The next round to AMC.
OK, I’ll bite: MITMIT – how many ECs did you do just to get you into college? My D elected NOT to do the majority of those exact same ones, because she actually didn’t want to… so, if you had been guaranteed a slot at MIT without them, which would you have done anyway? (This is not a trick question.)
Quite frankly, I didn’t do any of my EC’s “just to get into college.” As the type of student who sets goals for himself every week, I felt my activities were quite fulfilling throughout my high school experience. Trust me, when you get into your dream school ED/EA, you will develop the much dreaded/celebrated senioritis. My activities and EC’s were what kept me checked into reality, and from ditching class :).
That said, there are a few that I “could have done without.” (It’s much easier listing the ones that I wouldn’t do rather than those I would.):
California Scholarship Federation
Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University
The rest have made for a wonderful four years.
–MITMIT
PS: Your daughter should not feel obligated to participate in any activities just for the sake of “getting into college”. Let her pursue what truly interests her.
Accepted: Princeton University (ED, Attending)
Withdrawn/Planning to apply: Williams College, Yale University
Rejected: N/A
Waitlisted: N/A
Deferred: N/A
ACT: 36
Major: English
Foreign Exchange student; Germany, France
President of Gourmet Club
Tennis Instructor, Swim Coach; community center/elementary school
Varsity Girls Tennis, Varsity Girls Swimming, Varsity Girls Lacrosse
Published Poet, Author, Essayist
The rest is silence. Go Tigers 2010!
Don’t you qualify for JHU CTY before you get to high school? We’re you honestly thinking about college back then?
I was…and I’m not even Ivy obsessed. There’s nothing wrong with thinking ahead.
Didn’t you do anything in middle school? I thought it was a fun summer program :).
Yeah, but I mean, I find it hard to believe that a CTY kids (unless Harvard-bound obsessed from birth) was thinking about resumes and applications when they joined that program.
I don’t know, maybe its me, but you spoke of JH CTY as if it were a high school extracurricular or achievement program built for resume when really it’s taking a test to qualify for programs that come with a hefty-price tag.
I don’t know, something doesn’t seem right to me about putting things like John Hopkins CTY, NSLC, National Youth Leadership Forum, or NSHSS programs on your resume when the accomplishment is simply that you completed a $1,000-$2,500 program that you were fortunate enough to afford.
Cre8tive1, I don’t know if you’re trying to criticize MITMIT, but I feel like people should just stop picking at every single thing. Yes, congrats to everyone where ever they’re going!
I think that CTY is different from the other programs that you mentioned.
The main difference is that in CTY and the other talent search programs, the students are doing advanced in depth studying for at least 6 hours a day in a subject that presumably they are interested in. The programs also are hard to qualify for. It’s not a matter of pay your money and you get to go. There also are some need-based scholarships available.
The other programs appear to mainly be for whatever college bound students have the $ to pay for them. From what I’ve read about the programs, they aren’t as rigorous as the Talent Search programs, which require the students to do homework and write papers.
My impression based on reading about those programs is that they are similar to taking tours – fun and interesting, but don’t require a lot of work on the part of the students. Since I know about those programs only based on waht I’ve read on sites like CC, however, I’m open to being corrected by people wit more experience.
S went to CTY and TIP, so I do have more familiarity with those programs.
There is no such critizing of MITMIT. I made an inquiry about the usage and legitimacy about CTY-type programs as ECs or accomplishments. Problem?
My GC said colleges respect NSLC a lot…no idea why; I thought it was a waste of time. IMO, there’s no harm in listing it on a college app - schools will already know your income level, and you do get <em>some</em> crappy leadership training there.
And CTY is awesome, in terms of the fun factor (think of it as Learning to Survive Away From Home for socially awkward 12-year old nerds). And I learned a lot, too!
Oh, and NSLC fits the bill that Northstarmom described - a tour of Washington, D.C. with little work involved. Laaaame.
“I don’t know, something doesn’t seem right to me about putting things like John Hopkins CTY, NSLC, National Youth Leadership Forum, or NSHSS programs on your resume when the accomplishment is simply that you completed a $1,000-$2,500 program that you were fortunate enough to afford.”
Sounds to me like you’re implying that MITMIT used his money just to add another activity to his application.
Oh, Northstarmom, I don’t mean any commentary on the quality of the program, which I believe CTY is on a higher level than all of the others mentioned.
These days, it is rather easy to qualify for, simply by performing well on a state tests (SATs no longer even required). Financial aid is okay, less than half cost generally. But of all of the tens of thousands that qualify, it bothers me a bit that the only ones that will be able to list CTY are those 12 year olds whose parents had an extra $3,000 to shell out (all the 8th grade summer programs average around there).
NSLC is what you make of it, in my opinion, and for the majority of rich kids who expected to simply pay, follow the schedule, and be info-tained, yeah, it was a waste of time. But there were quite a few hard workers there (I noticed most were those who had to use loans or fund-raise to get there , like myself. We ended up shadowing Congressmen on the Chamber floor, having lunch with a Senator, late night debates with Georgetown grad students, and really took advantage of the campus instead partying every night.)
But that is beside the point, even if I had to fund-raise to get there, I wouldn’t put such a program on my application.
Studentforever, read what you want (bad correlation IMO though) but I’m implying that such heavy-price tag items are great experiences, but I think they hold little water as accomplishments simply b/c you were able to pay the extra thousands. What you are fortunate to have is what you are fortunate to have, but should that be used to measure you against another applicant? I believe that why colleges atleast Brown & Weslyan, don’t pay much attention to them.
“What you are fortunate to have is what you are fortunate to have, but should that be used to measure you against another applicant?”
Well, not everyone is as fortunate to have legacy, money, or URM status. Whether it is fair or not, these factors carry weight in the admissions process.
But you’re not saying legacy, money, or URM make you more of an accomplished applicant, but things like CTY, that precisely what you are doing, using the completion of a $3,000 program to say that you are a more accomplished applicant than the rest.
Whatever, personal pet peeve of mine, but lets just end it here anyways.
Accepted RD: Yale (Attending), Harvard, Cornell, Georgetown, Penn (Wharton), Columbia
Rejected: Brown, Princeton
Deferred: Columbia ED
Waitlisted: Dartmouth
Asian, Female, California
GPA: 3.97, 4.66
AP’s: 5’s on: Calculus BC, Chemistry, Biology, English Literature
4’s on: English Language, French Language, US History
SAT: 780 Math, 760 Critical Reading, 750 Writing
SAT II: 800 Chemistry, 800 Literature, 780 Math IIC, 770 Biology
Rank: 2/550
Major: English/Biochemistry/Music
President of French Honor Society
President of Habitat for Humanity
SFYO
PROMYS
Varsity Girls Soccer
AP Scholar with Distinction
National Merit Finalist
D&G, you and I have the same interests 
can’t understand why people with really high GPA and SAT got rejected by Stanford, whereas those with slighly lower stats got in?
and it is impossible to say that all kids with high stats just lack ECs, and all kids with lower stats have outstanding ECs…
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