<p>In the mid-late '60’s I knew I would go to college, but that was all I knew. Nobody ever mentioned anything about gpa or class rank being important. We took the ACT one time only and later in the year took the SAT (the morning after a school dance). There was no prep. I started working the day I turned 16 and continued all through college. My all girl Catholic high school gave us plenty of opportunity to participate in clubs, and very little in sports. (We tried so many creative excuses to avoid PE classes.) My favorite EC was participating in the musicals put on by the all-boy Catholic school down the road. We didn’t do drugs or drink (much), but listened to lots of music, walked through our Chicago neighborhood and hung out with friends. I picked my first college because the Admissions Counselor was so cute and drove a cool car. It made all the sense in the world to me back then. 
I transferred after a semester. That’s when I could finally make smart decisions by thinking about what was best long-term.</p>
<p>Flash forward to my 2 daughters. Drive them everywhere, give them chances to try any kind of activity - sports, dance, band, piano, orchestra, martial arts, art, computer camp, touring choirs. Some lasted for weeks and some for years. By the time they were in high school they selected their EC’s because it was what they enjoyed doing. When I would mention that a certain achievement of theirs would look great on their college applications, they just rolled their eyes at me. They were happy - except for the one prep class I made them take - and I’m a little bit glad that they didn’t get caught up in the frenzy. (They let me handle any family frenzy.) They worked a lot harder in high school than I did and took lots of AP’s. They had lots of late nights, especially after practices, games, meets, etc. One girl knew early on what college she wanted and her sister was clueless. Even though it took them a long time to begin thinking about which schools to visit, they made their decisions for a much better reason than I did. They are in very different kinds of programs but doing just what they want and will graduate next month. And they won’t let me forget that none of their Admissions Counselors drove sports cars. :)</p>