<p>I would like to chime in to agree with Debruns and others who say that ECs done for the sole purpose of impressing colleges are no good.</p>
<p>While I complain that my son takes on too many activities and that his grades suffer because of them, I am happy that those activities are of genuine interest to him. I doubt if he gives a moment’s thought to what colleges will think about them, and I admire that. I wish I could worry about it as little as he does. (I’m getting better.)</p>
<p>My D chose her ECs with the same criteria as her classes. They had to provide a challenge and they had to be something that excited her passions. She always listened to our advice but did exactly what she wanted to do. I think she was just being polite. Her ECs were diverse, to say the least. Athletic, academic and cultural activities. Her volunteer work was all related to elementary children. Her grades were excellent but not always straight As. Her ACT score put her in the top 1% nationally. She applied to 22 colleges, which she admits was too many. Her thought process in applying to Stanford and most of the Ivies was like the lottery: if you don’t buy a ticket, you can’t win. Turns out her journey through high school and the college application process worked for her. She will be attending Stanford in the fall.</p>
<p>I worked in an admissions office at a highly regarded university in New Orleans for a few years after graduating from college. In my experience, I think it is a balancing act. When you have a 3.8+ GPA, 2300+ SAT score and are applying to elite schools the EC’s definitely come into play. Almost all applicants, and certainly all the competitive ones, have high GPAs and standardized test scores. The EC’s factor in as a point of differentiation.<br>
At state schools, even really good ones (UVA, UNC, UofM, etc.), I think it is factored in less.
The original poster mentioned that her son attends a residential HS, I don’t mean to make assumptions, but in cases like that I assume the student is coming from a fairly affluent family and will probably be gunning for ivies, top-tier LAC schools and possibly a few of the elite state schools(I could be completely off here). If that is the case, I think it is worth the trade off of a slight drop in GPA if it increases his leadership experience.
Just my two cents.</p>
<p>AUtiger00, that’s an interesting post, thank you.</p>
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<p>…his son…</p>
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<p>Actually it’s a public, residential math-and-science magnet school. We could fairly be described as borderline middle-to-upper-middle class. And do we ever consider this a wonderful opportunity, because we would not have been able to pay for such a school.</p>
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<p>No, you’ve got it right, but not because of affluence, but rather because we think he’ll get into a few and hope that he’ll get good financial aid there. If we have to pay more than, say, half the cost of a top private or out-of-state public school, then he’ll be going to a safety school, which in our case is our flagship State U. Fortunately, we visited and he liked it, so I wouldn’t feel guilty as though I were forcing him to go there against his will.</p>
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<p>Coming from someone with admissions office experience, this comforts me.</p>
<p>By the way, on a lighter note, this made me chuckle a bit:</p>
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<p>Did it by any chance rhyme with “Schmoolane?” (Don’t answer that. Obviously if you wanted to say, you would have said it. And maybe I’m wrong anyway.) :)</p>
<p>Mantori, first let me apologize for making the assumption that you were the student’s mom.
Also, after re-reading my original post let me say that I didn’t mean to imply that students from less affluent families can’t gun for the best schools in the country. What I meant was that students from wealthy families tend to gun for those schools for several reasons; 1. someone in the family has ties to those schools. 2. those families can afford to pay out of pocket. 3. they receive family pressure to apply to a certain type of school.
In my past experience in admissions, when you saw an application where the student had attended a residential high school more often than not it turned out that student came from a wealthy family.<br>
My apologies to anyone I may have offended with my assumptions and poor choice of words. Money can’t buy smarts and their are plenty of intelligent kids from lower- and middle-class families that have every right to attend the most elite schools in the country.</p>
<p>Oh my! I did not find anything about your post the least bit objectionable. I thought it was thoughtful and made some interesting points. I hope the tone of my writing didn’t imply that I was offended. There was nothing offensive about your post at all. Please don’t worry.</p>
<p>I wasn’t sure and didn’t want to step on any toes. It wasn’t anything you said in your reply, Mantori, more of a case of re-reading my post and thinking that it sounded as if I thought only children from affluent families attended top tier schools (more a case of paranoia on my part than anything else).<br>
My apology/clarification was directed at all of the participants on this board. It puts my mind at ease that you took no offense to it and I hope no one else did.</p>