<p>My son, a sophomore in a competitive HS, has many interests. He is involved in many school clubs and activities and participated in many competitions/tournaments, such as debate, math and science. So far, here is some of his achievements -</p>
<p>Regional Math competition 1st place (team member) - first time ever in school history
Various State Science bowls/competitions 2nd, 3rd, 4th finishes (team member)
Debate tournaments (mediocre school club but elected to president starting next school year)</p>
<p>As far as I am concerned, he still has no prominent area, such as national level awards. The closest area may be math which he qualified for AIME in both 9th and 10th grade (answered 6-7 questions at best) but didn't make USAJMO. How much weight do ivies give to those state/region level competitions? Is he stretching thin in doing too many things at state level if they are not as prominent as national major awards such as Intel, Siemens, or USAMO? My view is that one major award may outweigh five or more minor awards to colleges. So far, I haven't been able to convince him to really focus on few things and go deeper. </p>
<p>Do I have a point or no? What are the prominent credentials that make one stand out?</p>
<p>A very good question for which there are no set concrete answers.</p>
<p>First, I’d encourage him to pursue the areas in which he has the most passion and interest. It sounds like he would rise to the upper levels in those areas.</p>
<p>Second, after going through this year’s admission cycle, I have concluded that there is no sure “thing” which assures admissions. For example, if you search the decisions threads, you will find rejected applicants who won distinguished national and international awards (even multiple awards) such as Siemens, STS, ISEF (including first place grand prize award winners with stellar applications), USABO, etc.</p>
<p>Third, do not neglect community service activities. Those activities raise the level of the applicant. But, your son must also feel passionate and interested in the community service - not just go through the motions.</p>
<p>Assuming near perfect grades, scores, national awards, significant community service and a lack of a hook (e.g., recruited athlete), not fixating on a single “dream” school and casting a wide net will result in a positive result in the end. </p>
<p>It’s tough to do, and especially tough between December and March in the senior year (unless the ED/EA results were positive). </p>
<p>But I think you’re on the right track. But, don’t force it; let him find the interest and passion and encourage him when he finds it.</p>
<p>Even for Siemens winners, the Ivy-level institutions are a crapshoot. No one is guaranteed admissions there, and there are no secret tricks to making admissions possible.</p>
<p>Your kid (like every other kid) should pursue activities that are interesting to him, and that help him grow as a person. Some kids are specialists and have only one huge time-sucking activity, and others are generalists and have multiple activities. What works for each of them depends on their own personalities and capabilities. Not to mention that their interests to change over time.</p>
<p>If you haven’t already done so, you should sit down with your tax returns and bank statements, and run the Net Price Calculator at your home-state public U, and at other places you think your kid might be interested in in the future. Find out now what those places will probably expect you to pay, and determine whether that is do-able or not. If it is, great! If it isn’t, pay a visit to the Financial Aid Forum and read up on guaranteed merit-based aid. A kid like yours probably would qualify for some of those scholarships.</p>
<p>stemit, thanks for the insight. do most of the rejected applicants with distinguished awards have one thing in common perhaps - not well-rounded? or the storyboarding is not coherent in colleges’ view? do you have to have a theme (passion?) in the application and all academic and extracurricular activities center around it? and perhaps this is the best way to value prop (borrowing a term from my consulting career) to colleges? EC in community service is indeed very important - an area he needs to focus on. </p>
<p>happymomof1, unfortunately, i am pretty sure my household incoming level prohibits us from 99% of scholarships. my home state (MA) public universities are not that great either so we still focus on top tier private schools. Thanks for your answer.</p>
<p>You seem to be working from the belief that a nationally recognized award is the tipping point; what evidence do you have to base that conclusion on? The ivies reject on average 85% of their applicants; it’s likely that many of those rejected have state, regional and national level achievements but for a host of other reasons they were rejected - geography, too many from one school, sex, too many fencers that year etc. Would a nationally recognized award help your chances? Yes. But that doesn’t mean lacking such an award disqualifies you.</p>
<p>As for concentration, it strikes me that part of that answer depends on the area you intend on having your son study. If he is a nationally recognized oboist but isn’t going to pursue music, why would that award give him an advantage with an engineering program? Finally, the students-musicians-athletes who win these awards typically have both the talent and the passion for the subject matter. Hustle will be Talent when Talent doesn’t Hustle, but it’s not enough if Talent decides to put in the hours as well.</p>
<p>TD: If I may suggest this: your providing guidance and opportunity to your son is great. But your goal shouldn’t be an impressive list of items come his senior year – your goal should be to inspire and ignite a great desire to learn, to affect others, to be excellent, to serve his fellow man – if you succeed in this, his resume will look fine. Often I see people focused on the “resume” and not on the character of the student. I’ve interviewed many kids who have impressive resumes – but lack any investment in what they’ve done besides follow some prescribe path. These don’t impress my alma mater’s admissions office.</p>
<p>Summary: provide gentle guidance and opportunity. If your son truly is a top college candidate, it will rise to the surface. You can’t force it. </p>
<p>Your son sounds bright. Let him explore and excel in what he wants to excel in. Don’t worry about competitions or awards. And don’t fixate on community svc. Everyone does it. It’s “meh” to be frank.</p>
<p>UMass - Amherst has a very good reputation in computer science and a good reputation in most other sciences and engineering. Sure, it is not the ticket to investment banking and management consulting that Harvard is, but it is a solid school for a student going into the various math oriented subjects.</p>
<p>If he only applies to super-selective schools, he will likely get shut out, and have to go to community college and transfer to UMass - Amherst as a junior. That is not necessarily a bad path, but if he is super-advanced in subjects like math, it may be limiting, since community colleges won’t have upper division math courses.</p>