<p>Xiggi:</p>
<p>It's okay. At least you did not own up to being a fan of Britney Spears or having sighted Elvis. :)</p>
<p>I saw the Beatles at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium on their first trip to America. It must have been 1964. It's hard to remember how drop-dead revolutionary they sounded at the time....in their own way, they were astoundingly innovative. Though I still follow music, and like many groups my kids like, I still rarely get that true feeling that I am hearing something revolutionary in the way I did back then...and now many kids have no idea who they were!</p>
<p>"geriatric..."</p>
<p>As my kids would say, I resemble that remark. But, I also thought ABBA had it going on.</p>
<p>The good news for BHWK's is that the college app cohort should peak at the end of the decade, 2009-11, assuming you believe our friends at the Census Bureau. Thus, until then, selectivity will only get worse, and for those, like many families, impossible to get into a selective school without a hook or real ("freak show") passion. Perhaps starting a fencing club for the blind could make kids stand out! :)</p>
<p>I have a different take on BWRKs than I did a few years ago. My older S was a "specialist", all he cared about was basketball and even though he is not playing for his HYP team, he sure did show a passion for the sport and some success in it as well. I tried to prepare my second son for not doing as well in the college admissions market because he is much more the "interested in everything" type of kid. I told him that his is a more interesting life and makes him a more interesting person, but that the HYPSMs want a well rounded student body, not well rounded students and that is their loss, and no reflection on the great choices he has made. Yet, he applied EA to HYPSM school, and was accepted, totally as a BWRK. No hooks, just a great kid, IMO, of course. So, you gotta do what works for you. It is a mistake to live one's high school career for chances of college admissions, because who knows what they want. You know, or your child knows, what he or she wants, and that should be how they live their high school life.</p>
<p>Moral of the story: apply EA or ED and double (or triple... or quadruple!) your chances of admission.</p>
<p>
[quote]
It is a mistake to live one's high school career for chances of college admissions, because who knows what they want. You know, or your child knows, what he or she wants, and that should be how they live their high school life
[/quote]
Second that emotion. And, I would like to believe and there is certainly some evidence to support it, that if you have gone where you really wanted to go in your high school years, your application can show that and be strong because of it - your essays, recommendations will convey.</p>
<p>I third that emotion! I just cannot see reinventing yourself cause of college admissions. I say pursue what you enjoy and do your best at it and be who you are. I know that may buck the latest admissions "trends" but it is the only way I can see growing up. I guess I say that cause that is what my kids did. College admissions was not in mind when making choices in terms of ECs and such. </p>
<p>One of my kids is well rounded. She would never consider giving up one of her lifelong interests and her high school life was a balancing act but she would have it no other way. When it came time to learn about college admissions, I started reading about kids having to have some unique "hook". There was both an emphasis in the literature about having a specialty, plus an emphasis that it needs to be unique. I immediately thought, well, that ain't my daughter. She did not have just one specialty. Plus her interest areas are not unique. Oh well, I would not have it any other way. She is who she is and she presented her well rounded lifestyle in her application materials. So, maybe in this age of unique ONE specialty profiles, SHE is unique, LOL. She is a tap dancing ski racing tennis ball bashing, soccer goalie, jazz pianist, clarinet playing, student govt. activist, waitress, traveler, teacher of children, hip hop dancing, ice skating, theater actress waterskiing teenager! </p>
<p>Then I have a second kid who grew up just as well rounded, doing all the same activities. But around age 13, she chose to give up several long time pursuits, including all her sports, to pursue one area of passion, the performing arts (though there are several different areas within that in which she is involved). So, she is a specialist of sorts. I don't see this as a better path. I think each kid chose her path and whatever that was, it was right for them. I can't imagine altering it due to college admissions. I can't imagine saying, "don't play clarinet or piano cause those instruments are not unique enough" or "soccer? everyone plays soccer...do fencing". I just cannot fathom that but I know that is what is advised these days. Just my point of view. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>You can often increase your chances at any endeavor by focusing on it to the exclusion of other things. When we choose to do so because we love the activity as well as the end reslut, it is one thing. If we are just pursuing the ends, disregarding the means, it is a whole different story. You are living a life as you make your journey and that is not even the "end". We have to make tradeoffs as to what we want to do in our daily lives to get to a certain, end and yet live our lives fully and enjoy as we get there. THere is a risk to doing everything just for an end result, in that even if you do everything you can, you may not get the result you want. You may have increased your chances, but if you don't get it, then you don't get it just as if you had not jumped through those hoops, Only you sacrificed years and acitivities for an end that did not come. </p>
<p>If someone really wants to move their kids to a school that is not a good fit for them, stick them into activities that they do not like, and make them jump through all sorts of hoops solely to get into an elite college, they are not valuing the time spent in those activities. There still is no guarantee the kid gets in. I have known kids of the description given who did not get into top schools. And I have seen the standard, excellent student get into top schools. If you play the game, you certainly can increase your chances, but at what cost? </p>
<p>I know a young man who is very good at chess, as S3 is. The two boys ran into each other, the fellow came by our house, and enjoyed a rousing game with S3. He wi****lly stated that he had not played in a long time, and wished he could play more often. Now this is a young man pretty high up there in NCSF hierarchy. My son told him that there are pickup games on weekends at a locale. The kid shook his head and said he can't take the time to do that. His weekends are booked for SAT tutoring and his dad said the chess has to go cuz it won't do diddley in getting him into Harvard. Debate and squash are the way to go, according the this knowledgeable old goat. Which may be fine, but, you know, the kid loves chess. Kind of sad. And there is no guarantee that this fellow is going to be such a hot debater or squash player that HPY will take that into account. And he is going to score pretty high on those SATs anyways, knowing him--studying in 9th grade for a kid of that calibre, is a bit much. But this is one parent's way of operating. The mom called me the next day, and said the kid was just so happy being with S3, and wanted to get the boys together again. Kid has been a bit depressed with the highschool routine. No wonder. </p>
<p>S was a bit perturbed about this conversation. He is a freshman, bright, gifted in math, needs work in the English/history end, but no outstanding interests other than an occaisional good chess game, reading Sci fi, video games, lower level sports. Nothing that is going to hook him. Apparently several kids his age have made the same comment about having to find stuff that'll get them into college. I do have to agree that if he happened to have an interest that is hot to colleges, it would make his chances for making the top schools, better, but the level he would have to achieve in those endeavors are not cakewalks. Anyone who reads Chuck Hughes' "What It Really Takes to Get into the Ivies" and reads the chapters on ECs will see the level of achievement these school want before such ECs become hooks. Not an easy achievement. That this Shaw consultant was able to not only come up with this fuzzy formula, and create a child who is successful to a level where it is a hook for a top school seems pretty miraculous to me. I would not take the chance on any such endeavor unless the child is the driving force, as that is really what it takes to get to that level.</p>
<p>Back to S3--he loves chess, is a ranked championship level NSCF player. But the next step for him would involve a chess coach and many hours committed to chess each week, really each day. He does not want to do this. A good game with someone around his level a couple times a week, scrutizing an interesting chess problem are where he wants to be. Even if Chess Masters were a true hook, it would be quite a change in his life, for this kid who is very, very good at chess to get to that level. I doubt if any endevor is any easier either to get to a level where HPY will sit up and notice. And even if they do, it does not mean you get in.</p>
<p>Don't know why "wist fully" was censored.</p>
<p>"Don't know why "wist fully" was censored."</p>
<p>This has come up in the past. The problem is that the censors' brigade -actually an automatic filter- considers the linked combination of the letters s-t-f-u to be offensive.</p>