In 8th grade, kids don’t know what they’ll want after they’ve matured some through high school. She probably hasn’t even begun to explore a variety of colleges, much less distinguish among them. She hasn’t even started hs.
Has she set her 14 year old sights on a career, too?
How are WE supposed to tell you, an internet stranger on an anon forum, what “she can pursue with interest for the most part of her life?” All we know is she likes singing. That’s not enough. Really, you have to explore her inerests and strengths. And wait for them to develop.
That said, I got each of mine involved with direct community service in 6th. It was a family value, opened their eyes, they continued through college and after, one works in a support field.
If you really are the parent…YOU do not need recommendations. Your D needs to figure out what SHE wants to do. But in doing so, she should understand that participating in any particular EC doesn’t guarantee her admission to Yale or any other school. There’s no magic check off list which your D can complete which will guarantee her admission to Yale or any other top college. If getting into Yale is the ONLY reason she’s participating in an EC and she doesn’t get in, she’s all too likely to be very bitter. (Just read the posts from some of the students on CC after they get rejected.Heck, read some of the posts from their parents when they see their child’s dream shattered.)
And since nobody on this board other than you actually knows her, we can’t possibly tell you what she “can pursue with interest for the most part of her life.” Nobody but your D can figure that out.
In my experience, kid do a little shifting around with their interests during high school. One of mine is almost done a doctorate in one of the arts. If I had required her to stick with theater, or some other activity that started in 9th grades, she never would have migrated over to music.
Just let your daughter sing, for now. Perhaps there is a choir or outside ensemble she could sing with. Let her enjoy it and grow naturally.
Wanting to go to Ivies often means that a kid needs some education on what schools are out there. Discourage focus on college right now but learn as much as you can about schools.
You can start with the website “Colleges that Change Lives.”
If music continues to be an interest, then in a couple of years go onto the excellent music forum here on CC.
There are so many ECs for kids who sing - music theater, chorus, glee club, in and out of school. I totally agree with every other poster who said to let this child follow her own passion and path, not for the sake of a long shot college admission, because that is what she enjoys!
I also don’t think it’s even possible to plan out your child’s ECs so early. High school is a time of immense growth for a teen and many opportunities are available to upper class men that are not to freshman/sophs. I can’t even begin to describe the differences in my daughter between freshman and senior year. And I do remember doing alumni interviews when she was younger thinking “she’ll never be one of these kids”. Guess what, she was. She followed her interests, listened to the advice of some trusted teachers, even dropped an EC (gasp) to more fully pursue another, and was accepted to her #1 school (not Ivy but top 10 for engineering and her personal number one from the first visit) by following her own path.
Enjoy high school for the sake of self discovery, growth, and learning, not for college admission.
I agree that this is a backwards approach. An 8th grader (and her parents) should not be considering how to best package herself to fit a particular school.
Why does your daughter want to go to Yale? Why does she want to go to Princeton? Does she know very much about either school or about college in general? When my daughter was in 8th grade, she had a vague understanding that college was someplace you went for more education after high school. Seriously, that’s about it. The first time she used college admissions as a factor in any decision she made was when she chose to participate in the full IB diploma program before the start of her junior year of high school.
I agree with the people above who suggested that, since your daughter likes to sing, she should participate in school chorus, or musical theater, and so on. Perhaps there are things outside the school and in the community that involve singing as well. In my community there is a wonderful organization where student musicians go and perform in hospitals and nursing homes. The organization was started by a student.
Don’t let your daughter make the mistake of thinking the only good schools are the Ivy Leagues. And honestly, it’s too early to talk about college when she hasn’t started high school yet.
My son’s best friend went to Yale. He liked singing and he played the base. What did he do? Well these are the things I know about. Was the main composer for a rock band. Played bass in the orchestra. Played bass in a smaller jazz group. Sang in the musical once or twice. Worked at a music camp in the summers. Volunteered at Hebrew School on the weekends. Played a lot of board games with my son. He may have done other stuff, but that’s what I know about.
Our town also has a children’s chorus that does a lot of concerts at senior centers and nursing homes.