<p>My DS is very excited about Elon and started working on the online application. He plans to apply EA. For the most part, the online app is straight-forward and easy to navigate. There are few issues we are trying to work through:
-For the Honors box, he just bulleted his items with a brief description. Nothing fancy in format. Is that ok?
-On the page to report Activities, Work, and Volunteering, some of his activities are not specifically part of the Activity drop-down items so he picked the closest one.<br>
-Also, since there is really no place to put a description of the activities/work/etc, he plans to upload his resume (which is more like a nicely laid out grid of different activities in table block form by Athletics, ECs, Volunteer, and Work, and Honors too). It is about a page and a half and clearly describes each activity, job, etc and also lists Grade Level of participation and Approx Time spent on the particular activity.<br>
So I guess my question for anyone who has done the application or is working on it, does this seem appropriate? Someone in admissions said to make sure its not redundant and just focus on what is important and keep it to one page, which is impossible with the format we have here unless we delete Honors section. Although the items would be redundant, the resume describes everything clearly, including time spent on these activities.
DS just thinks I'm being obsessive about it all. I told him that is my job!!!
Any thoughts would be most welcome?</p>
<p>I applied last year and I definitely did upload a resume! I thought because there was no place to put a description that they would enjoy reading my resume. I can tell you from personal experience…THEY DID READ MY RESUME. When i met my admissions counselor during orientation weekend she knew things about me that were only found on my resume…which is one of the reasons I love Elon, they truly do care about each and every student. Redundancy isn’t a bad thing, but make sure the resume adds more info! Good luck!</p>
<p>Thank you. Your thoughts are very helpful. He will definitely upload his resume so they can see and understand his activities more clearly. I"m so glad that they admissions staff takes the time to read them all! That is very encouraging.</p>
<p>DS now working on the short answer questions for the app. Does anyone have any insights on the first question - “Describe your greatest accomplishment.” What are they looking for from a 17 year old with this type of question? Any thoughts would be appreciated!</p>
<p>That first short answer is also giving me the hardest time. I cant decide what is appropriate that wouldn’t already be mentioned in my essay/personal statement.</p>
<p>My first thought would be something along the lines of overcoming challenges.</p>
<p>CatMomma - a short and hopefully kind word of warning here - “DS just thinks I’m being obsessive about it all. I told him that is my job!!!”. </p>
<p>Your Son may be correct - obsessive or not, this is his job not yours.</p>
<p>Colleges and Universities are looking for your Sons authentic voice and if what they see (and hear) is your voice it never creates the best impression of him. I would suggest that you help him by being a sounding board for His Ideas and make sure any calls to admissions offices should be directly from him. </p>
<p>Who knows perhaps his winning answer to the “Describe your greatest accomplishment” question: will be an essay on loving an obsessive parent and staying true to himself. Bet the admissions committee would love it because it’s so true of many wonderful parents and great kids, but it’s an unspoken truth that they never see on applications. </p>
<p>He needs you to love and guide him not take over for him. And He is very lucky to have you. With great respect NC</p>
<p>Ncmentor I had to smile at your post just now. Well said. 
I had to REALLY check those same tendencies in myself, but I forced myself to – only gave advice when my daughter asked etc. (most of the time) (I did push the college visits – put them on the calendar and made them happen). When I saw her essay I was blown away – much better than any idea I could have come up with and her heart and passion came through; I learned things about her depth and character that I didn’t know. I was glad I kept myself out of it.</p>
<p>We’ve done this process with 2 children now. I found this video early and it was a valuable guide for us. It’s put out by Vanderbilt, but is designed to be applicable to any school. It gives great insight into what admissions is looking for in an application and helps you know how to present yourself.</p>
<p><a href=“Insider's guide to admissions - YouTube”>Insider's guide to admissions - YouTube;