Worth remembering, since ECs have come up: They aren’t really all that important.* Most colleges, even a fair number of pretty selective ones, don’t look at them at all, and those that do are generally looking for evidence that the applicant is an actual human being with actual meaningful interests.
One of the worst things about the structure of the Common App is that there are 10 slots for ECs, and so there’s a panic about having enough ECs to fill all those slots. But rather than thinking about it like checkboxes to be filled, it’s rather instead an opportunity to say “This is the person that I really am.”
* Leaving aside, of course, obvious exceptions like sports for those aiming to be recruited athletes, or lessons and performance beyond what’s available at many high schools for those planning on majoring in music.
I agree with this. Having seen S21 go through the process, he was one who never wanted to do much in the way of organized activities but still had enough to put on the list and things to talk about in his essays. The only thing he did at school was work the stage crew a couple times a year. But he also took guitar lessons, had participated with the family in a volunteer activity at our church for many years, plays golf with friends (wouldn’t do the school team), and works at a camp in the summers.
I used to nag him about doing more and particularly with the church project encouraged him to take a leadership role since you always hear so much about that being important. He rolled his eyes and ignored me and continued to his same job, manning the beverage station at the monthly community service dinner. And then he wrote a beautiful short essay for VT about how he liked that job because everything else at the event is designed to move people through quickly but the beverage station is where people hang out and talk so he could really get to know the people we were serving. He enjoyed seeing what was up with Joe this month or Max asking him how school was going. I had no idea that’s what he was getting out of the activity. VT was so hard to get into this year and I think that essay is a big part of why he got in. VT cares a lot about service and puts a lot of weight on the essays. There are a lot of impressive-sounding things kids can put on their applications but here was this kid happily devoted to doing one of the “little jobs” so that he could authentically connect with people. Good thing he ignored me.
For D23, she does have a couple big activities but I’ll encourage her to also list the time she spends on art and creative writing, which she does purely for her own enjoyment.
My kid is low stats academically. His EC’s are what I would call typical. Most likely he will end up with the following for all 4 years of hs: 2 sports, band, choir, musical. No other clubs (I’ve tried). No leadership positions (he’s not popular enough he says). He’s worked a paid job in the service industry and he helped out on a hobby farm most of his life. Nothing spectacular.
My kid is a totally average kid and I am okay with that. And I know this means he will get into a totally average college and I am more than okay with that too.
Any given “average college” in the US is still a draw for students in many other parts of the world looking to improve their chances through a world-class education.
My kid so far has 1 year band, 1 year Robotics (if you call it that). He tinkers a lot in his room, works on programming, studies a lot of youtube - he’s pretty smart and grades would reflect that if he applied himself. Case in point - for the Spring final exams only, our district allows students to be exempt from finals if they have 1) 80 or higher semester avg in that class, 2) no disciplinary actions on record for that semester, 3) 3 or fewer absences and tardies (something like that). He was carrying a 76 in his PreAP PreCalc class (by comparison, he had a 97 in first semester) - so he studied hard for the last test before the final. He got a 106…brought his 76 up to a 83. I nagged at him about this of course “if you had applied yourself the way you did for this test, you wouldn’t have been in the situation to scramble at last minute to get your grade up!” Teenagers. Sigh. I am really hoping he will be open to doing Texas A&M Engineering Academy to save money…this will at least alleviate the pressure of getting admitted to TAMU (which is where he really wants to go for engineering).
@2plustrio - you are on the right path. Ultimate goal is to find the right college for your sons best self, not trying to shape your child to something so they can get into a college that they might not fit.
There are hundreds of Great Universities out there yet most people would struggle to name more than 20. Just encourage your son to be his best self and find his passion and it will all come together in the end.
Oy, I think it’s been over a year since I last posted here. I hope you and all of your '23s are hanging in there!
My D23 still has a couple of weeks to go (we’re in NY) and it’s going to be a struggle to keep her focused until the bitter end. She had her digital AP Computer Science Principles test yesterday, which was her first AP exam ever and she reports that she thinks it went well. The performance task part of it was uploaded last week. She’s got AP World next week, and AP Seminar the following Monday and that’s it for testing. With Regents canceled (the last hurrah of Covid) I’m not sure exactly what they’re going to be doing for the last couple of weeks - not much from the sounds of it.
Brought D17 home from Hamilton for the final time on Sunday. She actually graduated on Saturday (which we got to watch on YouTube - woohoo ) and I went up to help her do her final move out Sunday morning. It still hasn’t quite sunk in for either of us that she’s graduated! Now the fun of resume polishing and job hunting begins. Still, it’s nice to have her home with us for at least a little while.
Now that I have access to my CC account again, I hope to be back to keep on this crazy ride for the duration.
My kid was looking forward to the college level finance class elective next spring. But it clashes with choir. GC is checking to see what other semester long electives might work or if he has to take a study hall (which he has never done).
I would say he could take the finance class senior year but he’s in the highest level choir class and has been since this soph year. They think the class schedules are not likely to work out ever. Darn.
We have a few more weeks of school. But summer doesn’t really slow down for us. Both my kids are taking summer school classes and will have sports 4-5 days a week.
Mine is taking an online class to make the two choirs work. You might look into that.
I don’t want to jinx it, but after almost a year and a half on significant mental health problems for my son, I think we might have it under control. You have no idea how good that feels!
There’s a handful of other electives that might be useful for my son but not sure if they work with choir. As my son continues to take band and choir, he knows options are limited.
Hes taking an online course this summer but after the pandemic he refuses to take anymore online classes. He isn’t motivated enough online.
Good luck to your son. My college kid struggles with mental health and last year was rough on him. We move him into a new place next week.
Am in the same club with my D regarding the scheduling issues - for her it’s band that has to be worked around. We have a small HS with only 1 section of a lot of classes, it definitely makes things challenging. We won’t find out my D’s schedule for next year until July but I hope they were able to squeeze in what she wanted.
And same for us with the mental health issues - virtual classes do not work for some kids, at least not long term. Good luck!
Our tiny high school is all about “We don’t have that, but you can take it online!” I convinced my S23 to take digital photography online since he had no options for arts… he loves photography but hated the class (at least being small his school was in person most of the year). He agreed to one week of an online state summer camp in math, but otherwise no more online classes! He’s almost fully vaccinated and is looking forward to hanging out with friends.
My daughter is at a private/catholic high school and there is limited AP course selection with stringent entrance policies. She was in regular freshman English (no honors allowed for incoming 9th graders) and we had at appeal to get her into honors this year because she had a 91% B+ due to a missed membean assignment. Now she has had 96% or above all year in 10th grade honors English but won’t get a chance at AP until 12th grade. Only 11 AP courses offered at her school but colleges get the offerings and look at strength of schedule according to the high school not in comparison with other high schools
our small private HS has only 2 or 3 ap classes! the rest are Dual -enrollment.
we left a public HS which had probably 16-20 AP classes, but a dismal pass rate. not sure what’s better.
The crucial thing, if you’re targeting highly-selectives, is the “most rigorous” checkbox on the counselor recommendation—and the level of rigor is in the context of what’s available at the high school. So if only 2 or 3 AP classes are available, and a student takes 2 or 3 AP classes (and doesn’t slack on other things), then they get that checkbox, and there’s no problem.
First time here! Good to see some familiar names from 2019 forum.
Re: AP/DC. Our small school falls into the same category of limited AP, so that checkbox applies for us as well. We also found out that S19’s school didn’t accept any dual credit courses at all.
Our school doesn’t have DE or IB, just AP. The top 30-40% matriculate at top30 type schools; that group takes 5-7 APs total as a rough avg.
When I asked about rigor yrs ago for D21(due to things I read here), the college advising office said they do not do the “check the box” . Instead they write about rigor in comparison to norms in the grade, when that is helpful to the candidate. IT was a vague answer to say the least. Fast fwd to last yr(rising senior), and some kids got the advice to take AP-science-class X over easier AP -sci-course Y, others were told it didn’t matter. The kids reaching for the top schools were the ones told it mattered. Fast fwd to this yr: D23: 2 of her classmates were told by 2 different counselors that they ranked highly in the class(they don’t give rank but I bet these kids are top handful)and as such they had better take known-to-be difficult AP at some point , because there is a larger group in 2023 who will be taking it and it will reflect poorly if they do not take it. One counselor specifically said this year’s seniors have seen the reality that taking that class matters (at our school). The impression made on each kid was that the reason they need it is because they are near the top and also both have been indicating reaching for the tippy top schools. So…that was all interesting to me. D23 did not get any advice on what to take other than her proposed schedule got a nod for being “on track”.
That’s really interesting about the counseling advice at your kids HS.
We’ve definitely had issues at our school where certain guidance counselors give more frank advice or bend more rules than others, and certain parents who are in the know can seem to wheedle special treatment for their kids in terms of scheduling or class selection. It’s pretty aggravating for a generally non-confrontational person like me to find out after the fact that this kind of thing goes on there.
I remember finding out 3/4 of the way into my D17’s senior year that there was a secret section of Calc BC being offered to just 2 boys in the grade while everyone else took AB. I was furious- my D wound up a math major, her 2 best friends were heading to engineering school- there was definitely a handful of kids in that class who would have benefited and thrived in Calc BC but the parents weren’t connected enough or whiny enough, or whatever to know about it. I guess someone more confrontational than me took it up with the administration, haha, because now that D23 is in the same HS, Calc BC is actually offered in the schedule of classes as an option. But I always wonder what other shenanigans are going on behind the scenes that I don’t know about.
I nagged at him about this of course “if you had applied yourself the way you did for this test, you wouldn’t have been in the situation to scramble at last minute to get your grade up!” Teenagers. Sigh. I am really hoping he will be open to doing Texas A&M Engineering Academy to save money…this will at least alleviate the pressure of getting admitted to TAMU (which is where he really wants to go for engineering).
I hope you and all of your '23s are hanging in there!