<p>What is this Hogwarts business I keep hearing about?</p>
<p>Hogwarts as in the fictional boarding school for young wizards and witches in Harry Potter…</p>
<p>wait, you’ve NEVER heard of HOGWARTS!!!</p>
<p>HAVE YOU BEEN LIVING UNDER A ROCK FOR THE PAST DECADE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!</p>
<p>We all pad to some extent. I’m dedicated to what I do, and I am passionate about my activities, but when 6th grade rolled around I started joining some clubs and doing some new things. But it wasn’t like I was doing all this solely for my application. I really enjoyed what I was doing.</p>
<p>Well they would know that you do not have a passion in it… In the end no one will succeed in anything for which they hold little passion. </p>
<p>I do not understand how you feel that I have an “ungodly” number of ECs. I have a fair bit, correct, and for all I hold a true passion. I am, if I can say so my self, a pretty damn good XC runner. I hold a true and abiding passion for it. The same holds true for all my other ECs, ranging from reading to competitively running. </p>
<p>So in essence, what I do is not pad my application. You may have derived at the conclusion that because I am “rich”, I have been able to “pad” my application. No, I have not… If you read my posts, you will see that it was of recent career related fortune. And hence, I was not able to pad my application with random ECs since age seven. </p>
<p>In conclusion, they do not want un-passionate idiots (yes blunt, but it is pretty idiotic to sit and pad your application from age seven…) in their school.</p>
<p>PPV, i know the whole life story. I’ve read your posts. I never said that you padded with the intention of padding.
how is it not possible for a padder not not love the things he/she pads with? If i were a padder, I wouln’t do things that I hated.
In any case, your argument that anyone who chhoses activities with a BS application in mind has no passion is flawed.</p>
<p>Well I read books 2-8, but I was wondering if it was being referenced as a joke or a filler.</p>
<p>One teacher said, “I would never have gotten into Andover, going to Hogwarts back in the day.”</p>
<p>That was a filler for an unnamed school and I was wondering if that was how it was being used.</p>
<p>there are only 7 books.</p>
<p>like izzy said there’s a reason people have padding. Their parents have been preparing them for the life they want their child to leave. And a child wouldn’t realize padding could help them on their long journey to be accepted to some prestigious. However somewhere along the road they realized what all their ECs were for. Because unless your born into a certain family you probably won’t be aware of boarding school and what it takes to get in till probably middle school. Passion is key in determining if padding will really help. I recently learned just how competitive the boarding school scene is, but I have always pursued what I’m passionate about so that’s probably the reason I didn’t get rejected.</p>
<p>yes, admins will not admit someone with awesome ECs because of a hunch that they were chosen with BS in mind and admins dont like people that are determined to get into BS because that obviously means that the applicant is passionless. </p>
<p>^^that was scathing sarcasm. it’s hard to tell on CC.</p>
<p>Then you have the definition of “padding” slightly flawed, at least in my humble (or not so humble…:)) opinion… Padding would be doing things for the sole sake of getting into an institution or of that creed. I think the term was coined with “padding bibliographies” ie. citing random sources which you know you did not apply. </p>
<p>By the same token, I understand doing something for the sake of getting into college and doing something you love can overlap, at this point it would not be called padding. Plus, a padder is a padder. One cannot defend it.</p>
<p>Get the hell of this board Scoonto. 8 Books??? 7!!!</p>
<p>Never insult Harry Potter again.</p>
<p>also, parents DO have to push their children towards ECs early, if only to make them well-rounded. My parents very lenient, allowed my to quit ballet and piano at the age of seven. I regret it a lot now. </p>
<p>Joe’s parents knew that they wanted to send ther son to BS. So, when he was six, they started him in hockey and violin. They put him in a French immersion school. They hired private tutors to make sure his grades were notch. He was taken to all sorts of museums and they went on vacations all over the world. For the first year, he hated his lessons, tutoring, etc. But, as time wore on, it got better. He gained skill, made friends, and created memories. When he was eleven, his parents made him run for student council president and join the debate team. They also made him volunteer at the animal shelter, even though he hated animals.
By the time Joe was thirteen, he was in lots of ECs, had excellent grades, and spoke French fluently. He was very personable, and well-traveled.
So when the admins saw his application, they liked it. He was passionate.</p>
<p>that roundabout parable was meant to show one thing: passion can grow. padding doesn’t necessarily mean no passion. Joe didn’t like his activities t first, his parents forced him. And even if he never liked them, he’d still be amazingly taleneted. Contrary to popular belief, admins probably don’t care too much about passion when it comes to the cream of the crop, talent-wise.</p>
<p>padding is padding. the padders know that padding will help, otherwise there’d be no use padding.</p>
<p>I know you will not admit it, but padding won’t help…</p>
<p>Let’s move on people, no one is ever going to agree with anyone else.</p>
<p>Plus we’re all teenagers it’s not like any of us are truly smarter than another person, even though we may think we are.</p>
<p>That’s what I meant…7. But I saw the first movie then read the rest of the books.</p>
<p>it will. PPV. it could. tell me: what is wrong with starting ECs with BS in mind? How does this signify no passion? And why would an admin not let a student in because they had joined an EC with BS in mind?</p>
<p>hey, i was just looking at the earliest responses to my first post on this thread, and guess what? PPV agreeed with me. then he just turned his back on me to go rant with Tom. I feel so abandoned.</p>
<p>Personally I think that PPV just felt like causing drama today.</p>