<p>Anyone else find it slightly ironic that today is National Do Nothing Day ? Just wondering…</p>
<p>[National</a> Nothing Day at Holiday Insights](<a href=“http://www.holidayinsights.com/other/nothingday.htm]National”>National Nothing Day, January 16 Holidays. Do Absolutely Nothing.)</p>
<p>OP - what interests does your D have? Does her school offer activities that support her interests? Is there a reason she is not interested in activities at her school? Some schools have limited EC’s , some are very clicque-y, etc. What about activities outside of school?
If she would like to be part of a group how about Girl Scouts or a youth group? In some towns there are club sports, community theater groups, etc. Local organizations such as libraries, etc can frequently use volunteers as can local political candidates (if she is interested in something like that). I like the suggestion that the two of you find an activity that you can enjoy together. What do her friends do? Sometimes kids are more comfortable doing something with kids they know and like. If a friend is on a sports team, perhaps the team could use a manager. A theater group can use someone to help build/paint sets or with costumes, etc. A job is also an option.</p>
<p>My point is that she needs to be doing something she enjoys. She just needs to find it.</p>
<p>To the OP: There’s a big difference between getting accepted and batting scholarships.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If acceptance is what you’re focusing on, I’d look for schools that have an auto-admit formula. Iowa’s Regent Universities, for example, have a formula that determines admissions. You can check out Iowa’s system for out of state admissions here: <a href=“http://www.regents.iowa.gov/RAI/info.html[/URL]”>http://www.regents.iowa.gov/RAI/info.html</a></p></li>
<li><p>Holistic schools will be looking at the “total student” for both admissions and scholarships. They will want to see some sort of outside interest. That’s how they get to know a prospective student via their application. I seriously don’t know how they do it.</p></li>
<li><p>Scholarships - unless they are for being a legacy admit (somewhere your parent, grandparent, or sometimes a sibling went), for an employer-sponsored scholarship, or based solely on very high test scores & GPA, most scholarships are based on some sort of community service, work experience, or EC component. If THAT, is your goal then some sort of ECs/job/hobby/community service (or combination thereof) would be essential.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>And finally … I think the mean-spirited comments directed toward SteveMA are pretty odd. Why would someone even bother to take time to try to bash or discredit someone who is trying to help the OP? And if it’s not YOUR information to post, you really shouldn’t be posting other people’s info. Seriously. It takes a whole lot of time to sift through a prolific poster’s history for just the sliver of info you want to bash them with. For what? <em>sigh</em> That’s so middle school. </p>
<p>Can’t we all just get along??</p>
<p>Theater tech is another good activity for a more introverted kid like the OP’s daughter. Carimama, read the whole thread… the initial person disagreed with SteveMA’s position because of info SteveMA has freely posted elsewhere on CC, and it made sense to bring that info into the discussion. Then was jumped for doing so. I think pointing out where SteveMA comes from was valid (and I have no disagreement with SteveMA in general on CC, just saying that more info was useful to the conversation). Just saying.</p>
<p>^^except it’s not true…Just saying…</p>
<p>Whoa, this thread is off topic.<br>
I agree that having at least one EC is important, to show that there’s more to a child than studies. Colleges want students to fill a campus, not just the library. If I recall, there was an article on here a few months back, about a girl with stellar scores, jillions of APs, and a pile of rejections. I also think that there are a range of places that a student can find an interest including volunteer work, community groups etc. I have a friend whose child discovered dragon boats and it became a passion. On the other hand, if a student takes care of siblings after school and that’s the reason for no ecs, for example, that’s significant too, and should be included.</p>
<p>As for the other stuff, I never like it here when I see a poster “called out” for a previous screen name or even a prior post, when it’s wielded as a"gotcha." I cringed at the last thread from early_college for example…regardless of what I might think of the poster, I respect privacy on here. There are a variety of reasons why a parent or child may need to change a screen name… concerns about safety, privacy, for themselves or a child is one (especially circumstances involving divorce, etc… no idea what the reasons might be for the poster here, and I dont care…it’s not my business.) Frankly, I’ve inadvertently given out more info than I wish I had… and hoped that old posts would go away. This thread has told me loud and clear that this isn’t the case, and that there are way too many “agendas” here other than helping eachother with the college process. What a shame.</p>
<p>My son’s ECs were mostly during the summer. They weren’t the uber competitive summer programs either. Computer camp, writing workshops, etc. His only school based ECs were track, which he joined in spring of his junior year, and cross country in the fall of ths year. He’s made out ok with acceptances.</p>
<p>A lot of times people think ECs have to be at school - they don’t. That said, I think most kids benefit by doing at least one school based activity so that they are part of the community. At least it gives the GC something to say besides, “the teachers seem to like little Johnny.”</p>
<p>My older son had as one of his activities doing mods for the computer game Civilisation 4. It actually got a top reveiw at Gamer Magazine so it was a pretty legitimate activity.</p>
<p>GA1012 the page you link is from last May, is post number 6587, and discusses ACT scores.
This whole thread needs to be locked. Why in the world is it too much to figure out that Steve- who has never indicated he is a she, but whatever- does not want to be publicly identified? I sometimes regret things I post that might make me easy to identify, and I think this whole site exists because people can assume some degree of anonymity. I really don’t think it is anyone’s place to call someone else out and I certainly think that it’s clear Steve doesn’t want it done, so digging through literally months of an insanely busy thread to find one post (of 3700+!) screams of being needless and intrusive.</p>
<p>Math mom, my boys would kill for a form of video games to be legit ECs! A friend and I joke that our boys would be shoo-ins as freshmen if there was a varsity video games team! First time I took one of the boys driving her assured me we’d be fine because he’s good at Need for Speed…</p>
<p>89wahoo, I posted the post number and it clearly does not refer to an ACT score. Nobody has to “dig” for information here, that is what the search function is for. I was merely clarifying that the information in #31 was inacurrate.</p>
<p>
Once again, not true. She has mentioned it several times. Here are two:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/15038124-post6.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/15038124-post6.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/14597005-post53.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/14597005-post53.html</a></p>
<p>In her post #45, I’m wondering what SteveMA thinks is untrue about intparent’s post #44 
?</p>
<p>The search function on CC makes it very easy to find many relevant posts. There is no need to read through pages to find anything. It is why I am amazed that people would post their FB information on CC and then leave their FB wide open. More often than not, it is the people who are claiming their privacy needs to be respected. I think the first thing to do is not to post such identifiable information on CC or on WWW.</p>
<p>One thing some of the old timers will do is to go back to someone’s old posts before responding, because without additional information for context one can’t really give very good response.</p>
<p>In case the OP is still reading: if your d has a job (even babysitting), a website about an unusual interest, takes dance lessons or does an off-campus sport, volunteers at church - she has an EC. Non-school ECs count. But I’d suggest, in that case, that your d be sure her high school guidance counselor knows what she does out of school, so her letter of recommendation doesn’t read “Jennifer is a nice, good student who has no activities.” I know some kids with impressive dance credentials and little time for school activities, whose GCs were unaware of the extent of their involvement outside of school until the student met with them.</p>
<p>I think it’s helpful in college admissions, if at all possible, for a student to make some contribution to their high school. Tutoring once in a while, a service club that meets occasionally, etc. Selective schools are looking for grades and scores, but also for people who will make a contribution as a community member.</p>
<p>On the other topic being discussed - I’m disturbed by the issue of multiple identities on CC, which is against the TOS. Why? Because we’re supposed to own every post we write, and if some people don’t have to, then it’s less of a community. I saw this on the Princeton Review site many years ago, where multiple identities were the rule, it seemed, and the quality of information was suspect because no one was accountable for what they posted. CC is a strong site in part because of the search function.</p>