<p>"Thank you!. By the way, I'm not saying that applicants shouldn't "be themselves." But they need to play the game too. </p>
<p>For example, if your passion is reading literature, it's not gonna be too impressive to colleges if you put down that you read a lot of books in your spare time. On the other hand, if you are president of the local book club, that will be a lot more impressive."</p>
<p>And, it would be even more impressive if -- should your school or community not have a book club for high school students -- you started one, and managed to have some authors come in and discuss their books at some group meetings.</p>
<p>Doing things like this isn't a matter of playing a game. It's running with your passions, and these things are what people do who are passionate about their interests -- regardless of whether such actions will impress colleges or others.</p>
<p>Actions of people like this contribute to their communities instead of just enriching their own minds. Such students will be active participants on college campuses, not just people holed up in their rooms or the libraries reading or in some other solitary way pursuing their interests.</p>
<p>"We experienced no school admissions department more anal, more driven by GPAs and SATs, more prestige conscious (sign of a clear inferiority complex), and, frankly, more obnoxious, than Pomona's."</p>
<p>"Pomona does have an inferiority complex. Pomona does have an inferiority complex, but only because it is a generally underrated school. That is changing though."</p>
<p>Inferiority complex at Pomona? Boy, do they do a godly job hiding it!</p>
<p>Actually, I think it depends on the books you read. Being president of a book club that reads best sellers is one thing, and making your way through all of Doestoyevsky and Tolstoy is another. Scholarship and public service are both valuable. Nerds, if they can truly demonstrate theirf nerdiness, wilol also find a place. Future PhD's are often the nerdy type and adcoms know this too. I would never spend time discussing a book, which I consider a social activity, instead of reading a new one. All types add their own color and flavor to a class.</p>
<p>(No disrespect to community service or other preferences. I am just making a point.)</p>
<p>
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Doing things like this isn't a matter of playing a game. It's running with your passions, and these things are what people do who are passionate about their interests -- regardless of whether such actions will impress colleges or others.
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<p>The problem is that there are different ways that one could run with one's passions, some of which put you in a better position for college applications. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Actions of people like this contribute to their communities instead of just enriching their own minds. Such students will be active participants on college campuses, not just people holed up in their rooms or the libraries reading or in some other solitary way pursuing their interests.
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<p>That's assuming that people continue to do what they were doing before. Even if you are not a leader it's still worthwhile, for purposes of college admissions, to serve in a leadership position while in high school.</p>
<p>Even if you love playing Dungeons and Dragons, it's best to keep that to yourself until after you start college.</p>
<p>This is summer program stuff is a fad where we live. All the top HS students take summer courses at places like Cornell, Brown etc. The parents considered it a way of improving their kids chances of getting into the "elites" but apparently in many cases, it was obvious to the colleges that they were applying to, that it was merely "window dressing". It was something that we argued about in my house. My wife figured it would improve my kid's chance of getting into schools while I thought it was just an opportunity of showing whether we had money. Instead I encouraged my child to work every summer, volunteer and do something original that was consistent with what she was passionate about. The end result was she was the only student from her school who got into every school she applied to including Harvard and Dartmouth.</p>
<p>I agree with DocT. My kids never wanted to do the Johns Hopkins programs or go to Cornell or Brown where a lot of their peers spent their summers. They went to (and worked at) good old fashioned camp. In fact, my daughter forgot to fill out the summer experience part on her Harvard app and realized that after she sent it in. Harvard apparently didn't care that it was blank.</p>
<p>Both my children developed themselves in summer programs. My daughter felt like she fit in for the first time at NSLC after 10th grade. The course on classical roots of Western Lit. she took at Brown became the beginning of a love affair with the classics.</p>
<p>My son spent summers on music. He completed the composition of a string quartet, something he had no opportunity to try during his school time activities.</p>
<p>They did not do these things to get into college but to find themselves. </p>
<p>Other strategies are just as good. The richer kids in our town hung around and worked at a beach program. Their admission results were just as good.
So I agree with you there.</p>
<p>with his self-depriucating essay tying together his crooked teeth-JTaylor-a Disney World vacation-looming adulthood, maybe he would have been Ivy League "timber". It certainly explained why his hs gpa was not quite that calibre.</p>
<p>My d danced during the summers at various camps & intensives. However, she also did the Cornell program. Not to get into college, but to keep challenged, get a taste of a college program, and her school just awarded her 3 credits for it and placed her out of an intro course. </p>
<p>There are different programs and different motives for attending them. Just because some kids only want to "look good" for admissions doesn't mean that all kids have that motive.</p>
<p>My 16 year old rising junior worked swam competitively (no, he's not a college prospect), worked part-time as a lifeguard and spent a week learning to kayak. Next year, we will encourage him strongly to work full-time. If that puts ;him at a disadvantage in the college admission process, oh, well. (It does annoy me, however, that if he saves money it will put us at a disadvantage re: financial aid compared to students who did "enrichment" programs.</p>
<p>Working at any job -- no matter how menial -- does NOT put one at a disadvantage in applying to college. Working is regarded the same as a strong EC. After all, holding any job requires a degree of responsibility, maturity and independence that few ECs require.</p>
<p>Attending a summer college program for the experience or because a course appeals to the student is great. It's also a terrific way to experience college and residential life, as well as to see whether an urban or rural setting is appealing. I am in agreement that colleges do not necessarily see this as a plus at application time.</p>
<p>I know two high achieving kids who each did the Brown and Cornell programs and got into neither, despite high grades and great ECs. It's certainly not a tip to attend.</p>
<p>Students who participate in expensive enrichment programs don't have an admission advantage. Colleges view those programs -- including those at Ivies -- as simply indicating that the student is fortunate enough to come from a family that can afford those costs.</p>
<p>Student-directed volunteer work, paid employment, etc. are typically esteemed by admissions officers far more than the officers value enrichment programs that a student got to do because their parents could afford them.</p>
<p>The impressive enrichment programs are the ones like MIT's RSI which are free to students who have the backgrounds to qualify them for those opportunities that are very hard to qualify for.</p>
<p>I think enrichment programs can be great for their own sake -- the student can actually be "enriched". Get challenged to work at a higher level than he or she had previously attempted, get a glimpse of how others outside his or her specific high school approach things. If it works, it makes the kid a better student, producing better work. That should be reward enough, and should find reflection in the college admissions process through better recommendations, better essays, etc.</p>
<p>I'll add that my daughter did a stint in the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts. It was completely free (except for getting her there, and forgoing the income she might have earned that month), involved students who were very economically diverse, and was extremely competitive to get into (400 applications for 20 spots in her program, two-stage selection process involving testing and interviews for 60 finalists). I have no idea whether it helped her in the admissions process -- maybe so, maybe no -- but it was a really good program that challenged her quite a bit.</p>
<p>Just to add this thought: The idea that Northstarmom puts forth that only those programs that are free and very competitive are favorably looked at by adcoms, does that mean that my son should have given up and stayed home when rejected by Tanglewood and Saratoga (NYS sponsored) violin programs? Does that mean he was going just to please adcoms? If anything, it demonstrates his dedication to improving his craft because he certainly knew the programs he went to would not make as good an impression as the more prestigious ones. Eventually he did do a very rigorous program his teacher ran in which he practiced 6 hours a day, but he also knew this would probably not help in college admissions because no colleges would ever have heard of her. He did it anyway and improved. I'm sure that improvement was, however, reflected in his admissions tapes. He is doing a paid program with her this summer (ouch!) even though he is an incoming freshman at Williams because he wants to play better. He is working in his dad's photo business to make a family contribution. I support him in this and am gratified by his dedication even though he may not be good enough to be accepted into the most competetive programs or earn All-State or be a professional. He played in every All-County orchestra and is now a talented composer. He also has played at many charity events. </p>
<p>We certainly don't need an either/or attitude here. Working is good; volunteering is good; travelling his good; gardening is good; doing research is good; doing highly prestigious and competetive summer programs is good; doing other summer programs is good; surfing, hiking, swimming, clamming etc., good, but sitting around watching TV, obesessively surfing the computer, playing endless hours of video games or just sleeping not so good.</p>