<p>Sure kids have to genuinely like their ECs, but what they like to do, to a large extent, is determined by what they were exposed to, which in turn was influenced by what their parents were aware of or exposed to themselves. By learning more about whats out there, we as parents may broaden our horizon and introduce more variety of lesser known but interesting and healthy activities to our kids that can both enrich their lives and build a list of ECs that separates them from the rest of the pack in college admissions.</p>
<p>Ill start with two. </p>
<p>Cooking - multiple culinary/cooking contest awards from a Chinese-American male who was accepted to Harvard. </p>
<p>Breakdancing My own son, a rising sophomore at a top 10 college. The school official called his activity a rare form of dancing at the convocation. In all honesty, breakdancing is not rare, but it is seldom seen on the résumés of kids applying to top schools.</p>
<p>D was first a volunteer and then an employee of a major (nationally known) museum in our city. (I can’t be more specific without violating her privacy.) The acceptance letter (top 10 LAC) referenced “our class includes …” and listed her activity, and at the admitted students weekend I sat next to a prof who was on the adcom, and when he asked my D’s name he immediately identified her EC. </p>
<p>S was involved in local government (at the county wide level), serving as an elected councilman, and also worked at a children’s museum (again, I can’t be more specific).</p>
<p>Their school-related ECs were more “basic” – newspaper, math team, things of that nature.</p>
<p>Cooking is an interesting one. Shouldn’t kids who are good in cooking go to CIA? I would hate to see a good cook study chemistry, for example, as good cooks are rare, and good food brings us very close to god (and I say this as an atheist gastronome).</p>
<p>My D was also a volunteer and then an employee of a major museum in our city! I didn’t know we shared that in common, PG! She also completed a religious summer internship on scholarship, for a religion of which she is not a member because she wanted the opportunity to learn its history for a project. That was a huge hit with college admissions people and three told her that her essay about that internship was the best essay of the year. Finally, she was a teen reporter for a newspaper with a circulation of about a quarter of a million. That was the thing that her colleges listed in the “our class includes” section and I know for a fact that some (maybe all) admissions professionals at the schools to which she applied googled and read her articles.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins is very proud of their jumprope champion. It was mentioned in the info session and it was also mentioned in some of their literature. Guess they liked it because it was different.</p>
<p>My S is a rising Senior, but I think he a few somewhat unusual EC’s. He is a Search and Rescue volunteer up in our local mountains, he is a rescue scuba diver who started a scuba conservation group that cleans up the local oceans, and he was intersted in organic farming so he got accepted and enrolled in a school in VT on an organic farm for Spring semesster his Junior year. He is applying to schools soon, but I bet you can guess his intended major.</p>
<p>One question, and not about ECs. How do you develop a really strong writer? I am not talking creative writing. I am talking non-fiction. Are there special workshops and such that kids can go to? I am talking about kids at grades below middle school here, and for someone whose writing has been assessed at on par with 7th grade. However, this is through no effort on the parents’ part, and with just whatever the school teaches, so clearly more can be done here. Any pointers will be most appreciated. Writing has always been my weakest link and English is my third language, so I do not know where to start. (Pizzagirl, please try to hold off on insults about IITs and Ivies, if you can.)</p>
<p>I know this activity generates a really negative connotation of goth/drugs/doing stupid tricks, but my son skateboards. He loves the physics of the sport.</p>
<p>I have another son who is a pilot. And is a HAM radio operator.</p>
<p>Midd accepted a champion unicyclist this year.</p>
<p>My friend (she’s going to Georgia Tech) is a professional rock climber and that was pretty well-received by colleges. An admissions person from Sewanee emailed her to compliment her essay (about her climbing coach) and tell her about the climbing scene there.</p>
<p>Here’s info on CTY:
[gifted</a> education, k12, accredited school, summer program, tag, g/t, distance education](<a href=“http://cty.jhu.edu/]gifted”>http://cty.jhu.edu/)
eligible kids can also take Crafting the Essay at one of their summer programs.</p>
<p>Older son was a computer nerd, but I think the list of computer stuff he did added up to a compelling story.</p>
<p>Among other things he did:
-won an award for working on the best mod for Civilization 4 according to a well known gaming magazine
-participated in boards for Linux
-volunteered at the computer lab for seniors
-creating the first website the Anatomy Department had at a Med School (long time ago!)
writing a program for a med school professor that got acknowledged in multiple papers
working as a freelancer for a company that was updating the websites of Sky and Telescope Magazine and the World Health Organization</p>
<p>Younger son
took a hobby of making tiny origami earrings and sold them at a local art gallery
-taught origami classes at the senior center</p>
<p>Thanks Hunt. It is too far away for summer programs. Also, summer is taken up by music all day long. I will see if there are similar programs nearby at the local colleges and universities that can be taken after school hours.</p>