kids feel they have to do to impress college admissions. It is all bass-ackwards.</p>
<p>this would be wrong, but it is tempting to want to take that list of captains and send it to various schools, because if they are claiming this many awards, etc, then the colleges should be updated</p>
<p>and yeah, those poor 8 who got no fake awards, at least they have their dignity</p>
<p>Too many chiefs out there. Whatever happened to the concept of individuality of personality? Thankfully we are not all endowed with the same qualities and abilities! It's illogical for colleges to simultaneously claim they want diversity on campus and yet demand evidence of leadership from all their applicants. Where would the world be without humble followers who work hard in the background with little hope of notice or glory? Where would the world be without the detail-oriented folks with elbow grease who can actually implement the general vision of the leaders? Regrettably, colleges have defined "leadership" as the single best predictor of the type of future success which will enhance their reputation and bring in endowment funds. While there is no doubt some substance behind that view, they are neglecting their social responsibility to educate all of the best and the brightest--not just the leaders.</p>
<p>Besides, how many of us had HS class presidents who were complete idiots? Mine (football player) never bothered to fulfill his obligation to set up a reunion planning committee--never even answered phone calls. The VP (cute cheerleader) was in rehab. and didn't make it to the first reunion. My son's class president ended up in a coma after throwing himself in front of a car while drunk. More often than not, being elected by a bunch of high school students is an indicator that the person is merely a slightly more attractive and popular version of the ignorant masses. The future movers and shakers of the world are seldom the popular kids in HS.</p>