<p>I don’t know if he actually listed it on his college apps, but a friend of my DD memorized (and tried to ride on) every bus route in the city (somewhere upwards of 100) during high school. The school district was trying to save money and have the HS kids ride the city buses, but I don’t think they meant for him to use it quite so much.</p>
<p>IP, do you live near a university? Ours has writing programs for middle & high school kids during the summer; DD took an essay writing course when she was in 7th grade. It was actually fairly intense. She had several assignments over four weeks, and received comments and a grade at the end.</p>
<p>One other note, IP–in my opinion, kids who don’t read much have a hard time becoming good writers. Make sure your kid is encouraged to read and his time to do so–this alone will improve writing skills.</p>
<p>I was in a competitive show choir in high school. There are lots of kids that are in sc’s but how many had to audition to get into the best one in the state and then work insanely hard to win nearly all the competitions they went to regionally, then go on and make tops at nationals? And this same show choir had service commitments, usually working with young kids and music. My high school’s wiki page lists our music department as our main attraction, almost like in the movie ‘Bring It On’ where the football team totally sucks but the cheerleaders are awesome. Just replace cheerleaders with show choir and football with just about any sport, and you’ve got my large, public HS :)</p>
<p>iP, I would never insult someone genuinely asking a question. I was surprised, however, that you didn’t know that exposing a child to volunteering was as simple as calling the institution of your choice and asking what volunteer opportunities they have.</p>
<p>Regarding CTY, there are several other similar programs covering different parts of the country – CTY is run through Johns Hopkins, CTD is run through Northwestern, and TIP is run by Duke. They are all generally similar. My S took both creative and non fiction writing through CTD and I think it was extremely helpful in pushing him beyond his capabilities. If you share (generally) what part of the country you mare in, people may have other suggestions.</p>
<p>Hoping that organizing Humans versus Zombies for a group of 100 will look like a leadership position. He has certainly put in enough work, but it is forgotten at times when you see DS running around town throwing socks at people.</p>
<p>Don’t remember which one it was, but a year or two ago one of the East Coast schools touted a rodeo champion. Not so rare out here, but pretty unusual for there.</p>
<p>If I were an AdCom, and I am not, these are the ECs I would like to see.</p>
<p>1) Understanding and hands on work in general economics and political science
2) Depth in the socio-economics of one of the BRIC countries, including the local language(s)
3) Publishing a book of poetry or stories
4) Publishing a series of research articles documenting the plight of illegal immigrants in the USA
5) Publishing a series of research articles documenting the plight of US workers displaced by globalization</p>
<p>Not sure that this is impressive at all on the academic front, but… S is an accomplished mixed martial artist (like UFC cage fighting - practicing since he was 5) and a model having appeared in commercials and print ads. Fortunately, he has been a math tutor and has been working with kids with neurodevelopmental disorders for a while as well to balance out the not-so-academic ECs.</p>
<p>Kdurs11… my S is also a competitive rock climber and is applying EA to Sewanee… loves the school and the amazing climbing rocks right on campus, just like the ad com said. Sewanee was also rated #3 most beautiful school.</p>
<p>Mathmom-I am impressed with the origami earrings. My H can do all sorts of origami but never earrings. S2 likes paper craft-making buildings and aircraft. We are encouraging him to think of starting a club of that nature in HS.</p>
<p>We saw origami earrings for sale in the gift shop at the Cleveland Museum of Art (or whatever it’s called) when they had a Japanese exhibit. Very cool earrings.</p>
<p>S who was a CS major volunteered for a local museum when in HS. He decided to take on the task of making a data base they desperately needed but all their employees had decided was just too much work! He got an award from the museum for this.</p>
<p>All my kids were able to put down that they were frequent service leaders and Torah readers for our synagogue. That’s pretty unusual!</p>
<p>D devoted 14 years of her life to figure skating, was quite competitive as a singles skater and competed at the National Championships in ice dancing. In addition, she was a ten-year member of an ice theater team that won multiple national and international championships and served for 2 years as captain of the team. </p>
<p>She spent her high school years attending half-time, taking lab sciences and AP courses. She did her electives through distance learning program. Her HS college counselor really stressed how she could use her experiences and background to demonstrate to colleges that she was disciplined and had learned excellent time-management skills. Also, she told her that colleges like to see young people stay with fewer things rather than spread themselves too thin. </p>
<p>It seemed to work in her case. She got in to multiple top-notch schools and had several very generous merit scholarship offers. She is now a rising senior at her first-choice school and has had an amazing 3 years so far.</p>
<p>Good friend in college was the head coach of her high school boys hockey team, leading them all the way to state championship. The kicker was that she was 4’10’ and weighed about 75 pounds. This was in the early 1970’s</p>
<p>I agree with the premise that focusing on an EC is best. One of the biggest mistakes kids make is to spread themselves too thin. One or two ec’s should be the limit because anymore than that suggests that they are padding the resume and that they are not deeply involved in their stated area of interest. Unis want to see passion and commitment.</p>
<p>That intuitively makes complete sense. I really like what your daughter has done here. She took one thing and made it her highest priority, in order to be a top national. Colleges should like people like this instead of the Jack of all trades recommendations that I see all the time. Kudos!</p>