<p>mantori - You made the right call. The essay has to reveal something about himself in a powerful way. It can take a humorous approach, but the punch line that makes a statement about himself has to be there.</p>
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<p>Naviance of no use when the prevailing culture in your area is either state flagship (an excellent choice, to be sure) or go to comm college for 2 years to save money and then transfer! I’m jealous of all of you with Naviance … it’s being rolled out to our school, but it’s going to be worthless IMO.</p>
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<p>Oh, you got that right! The idea was funny. The execution could have been a disaster.</p>
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<p>Thanks.</p>
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<p>I was thinking more along the lines of black Jews from small African nations catching a break:)</p>
<p>Now that’s a hook.</p>
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Taking a gap year may be what’s needed to get to a T20 for some of our kids. I exchanged quite a bit of info on another CC thread with Denzera, who had a low GPA, but had an impressive set of test scores. He was rejected by Columbia as a HS senior. After taking a gap year working full time, he re-applied to Columbia (ED this time) and was accepted. Interesting story.</p>
<p>[Denzera’s</a> Columbia Application Saga](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/754107-im-interesting-predicament-esp-w-my-gpa-should-i-bother-doing-ed.html]Denzera’s”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/754107-im-interesting-predicament-esp-w-my-gpa-should-i-bother-doing-ed.html)</p>
<p>Re rankings. Our school does rank, but on weighted. So D at 4.1 is about 40 out of 500, S is maybe 50 out of 500. GPA includes all classes, incl PE (our state requires 4 years of daily PE). I can easily reweight myself to figure out UW (to be honest I’m only guessing it’s in the 3.6 arena, haven’t done the math). When you are doing thus, are you counting all classes or just academic ones and excluding gym, band, etc?</p>
<p>I was thinking more along the lines of black Jews from small African nations catching a break"</p>
<p>hey, uh, we voted for a black man who was allegedly born in an African nation. That’s close enough!! Right?</p>
<p>About the religion ECs –</p>
<p>I just happened to notice that on the Univ. of Chicagos sign-up form to get on their mailing list their drop-down menu for ECs includes Religious Orgs as one of the options. Among the other options are typical ones like Academic Team, Art, Club Sports, Intramural Sports, Martial Arts, Model UN, Student Govt, Study Abroad and Theater. <a href=“https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/php/contact/join_mailing.php[/url]”>https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/php/contact/join_mailing.php</a></p>
<p>FWIW, if my S were active in a religious organization I would definitely include it in his application. I know that some here are aware of anti-religion bias in some cases, but that would not deter me. We face a similar situation regarding my Ss Boy Scouts EC, having read comments here on CC where people admit their prejudice towards anyone involved in Boy Scouts and being fully aware that its likely some adcoms share that view.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean for this to derail into a discussion of the merits of teaching Hebrew school as an EC.</p>
<p>Son’s school doesn’t provide weighted GPA and rankings. So, my question is, how do T20s view the lack of these info? Some on CC seem to believe the adcoms have a way of finding out the rankings even if the school doesn’t provide it. Is it just guess? If not, how?</p>
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<p>For one thing, many schools that don’t officially provide rank will do so at the college’s request, or they will provide an estimate such as top 10%, top 25%, etc.</p>
<p>But I think the real answer is that the top schools look beyond numbers such as weighted GPA and rank, looking at the transcript to assess course difficulty. In fact, I think that is part of what makes them such good schools.</p>
<p>I’m sure kids have been rejected from lesser schools because the high school would not provide rank, but I’m 100% sure no one has been rejected from an Ivy League school for that reason.</p>
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<p>Thanks for sharing this. I’ll ask the school and find out. Son was telling me that he doesn’t even know where he stands.</p>
<p>On some schools’ websites, the breakdown of rank will also disclose how many students/schools provided rankings. I’ve been seeing a lot of them reporting that about 40% provided rankings – so clearly a lot of schools don’t rank these days, yet folks still manage to be accepted!</p>
<p>This discussion on religious activities is really interesting! Thank you for those who contributed their thoughts. My D is very involved in activities related to our small minority religion and has started a youth group for middle school girls, taught sunday school for many years, etc. It never occurred to me this could not be considered a good thing but I do see the caution! Most of her activities are targeted at the larger community, and focus on youth empowerment, teaching virtues, etc so perhaps this will help. Anyway, I think she should leave it in her application and see how it all turns out.</p>
<p>With a quick research (CC is just great, isn’t it!), I got the following quote from hmom5 posted in another thread.</p>
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<p>So, it appears without explicit ranking information from schools, the adcoms is relying on historic data statistically. This seems a bit unfair for kids on the borderline that may be binned down a quartile or tenth due to statistical margin of error. Of course, they could end up on the other side as well.</p>
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<p>And, ours provide only weighted GPA! How is the college going to know that our weighted GPA’s include the four years of gym, non-academic courses that are required for graduation such as consumer education, etc.? I can’t believe they have the time to puzzle this all out. I find it hard to believe that they really bother to separate that High School A includes gym and High School B doesn’t, or that High School C weighs honors at +0.3 whereas High School D weights honors at +1.0, or that High School D has AP’s available only to seniors whereas High School E has them available to juniors and seniors. What a load of nothingness to sort through!</p>
<p>I think every EC is as valuable as it has meaning for the student perofrming it, provided they can dig deep inside and articulate what it meant to them.</p>
<p>For example, a student who tutors a learning disabled child towards Bar Mitzvah is doing l0 things at once IMHO: demonstrating patience, breaking down a code for someone else, giving back to his community, perhaps discovering things about he himself learns while waching the child approach a difficult task. He’s practicing and maintaining his own language skill at the same moment. </p>
<p>There’s also emotional role-modeling to telegraph to the younger one a sense of confidence. I’m sure there was also feedback to an overseeing adult, too, on progress, so that nvolves perhaps a verbal report, and some organization/abiity to work in as liaison between adults and that child. </p>
<p>Those are all potentially important things that would reveal to a committee how your student approaches tasks. Of all those things, and more he could think of, which MEANT something to him or caused him to grow? </p>
<p>If the question is whether AdComs “get” that without benefit of an essay, I’d venture to say: yes. Even as a one-line EC descriptor, “tutoring a learning disabled child in Hebrew for Bar Mitzvah” could resonate as unusual teaching as well as religious work. AdComs understand a LOT about what makes some kids learn and others fritter, regardless of whether or not they are personally religious. </p>
<p>Tha Bar Mitzvah process is understood as a scholarly task (afterpartying aside). It’s not worth mentioning on an application that you HAD one, but to help someone else with theirs is different: it’s teaching. </p>
<p>It’s not manipulative because it’s not being written about to brag, see, lookie what I did. It doesn’t have to have Fiddler playing in the background or jerk tears.</p>
<p>I’d be interested in it as a piece about the learning process. Did the tutor take any of the insights back into his own studies at h.s.?</p>
<p>I think an anti-religion bias, if it exists, is fear about kids who might be very narrowminded or judgmental of non-religious peers, as a function of personality more than being involved in any particular religion. I’ve picked up a fear about proselytizing to peers, as differentiated from simply being connected and involved with one’s faith, once arriving at the college campus. </p>
<p>Is it indicative: As of two years ago, Harvard has added religious literacy as one of the basics areas of knowledge for an educated person, and expresses it somehow in their undergraduate required distribution of courses. Whether or not one is personally involved in religion, to know what it menas to others through history and around the globe is simply part of being an educated person. I realize that’s quite different than an AdCom or professor who was overheard scoffing at those who’d waste time inside churches…</p>
<p>P.S., I’d want to have the time quantified, however. It’s possible to sit 3 times with a student for a half hour and lay claim to that activity; very different if there was a longer time-frame of tutoring contacts. Plus I’m sure he attended the ceremony itself, and if so, his thoughts and feelings are relevant to how your student functions.</p>
<p>Great insight … let me ponder that. </p>
<p>S’s interests are deep, even if they aren’t award-winning. What do you do when the interests aren’t that deep?
D plays varsity tennis, has a part-time retail job, volunteers at a hospital (receptionist), and volunteers at a science museum. But these aren’t passions for her. They are just fun things to do. How do you frame those things?</p>
<p>May be a different question is - do you feel these not so deep interests should make a difference in the apps for your kids?</p>