<p>mantori, I also suggested that Chinese Flagship program to D, but her and her mom just don’t seem to be able to get their heads around the idea of “Ole Miss.” To me, it’s kind of silly but then again, i’m not the one attending. She applied to Ohio State and Pitt as alternatives.</p>
<p>My son and I are both having a little trouble with the idea of going to college in the state with the worst education system in the country. For him, right now, what he knows about the Chinese program trumps those concerns, but I am really tentative until we visit. At Ole Miss I think he might have to prepare himself mentally for not really fitting in with the student body as a whole, but finding a niche.</p>
<p>Mantori- D is also looking at the Chinese flagship program, at U of Oregon, a school with a respectable reputation. Is S conversational in Chinese? Apparently many students have been dropping out if they don’t have a good base to begin with, so if he has fairly good skills in Chinese it should be pretty easy to get into.</p>
<p>merryecho, I’m glad you said that. It’s the first I’ve heard that being conversational in Chinese could be critical to success even starting out. My son can speak Mandarin and write at a very basic level. I assume he’ll need to prepare in the Summer session before enrolling full-time. Now that you’ve warned me, I will make sure he checks into this, to make sure he’s not under-prepared! Thanks.</p>
<p>He is a sponge for languages, though, so I believe he’ll be okay with the right preparation.</p>
<p>One thing I would check about Chinese programs is whether or not they have separate classes for heritage speakers, who need far less conversational practice at the beginning, for the first two years of instruction. Some schools have more time-intensive first and second year classes for students who are not heritage speakers, that is, those who did not grow up listening to Chinese in the home on a regular basis and are very strict about making sure that introductory classes are not dominated by students who are way ahead of the game and thus setting a pace that is not fair to strict beginners or those coming from a less-intensive high school program.</p>
<p>I am not sure how I would feel about sending one of our children to Ole Miss just for the Chinese program in any case, without looking closely at course sequences in other majors and the student body as a whole. I would at least look for a strong and sizable cohort of honors students.</p>
<p>merryecho, does your D plan to combine another discipline with her chinese studies?</p>
<p>Son received the rejection letter from Oxford today :(. The sad part isn’t the rejection per se, but that we can no longer retreat to this fantasy land to relieve the domestic app pressure. No more “oh, then there is Oxford!” Well, at least it served this role pretty well for the last couple months :).</p>
<p>PCP -sorry to hear that. Never easy to get rejected from something. But your son already has a couple great acceptances, and I think more good things are coming. His test scores, and particularly those ECs are pretty remarkable.</p>
<p>Chinese program is one of the toughest programs at D1’s school. Classes are filled with Chinese who already speak the language at home. Most of those classes meet 6+ times a week, which is very time consuming. D1 thought about taking it while in college, but was concerned with time commitment. As she is applying for her first real internship now (in finance), it’s all about her GPA - anyone with lower than 3.5 need not apply. I think kids change their majors a few times while in college. I would think hard about choosing a college for a particular major. Just my 2 cents.</p>
<p>PCP, sorry about the Oxford rejection. That would have been way cooler than Harvard, Stanford, etc. Kind of exotic, you know?</p>
<p>Maybe grad school!</p>
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<p>I agree for the most part, but if a student is committed to a particular discipline at the outset it wouldn’t make much sense to apply to schools not offering the program. A really good Chinese program, for example, is only selectively offered. Thus, a lot of schools get filtered out for those who are really interested.</p>
<p>bovertine, thanks for the encouragement. </p>
<p>Before DS1 started the apps I thought it should be no problem showing the excellence of his EC’s on the apps. A few months into the apps, it became clear to me that it is hard to convey that in a way that reflects the depth and fullness of what he had done and, at the same time, shows what he had to go through to achieve them. It is easy to list the titles, awards and the hours, but it is hard to give them life.</p>
<p>There are a lot of talks and advice on writing essays that truly reflect who you are at your best with your own voice, but very little on how to breath life into your EC’s and weave them into a great story about you. I know you can talk about your EC’s in your essays, but even there it is hard to do more than scratching the surface of a couple activities without either straying from the given essay topic or sounding like a gloater (MIT’s short essay only format makes this task even harder).</p>
<p>One advice I would give to students who fall under this thread and who have what they believe a great set of EC’s is this - spend a LOT of time thinking and strategizing how you are going to make your EC’s come to life to reflect more of you than your sub-3.6 GPA. After all, since you don’t have a hook, it won’t be the sub-3.6 that gets you into the T20’s - your compelling story has to come from elsewhere.</p>
<p>Merry Christmas to everyone!</p>
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<p>Boy - do I ever agree with this! This is very hard to do in a meaningful way given the way a lot of colleges set up their essay questions (even harder on the common application essay), IMHO.</p>
<p>The best application my son has sent out so far was to a very competitive honors program. They had a series of short answer essays that most kids find kind of lame. Things like ‘talk about the EC activity that had the most meaning to you’ and ‘talk about a leadership role you had and how it impacted your life’ and ‘tell us about a book that really made you think’ - there were probably 10 in all.</p>
<p>Although he is a great writer, on his first pass, son answered these in a very weak way. I made some suggestions and had him go back and re-work them. After he re-wrote them, I was stunned by how much of his personality showed through in these essays and how the ECs really came alive. He was even able to work in an unique personal hobby into one of the answers. I really wish all colleges would have these kinds of questions (I’m sure a lot do, I’m looking at a sample size of 12 
). My son originally thought they were a real pain but after he had finished with it, I think he felt very good about the application. It really helps round out a student’s application. Just listing the ECs doesn’t even scratch the surface for a lot of kids.</p>
<p>BTW -the dean of the honors college said at the information session that they deliberately set the short answer essays up to help them get a better feel for the student’s personality and accomplishments. He said that there are some really interesting students they would like to have in their program that don’t fit the ‘4.0, class president’ role and this is their way of finding the ‘diamonds in the rough’. </p>
<p>Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!</p>
<p>Well, for what it’s worth. My daughter’s short essay is about her EC. Her long essay is about a job that is related to her EC. She got into the school that is strong in her EC. But her college picked her because that was not the major she applied for as a freshman.</p>
<p>There is a huge disparity among the 15 or so applications I’ve seen. Everything from space to write a short essay for each EC to:</p>
<p>Has student held a leadership position in any club or group? (yes) (no)</p>
<p>I’M NOT KIDDING!!!</p>
<p>I’m surprised how compact the Stanford Common App supplement is. I guess with so many applicants, they’re hoping for just a snapshot of each student’s personality.</p>
<p>My son mailed his application for the Pitt Chancellor’s Scholarship on the 24th. The post office closed at noon, and he finished the last essay at about 11:00 a.m. Phew! Actually he had until today to mail it, but with Christmas and its aftermath, it seemed safer to impose an earlier deadline upon himself, which he did.</p>
<p>Six days till January 1st.</p>
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<p>I saw this and just had to respond. I routinely got in trouble by my parents for never being home.</p>
<p>Also, I think it is perfectly right to be busy all the time if you are doing something you love. There would certainly be weeks where a ton of things were going on, but if you are doing ECs because you enjoy them, and not for college, then it seems like nothing at all.</p>
<p>Now that he more time, DS1 has come up with another idea for his essays. I like his idea. It is more than a bit risky, but definitely original. It ties very well to his field of interest and what the target colleges can offer. Excitement at the 11th hour!</p>
<p>At this point, his focus is on the mega-reaches. He figured since he won’t have much of a chance at them playing straight-up with solid essays, why not just let loose his creativity and jazz up the essays. If he’s gonna go down, let it be so with blazing flames. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!</p>
<p>In the Dartmouth ED thread, someone was accepted with a 3.58 uw GPA. I did not see that he is a legacy or URM, so there is hope for the under 3.6 GPA. Essays probably are your best bet right now.</p>
<p>Did he attend an elite prep? Come from an impoverished family in S Dakota?</p>
<p>Given that 40% of their classes are val or sal, I would have to guess there was a hook/major tip involved. This is one of the most numbers oriented school.</p>