Need advice. My kid has a lot of initiative, self-motivation, self-agency. We don’t really control or tell my kid what to do or to study hard.
So far, my kid has not taken on any leadership rolls - president of the club, captain of the team, president of the student body, etc., you get the pic.
My kid is not shy but the introversive type. And, we made a significant change, so my kid started high school and did not know anyone.
Any words of wisdom of what type of leadership position to suggest to my kid ? if anyone of you has a kid who also on the introversive spectrum, what type of leadership activities is your kid doing or have done?
Yes. Don’t conflate leadership with a position. AOs will not make that mistake.
Encourage your kid to pursue activities they enjoy. Maybe oversample if they’re just starting HS and let some fall by the wayside to focus on ones they find important.
Intellectual curiosity, how the student is perceived by recommenders, roles in the classroom/school, etc. Leadership for more introverted people can come from sustained dedication over a period of time and respect by peers.
thank you, skieurope. Agree not to conflate leadership with a position. My bad, I didn’t explain fully. The question relates more to applying for highly selective colleges. For the HYPSM and the like, I wonder if they equate position with leadership ?
They do not. They (rightly) know that some students are leaders without the title and that some students with the title are horrible leaders. And many leadership positions are popularity contests.
True leadership will be displayed through essays and recs.
My son scored at 1460 on his SAT which was +/- 95th percentile in and 99th percentile math. I’d say it was largely irrelevant based on the schools he applied to. Essentially, it mattered at the few privates he applied to but not at all for publics who were almost all some level of test blind. It appears that will continue in 2022. The best advice I can give is get a good idea of where they will apply now, find a good fit. Then craft the application based on the specific schools. Each school will weight different aspects of the application differently. It matters.
niceties. May I ask what schools he applied to. I’m guessing the HPSM? publics are or will be (?) test blind so these public colleges base their decision on grades only? my kid has two UC in the list and all the other are private. It’s a moving target now, but will have to narrow down as kid will start junior year. (and we’ll include some not so hard to get in colleges too)
thank you for the advice about crafting the application based on the specific colleges. Admission officer can smell true/authentic interest from a copy/paste application.
thank you tristatecoog for explaining.
I’m glad the highly selective don’t equate the position with leadership. As extrovertives and popular kids are the ones who most likely get this type of positions.
Several UCs (UCLA, UCB, UCD, UCSC, UCSB)
Cal Poly
University of Washington
University of Oregon
University of Arizona
Arizona State
Loyola Chicago
Stanford
Accepted and Honors: UO, UA, ASU, Loyola, and UW, UCSC (not honors)
Waitlist: Cal Poly (literally still )
Rejected UCLA, UCB, UCD, UCSB, Stanford
Point of reference: 3.73 UW GPA, 4.42 WGPA, 1460 SAT, good ECs and demonstrated leadership.
There is not “some level” of test-blind. It’s like being kinda pregnant. You either are or you are not. And most publics were not test-blind.
UCs were test-blind last cycle and will be this cycle. Georgia publics were test-optional last cycle and require tests this cycle. I expect most test-optional colleges will remain so this upcoming cycle, but one cannot make a blanket assertion.
The focus on “leadership” may misdirect some students’ extracurricular activities. “Leadership” in the form of titles in do-little organizations may not mean as much as high level of commitment and achievement without a “leadership” role. For example, while doing volunteer work for some organization doing real work and not being in a “leadership” role, someone does the work effectively and efficiently, and perhaps comes up with a way to make the organization’s work more effective and efficient. Wouldn’t that be a more impressive extracurricular than a title in a do-little organization?
A commonly-favored/privileged type of extracurricular is athletic. Yet not all recruited athletes, or non-recruited athletes with achievement high enough to be noticed, are the “leaders” (e.g. quarterbacks, point guards, etc.).
I may not have used the right words. Some schools looked at SAT for filling out academic deficiencies, missing a class etc. Some used it for scholarships etc. Most of the public schools my son applied to were test blind in 2021 and will remain so in 2022. Again check with each school.
Seems like this would make sense, but I think it is increasingly becoming more complicated than that.
Most obviously, high test scores are no advantage at test blind schools, including all of the California publics and a growing list of competitive privates.
Less obviously, when applying to highly competitive schools, sending a high test score won’t necessarily do much to distinguish the applicant, especially if the student comes from an extremely competitive environment where high test scores are somewhat commonplace. It may be inviting a comparison that won’t help and may hurt a student’s application relative to similarly situated applicants from the same or similar schools.
It seems crazy, but college counsellors at some highly competitive schools will oftentimes advise students with high SAT scores (above 1500) not to submit test scores to extremely competitive test optional schools.
Thanks, It was his dream school but at this point he’s very committed to UA. I’m not sure he’d take the spot at Cal Poly in the unlikely event he was offered. He’s a biochemistry major so UA has some advantages but he still loves Cal Poly. Who knows.
Wait listed to his dream school is a good thing, but I know still hurts not to be accepted. You never know if get a call from waiting list.
It’s great that he’s committed to UA. Good for him!
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