<p>anyone have any suggestions for a California male with A's (all honors, APs that highly competitive HS offers), but not the plethora of ECs that I see on cc? School doesn't rank, so val or sal is not likely. Plus, I'm assuming S will get a B somewhere before he's finished. No test scores yet -- waiting for PSAT, and will take SAT in march (he's a junior ). But, scored ~700 in practice tests. Loves history, and seems interested in politics, econ and business.</p>
<p>Obviously, the UC's are on the list, but since he really enjoys participating in class dicussions, I'm guessing that a 250-person lecture hall is not the best fit; but the price is right. :-)</p>
<p>Grinnell has strong departments in history, political science, and economics but no business school. Has a significantly higher acceptance rate than other academically comparable schools in more desirable locations. Main drawback is its location in a tiny town in the middle of Iowa.</p>
<p>What about the Claremont Colleges? They are tops for LAC in the west coast and with their integrated campuses, provide a plethora of opportunities.</p>
<p>Carleton, especially if his PSATs come out great. There are several Southern LACs that would be happy to throw some money at good stats and grades from California - Rhodes College, Univ of Richmond (a little pricey, but with merit aid and good for business), Trinity Univ, maybe even Davidson, but he might have to pay</p>
<p>If he isn't limited to Calif., depending on his test scores, some other ideas would include:
Dickinson in PA (kind of preppy but looking for geographic diversity and males. He's have a good shot), Muhlenberg (ditto), Skidmore in NY, Wheaton in Mass (both looking for good stats, geographic diversity), Colby or Bates in Maine, Earlham in Indiana (kind of Dickinson's opposite I think), Lawrence U in Wisc., OBerlin or Kenyon in Ohio, Lewis & Clark, Reed and Willamette in Oregon, possibly Whitman in Washington. In Texas, depending on his SATs, Rice, Trinity and Southwestern would be good bets. Tulane might be another option worth considering. Some of the above would be solid safeties, some matches, some very realistic reaches. </p>
<p>Remember, academic record is the most important thing most schools look at, followed by test scores. And, you don't necessarily need a loooooong list of extracurriculars, just a few that show some sort of commitment or interest. Community service is good too.</p>
<p>Don't worry too much about the EC's - as long as he is not aiming at the Ivy's, his school record and good test scores will probably pull him over the edge at many very good LAC's.</p>
<p>Bluebayou, Selective colleges are looking for interesting kids. They don't need a laundry list of EC's; just one or two that they're committed to and genuinely love doing. If they have that then they need to get it across in the application. It should be reinforced in the essay, recommendations, awards, summer activities. Again, it doesn't have to be class president or editor of the yearbook. In fact, I think colleges are sick to death of the usual suspect EC's. They like to see something a little off beat -- as long as it's sincere and not just there to make their application look good.</p>
<p>So if your son really has NO interests outside of academia, he should perhaps pick one subject that he's interested in and make it in a personal EC. For example (please understand this is purely speculative) if he loves geology maybe he could spend a summer in the Sierras with an ecological group doing field work. If he loves history, maybe he could "develop an interest" in Chinese railroad workers in the 19th Century and visit historical sites. I think you get the point. EC's do not have to be under the auspices of the school or an official organization. It takes a little more initiative to develop your own EC, but for sure it can pay off.</p>
<p>If his academic record stays near 4.0, if he tests in the 1400-1500 range, if he has strong recommendations (those teachers whose discussions he's participating in should come through here) and essays -- his lack of a wide range of EC's will not keep him out of ANY LAC in the country. However, if he has an interesting persona in addition to all of the above, his chances increase exponentially. You can think of it as a hook, as an identity -- it has to be something that differentiates him from other smart, middleclass white kids. (I am making the assumption that your son IS middle class and white. If he's not, then he's got a natural hook.)</p>
<p>Geographically, there are good to great LACs all over the country. Once your son narrows in on a few you'll get plenty of personal advice from the parents and students on this board.</p>
<p>Claremont colleges are a good suggestion. Also Reed, Pomona, Occidental, Puget Sound, and Whitman are possibilities on the west coast. A bit further afield are Colorado College and Grinnell. Take a look at Saint John in New Mexico. It has an interesting Great Books curriculum which is unique but not for everyone for sure.</p>
<p>If he loves history, he can get some outside the class exposure by submitting a project for the National History Day contest. Could make for an interesting essay perhaps. See:</p>
<p>In most cases few ECs are better than many, assuming that among the few are one or two that he has participated in over time and he can discuss his interest in them along with what he has learned from participating.</p>
<p>Some excellent LACs for politics and economics: Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Occidental, Carleton, Macalester, Kenyon, Franklin & Marshall, Haverford, Swarthmore, Trinity, Williams, Amherst, Colgate, Bowdoin, Bates and Davidson.</p>
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<p>but not the plethora of ECs that I see on cc? </p>
</blockquote>
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<p>Here's a little secret. The plethora of ECs that you see on CC often hurts more than it helps in the admissions process.</p>
<p>It is very difficult to "sell" a personality with 20 extracurricular activities in a dozen different directions. My advice to the EC kids is usually to try to group their activities in a way that makes it look like they only have two or three. </p>
<p>My daughter's ECs fit in the spaces on the common app. Her entire application focused on one extracurricular interest, although she touched on how it had progressed over the years.</p>
<p>Honestly, you are probably better off with a "one-trick pony" application. Pick your best shot and hammer it home. At least then, the applicant has an admissions office identity. It may or may not work, but it's gotta be better than being another nameless, faceless straight A student who scored 1400+ on the SATs and took a lot of AP courses. Like they don't get a lot of those!</p>
<p>Obviously nobody can care deeply about 15 or 20 things. I would let your level of caring about an EC be your guide on whether to include it in the list. The common App asks that you specify the hours/week and weeks/year your EC demands. In general things that don't even add up to an hour a week are probably not particularly important in your life! These 5-inch lists of EC's on CC make my head swim! </p>
<p>With no particular strategy, my D woulnd up with deep and broad participation in basically two ECs and wound up running both of them her senior year. That was pretty much it. (I think she left one of the Common App lines blank rather than toss in some relatively unimportant thing like one year having been the student council rep.)</p>
<p>I have mixed feelings about designing the app with a big theme in mind. If you tell the truth-- novel concept-- there's a spot for an essay about an EC and you'd likely write about your passion. But to push an "identity" that is false seems wrong to me. If you ARE the consummate actress/fencer/political hound by all means, let it come across. Otherwise show your true identity-- even though it isn't king or queen of an EC.</p>
<p>It may be easier to be noticed & seen if your app is non-generic, but a phony essay pumping up a minor interest into a major passion would probably be pretty transparent and dull. I'd think you would be better off just writing about what you truly care about, even (or especially) if it wasn't a classic EC. The adcom wants to get inside your head a bit and some of these essays I've seen are impenetrable because they are so earnestly trying to be "impressive" that they are not real. In the book "Essays that Worked" there were some great essays about things like babysitting.</p>
<p>My son has strong grades and good test scores, but not at the level of your son. He also did not have much in the way of ECs. He was involved in Scouts and did get his Eagle, but that was pretty much it in the EC dept. He applied to 5 LACs and one University: Lewis & Clark, Puget Sound, Willamette, Allegheny, Ithaca, and University of Rochester. He was accepted at all schools and his lowest merit aid award was $7000. So do not dispair, there are lots of schools out there for your son.</p>
<p>THANK YOU all for taking the time to respond with some excellent suggestions. We have heard of many of these schools, but it's more valuable to hear your recommendations vs. those opinions in the guide books. We will definitely research them all. S wants to "go away," so Claremont and Oxy are out (we live in SoCal). We toured the NE last summer after his Cornell class, and S seem to like the small towns much better than the cities.</p>
<p>Since he does have a couple of interests on which he spends time, maybe I'm just being an over-concerned parent -- which is not hard to do when I read what seems like everyone is the top 1% in class, state forensics champ, tutors Tiger Woods on golfing, buidling an orphanage in honor of Mother Teresa, writes AP test questions for the CB... </p>
<p>Momrath: demographic assumption is correct, but since I've been out of work since awhile, not sure of which economic class...:-)</p>
<p>Ellemenope: the history url looks great. S also found something similar sponsored by the Library of Congress -- part of their living american series, which he has just gotten involved with.</p>
<p>Thanks, again, to all for sharing your thoughts and personal experiences. Our HS has a GC ratio of 650:1 so it's hard to come by college info.</p>
<p>If you check out Carleton, check out St. Olaf as well--boys are in demand there. S applied, though he ended up at UofChicago. They have some interesting programs for the more highly motivated students, one that looked interesting was called "great conversations" or something like that--it looked like a program of study similar to the core at UChicago. I'm going to encourage my daughter to check it out in a couple of years when it is her turn to apply, along with Grinnell, another that S applied to and almost ended up at. Your son's stats should net some good merit aid at some of these schools. S got merit aid from Grinnell, which made the cost not that much more than going to University of California. UofChicago also gives some good merit aid to top students. My S didn't get a merit offer, but one of his classmates (high GPA, but light on EC's like your son) did.</p>
<p>Great suggestions, it definitely gives us hope. S will have plenty of websites to review tomorrow after AP lab, when he's not developing his own EC.</p>
<p>Ellemenope, Marite, Carolyn, I-Dad, SBMom, et al... with that GC/Student ratio, perhaps y'all could hijack the CC website and charge $3k per consultation visit. (with apologies to our sponsors - no competition allowed) LOL</p>
<p>Have a great weekend everybody. I hope those fat ED/EA letters keep coming in for your family and friends.</p>