<p>Sadly, in my high school, the pressure to be "the president of everything" has led to leadership positions that mean diddly-squat. One of my classmates is our Speech and Debate secretary, Orchestra vice-president and concertmaster, Student Council president, head of our branch of the Junior State of America program, and participated in leadership roles for about seven or eight other activities. She sure looked good on paper (she got into an Ivy, although not her first choice) but she was notorious among teachers and peers because she never followed through, did everything halfway, and had little skill in actually leading or motivating other students. She has great grades but no compassion; perfect assignments but little insight; leadership roles but no respect for (or from) her peers. I'm sure she'll do well in college, but if she does, it won't be because of anything that having a resume full of "leadership roles" taught her.</p>
<p>"The CS clubs at her school have a required service component, that is mostly ignored by the students who just want something to put on their resume. The advisors have thrown up their hands and now allow students (ahem, parents) to donate cash to various charities, and give them the equivalent number of hours at minimum wage. "</p>
<p>Why aren't parents and students with integrity screaming about this unethical policy?</p>
<p>I agree, it would make me CRAZY if kids could buy off hours</p>
<p>At our middle school, PARENTS had to do hours to bring down tuition, but if they couldn't they could buy out their hours with donations to events- soda, etc, but not money directly</p>
<p>But, there is an attitude out there, well its ALWAYS been done this way, so what can little ol me do? Well, little ol' me can do alot.</p>
<p>For one, that school has somebody is accrediting them...that school is reporting, wow, we have 200 kids doing 500 sdrvice hours a month...if that is untrue, then they are lying on the acceditation...if it is money fronting for hours, and kids claiming service hours that are being bought off, make a stink.</p>
<p>As well, if they are "buying" off the students time, and claiming it on taxes as a donation...hmmm....are those kids paying taxes on their fake wages?</p>
<p>I would never let this slide...a lot of lying is going on on many fronts and for counsleors to let this go and say on a transcript or for graduation requirements that they were bought off needs to be brought out and in a big way</p>
<p>Me, I would contact the local paper, the accedication organization, and the local district....and I wouldn't let it go</p>
<p>Who decides what charities? And if the charities are signing forms verifying hours for money, well, they need to be checked into as well</p>
<p>This makes me so angry, i want to spit. Seriouslly, what lesson is this school teaching?</p>
<p>Pay people off, and we will lie for you....nice</p>
<p>Worse yet, is what is this teaching the kids? </p>
<p>"We" have some very interesting values if any of this is true. </p>
<p>Pathetic.</p>
<p>At first, I saw this topic more in the abstract. But this week an acquaintance confided that her son had claimed on his apps. to be team captain, when in reality there were no captains of that sport. This child was admitted to a school which was a reach for him, though I do believe he's capable of doing well there. But when I learned of the brighter child of another friend being rejected at the same school, I felt angry. Of course I'm not saying that the two events were necessarily related or causal in any way--who knows all the details--but it does make one pause and remember that real kids are hurt by this. Why on earth don't schools send as part of their profile a list of all the club officers and team captains, etc. so lying can be limited?</p>
<p>
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Why on earth don't schools send as part of their profile a list of all the club officers and team captains, etc. so lying can be limited?
[/quote]
That would be an excellent idea, actually. Maybe a list of the real clubs, too... as opposed to the ones that were invented or created for purposes of resume padding.</p>
<p>Because, I think, many schools are complicit in the whole scheme. They like the idea of sending lots of kids to highly ranked schools. In my D's school, student government is a joke. No one can name a single thing they've accomplished in at least a decade. However, the school makes a big deal about elections, etc. and, as usual, it is just one big popularity contest. Half the kids that win positions don't even bother to attend any of the meetings. I urged my daughter not to run unless she had a clear, reasonable idea of what she could do to improve the school. She couldn't come up with anything and so she didn't.</p>
<p>My D didn't want to run either, but was appointed..best of both worlds...</p>
<p>Vango, I am with you on this. I think the schools like to send as many of "their kids" to highly ranked schools. They would rather not look at this issue, or fight with parents and students about it. My son was in a club and it sounded like all of the sophomores and juniors headed some subcommittee of the club. All of those kids could write that they were the head of this or that. The teacher who supervised this afterschool activity knew about the subcommittees, and who was heading each of them, and was fine with it.</p>
<p>Wow, this thread sank before I got to thank Amazon, Calmom and mchgh for the kind words about D. One good thing about the Stanford app (I think--I didn't get to see it) is that it is not really list-driven. They limit the ECs the student can list and ask the student to write about achievements and why the EC was important to them. Although kids could just lie on this too, I think it's probably easier for the adcoms to tell if something rings false this way.</p>
<p>hmmm never heard about this padding ecs, and multiple "captains" thing...what about just being in something for the experience of it. This is a reminder of the kids who ask my kids "how many more hours do you need?" regarding community service. Are we as parents encouraging our kids to make up this stuff and are we writing their apps? I am not.....and I hope most of the posters here are not. College is not the end goal, it is one place on the journey. AND some people actually don't go to college..gasp...and become productive citizens (imagine that..). and before you all post away on this I have a bachelors and progress on a masters but I definitely believe that is not the only path.</p>