The advice D got early on, both in HS and college, was pick one activity related to your intended major, and one activity for fun that you love. IMO, that’s pretty good advice.
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S21 had what I felt like were decent EC’s for a well rounded, normal suburban kid…Marching Band, Section Leader, did a few student election clerk days throughout this election cycle (primaries and general election) and also is on our city’s youth council. I feel like they all kind of sort of align with his path to a career in the business realm (marketing, business communications, maybe supply chain, he’s undecided). He’s also held down a part time job consistently from middle of sophomore year. That’s it. No national awards, no founding of any charities, nothing elite.
For my S23 twins…nada so far. Covid Quarantine hit the spring of their freshman year and pretty much all in person opportunities and clubs have gone away. They both are in marching band of course and have a good shot at leadership positions next year…Thing 1 has been working at McD’s…Thing 2, no luck finding a job. Both finished with 4.0 unweighted gpa’s this past semester. I don’t now what more to ask of them. I can’t see the sense in stressing about EC’s when they’re stuck in this weird quarantine limbo. Hopefully if public life returns to somewhat normal next year, they may be able to pick up another EC outside of band…if not, then oh well 
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When I read about the high stats kid rejected from Emory it made me think about the advice that your application has to tell a story and hers didn’t.
BUT I agree this a lot to expect of kids. It’s almost like you have a craft a narrative to tell based on what the kid has done – even if that story ends up not being the direction they take in college. Figure out what to emphasize in the ECs and how to connect them to essays. Paint a picture. I think that’s what a lot of high price college counselors do – to the disadvantage of kids w/o counselors (or informed and engaged parents) to help them. This is esp. true for unhooked kids.
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When I applied to colleges (a million years ago) I had no idea what I wanted to do. I applied with all different majors to different schools - criminal justice, business, photography, etc. That was a bad plan, but I didn’t really have anyone guiding me. I ended up at a great liberal arts college and declared a major mid-way through my sophomore year, a major I didn’t even know existed when I was a high school student.
S21 doesn’t have any ECs related to his chosen major (engineering). He thrives on learning math and physics, which his classes and grades reflect, and he felt like engineering was the logical choice. But who knows, he may change his mind once he gets into college and starts taking classes. His ECs are more service-based with some sports and leadership mixed in. I’m not sure what AOs will think of his application. Fingers crossed he gets in somewhere, this waiting is HARD.
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I think college know kids don’t know 100% what they want to do. My daughter wanted to be a doctor actually until she took Physics and did an medical internship this past summer (virtually of course). No longer wants to go into medicine. BUT She is in awe of the human body, LOVES physics and watches Agents of Shield like a crazy person. She applied to John Hopkins ED as well as for the top ranked Biomedical Engineering Pgm. NOTHING in her ECs show an interest in Engineering. School has Robotics club, nope she didn’t join but was the President of her Arts club, Math Team since 9th grade, has work with autistic youth since 7th grade and several other ECs. But no engineering.
Not only did she get into JHU early but also into the BME Pgm! We both were in complete shock!!! Not sure how they select those students. So there is hope.
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Selingo never comes out and states it bluntly, but it’s mentioned that Bio/pre med at Emory is where the competition is fierce. He also mentioned tough competition for pre law.
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Exactly, package the applicant and tie things together. There are just too many excellent applicants applying to top colleges to be a jack of all trades or well-rounded. For most colleges, you probably don’t have to package yourself, but for the top 50-100 it sure the heck can’t hurt you to find a interest in HS and “exploit” that when applying to highly selective colleges.
If you have the time, check out Allen Cheng (founder of Prep Scholar) application to Harvard and how he demonstrated a commitment and passion for the premed track. This is how it’s done and these are the type of applicants you are competing against at top colleges. It’s not for the faint of heart…
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I agree that this is a privileged perspective, and a sad reality. Kids are almost expected to become prospective college students by the time they are in middle school. Like @homerdog mentions, I’d like to think most schools would appreciate deep involvement in any one or two ECs a couple of years, even unrelated to a potential major.
I’m sure some of you have seen the documentary Race to Nowhere. It’s several years old but worth a watch.
Happy Solstice, everyone!
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And this is exactly how it should be. Isn’t this what colleges want? For the rare kid who knows what he/she wants to study, that’s fine, but the rest need to explore their options.
D21’s application theme is social justice, and more specifically, her interest in the deaf community. Interest is demonstrated by ASL classes taken, volunteering to close-caption videos, and research project on double discrimination experienced by Black Deaf individuals. For years my D has been saying she wants to be a lawyer which is great but I also hope she keeps her options open. To expect kids to have career-related ECs is too much.
I felt driven to post the article due to comments on another thread by obnoxious parents who seem to think that a 36 on the ACT entitles their kid to the Ivy League. I thought it would serve as much-needed reality check.
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That thread is similar to what you read from parents about URM. People always assume that if their perfect stat kid didn’t get in, it must be because a URM with lesser stats got in. The Yale and Harvard thread have the same tone.
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@momofboiler1 that sounds like a healthy expectation.
I haves spent time around ABQ playing some of the great golf courses. Have also stayed in Taos and Santa Fe. Just a great place to visit IMO
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@kanfly, congrats to your S! My S19’s best friend goes there, really happy.
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@GoldPenn totally agree. The stats-obsessed, who refer to their kid as ‘our little 36’, could benefit from a tasty bite of reality sandwich. Really interesting read, thank you for posting. I will say the seven-minute timer is a little scary to imagine. It’s all too much.
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I could not agree more! It is enough that many schools expect a 17 year old to know what they want to major in in college but to expect them to have ECs related to that specific major as a condition of admission is a little much. . . Poor kid who was denied - hope they ended up in the perfect spot for them.
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Experienced app readers and AOs read incredibly fast.
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Agree totally. My son has strong stats but he plays golf year round which is his passion. He is not college golf caliber for Division 1 schools but this is where he devotes much of his time. The rest of his time is spent being a teenager. He has a fair amount of volunteer hours and is in a couple of clubs but nothing earth shattering, which we are totally fine with. He is a great kid, an excellent student and a good person which is all we can ask for. We are biased but think he would be an asset to wherever he ends up. . . some of these essay prompts and expectations are ridiculous (and who knows how much exaggerating goes on).
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That is interesting to me. One of my sons good friends is at Emory. Smart but had several Bs in high school and didn’t take a ton of APs. He obviously had something that caught their eye. In one way it gives hope to all who are not the superstars that AOs are actually paying attention.
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Apparently on top of everything else, our kids are supposed to demonstrate their interest by opening college emails and visiting websites. I didn’t realize until recently that it was tracked. I find this really irritating. I’m guessing this applies to all schools; the Rabbi at Amherst told me, “They say they don’t track interest, but they do.” 
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This looks to me to be a smart kid at a very big school that is very far from Emory. Unless this student demonstrated a lot of interest it’s very likely they won’t enroll.
Emory has a few merit scholarships which is rare for a school of this highly ranked, so it’s likely this is a pre med kid fishing for a scholarship to save money for med school. If they don’t get the merit aid they are very unlikely to enroll.
Emory doesn’t use one of the few Pre Med spots for someone very unlikely to enroll.
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