Hi all, I have a question regarding Kumon. I have been reading about it and I have seen mixed opinions about telling you are a kumon finisher in the application or not. Would you include being a kumon completer in extracurriculars and mention it in additional not school-run intellectual activities??
The SAT score is 800 in math and I don’t feel to have been in kumon from age 4 and complete it in 10th grade is a bad thing, I think is an honest explanation of one of the activities actually done, but some say it makes the 800 less impressive, others say it shows you have been privileged… I don’t think it shows any negative… It shows you put up the work…
Does anyone have an opinion or some experience of how colleges see this? Thank you.
You say you have been in Kumon since age 4. Who puts their 4 year old in math tutoring? Probably immigrants who are totally obsessed with their kid getting ahead in math. To me, its not a good look. If you are way ahead in math because you are naturally driven and good at it, that’s one thing. If you are ahead because your parents have been pushing you since age 4, it says something very different. I would leave it off.
My understanding of Kumon is that it tries to inspire and sustain paying clients’ children’s interests in math and reading through organized activities, and it is not a place where one gets help doing homework, rather it is more akin to an after-school fee-for-service math club or reading club.
I don’t view OP’s multi-year Kumon participation negatively; however, I would suggest using the space on the college applications for other activities. On a related note, my son was in a similar type of fee-for-service program, Johns Hopkins’ summer CTY, from second through tenth grade; he chose not to list it as an EC activity, but mentioned it briefly in the essays and short answers when appropriate, or when asked, as in Hopkins’s application. Evidently, mentioning of his CTY participation did not harm the outcomes.
They give you a worksheet to take home. You do the problems and then they go over corrections. In our area, ~75% of south Asians and east Asians participate in some type of Kumon.