<p>I've been lurking on this board since about the time ED decisions came in and I am in awe of some of the profiles of students. Looking at some of the rejections, it would seem that it's almost impossible for your average well-rounded good student to get in. I was at the point of telling my sophomore D to just forget it (Pton is her dream school, but she's not interested in wasting her time building the perfect resume). Then the acceptances at her school started to be publicized and a lot of kids got into ivies, top 20 schools.</p>
<p>The thing is, a lot of these kids, while all good and talented students, are not "spectacular" in the CC sense. A couple are recognized in music at a national level, but most students have no national awards. I can't remember the last time we had an Intel winner. Most of these kids are heavily involved at the school level and that's about it. The school does not push the kids towards ivy schools and really emphasizes that they find something they love and pursue that. Regarding course load, they tell the students to take the most rigorous courses they can handle and do well in. They do not encourage the kids to overschedule (like trying to fit in an extra class and skip lunch). They are encouraged to take art or drama rather than another AP if that is where their interests lie.</p>
<p>A GC recently made the comment that there is a lot of misinformation out there about what schools are really looking for and that people spend too much time trying to figure just what that is. When I see some kids' profiles, it seems to me that what they are doing is almost impossible. Like, how can you be an officer in 8 clubs (among other things), and still be making a meaningful contribution? I wonder if the adcoms look at this and assume it is just resume padding. My daughter could have a resume a mile long if she inflated everything she did (and I could see that it would not be hard to do). There have been threads posted where students admit to resume padding. So I'm beginning to think that showing a strong and real commitment to just a couple of interests is the way to go. Maybe the adcoms are getting better at figuring out what a real passion is and what constitutes a carefully crafted "just doing this to get into an ivy" resume. There seem to be quite a few "normal" kids that get in and just as many "too good to be true" kids that don't. It is disheartening to see posts from freshman asking if they should do this or that to improve their chances. What about following your heart? I think people can only achieve greatness if they are doing something they love.</p>
<p>I realize these boards only represent a small number of the students who actually get into the ivies and that maybe a certain type of person is attracted to this type of forum (I am, but my D has no interest whatsoever). I guess I am posting this because I am interested in hearing about peoples' experiences. More specifically, did you do what you did during high school because you loved it or because you thought it would get you into an ivy and how much of what you did was (for lack of a better word) "real"?</p>
<p>Answering for my D. Absolutely everything she did was real. Ballet - did it from age 7 on, was good at it, kept going. Journalism, started freshman year, took on positions of increasing responsibiility, loved it. All the other stuff - teachers would say "Want to do x, y, z?" and she would say yes. Participated in class because she honestly loved going to school.</p>
<p>And the other kids from her high school now at Princeton had similar experiences. She went to a Catholic high school that was very focused on "whole child" education and really discouraged swotting away for college resumes. The top 10% of her class all went on to H, Y, P, S. Let your daughter take her path, set values of achievement and excellence but let her define what that means.</p>
<p>Our Ds actually sound very much alike. My Ds school also discourages "doing things just to get into college", but when you spend some time on these boards and hear that some schools are complicit in faking things (like 10 captians for every team) and then see some of the stats people post, it just seems like a lot of it is impossible. My daughter is involved in two clubs at school, plus the school paper and a sport. She is also involved in drama and dance. This takes up a tremendous amount of time and she usually doesn't get home till 9 or 10 at night. Then there's homework. She is very bright, but there is no way she could do all that and still take the 7 or so APs some do. It just seems that when you add up some of the accomplishments of some students, that there wouldn't be enough hours in the day to do it all. That, combined with the fact that kids from Ds school that don't do even as much as she does got into ivys, makes me wonder what is really going on. Is it possible that sometimes having too many APs, etc., makes it look like you never leave your room?</p>
<p>It is also true that my D took as many APs as she could. It is just school policy that if you place into the AP classes they recommend you take them...And her grade point average unweighted was 4.0. So while she didn't cure cancer or run the world, she did manage to keep the highest possible academic program up while she did her other stuff. I think that is important for all these top schools.</p>
<p>She certainly left her room, lol. But she didn't have activity upon activity listed, just the things she was really involved in. And she was involved in those things for love of the activities.</p>
<p>I think perhaps they really focused on the Unique this year. I got in, and I'm waiting for my OOPS letter, because even though my GPA/SATs were in range, I didn't think I stood out. I'm white, female, from a relatively crappy SJ public school and didn't take as many APs as our school provides due to scheduling conflicts and a certain hatred of a certain subject. </p>
<p>However, I sent in a supplement with music compositions. I have zero recognition for music composition, but I did it anyway. You don't see a lot of farm girls like me who compose music after a day of packing peppers in a dirty packing house. I didn't get any national awards, or even a lot of honors at all, but I think I came across as someone who just loves to learn and loves to experience, rather than someone who pads their resume, because I DO have a lot of extra curricular activities.</p>
<p>There's a common thread here (no pun intended). DD similar to both of yours - passionate about music - among other things. Went to Governor's School where they emphased AAA - Artist, Advocate, Audience - how to be all three. Came back and started a Tri-M chapter at her school, now 60 strong. She's delivered papers for 5 years to make extra money to buy as many guitars as possible and its the only job that doesn't interfere with all the EC's she wants to be in before and after school. She didn't take an overabundance of AP's - 3 last year, 2 this year - but maintained a 4.0 in all her courses. Seems like the key thing among these kids is that they spend their time wisely, are disciplined, and focused on doing things they want to do - learning, working, playing, and loving life.</p>
<p>Vango:
from an admitted student's standpoint..
having lurked at CC for the last couple years, I never thought I'd get in. Like you've mentioned, I had no national awards, no athletic tip or anything that'd be considered a 'hook' here. I did have a good SAT score, but as you know, no one gets in with a good SAT score alone, so I didn't expect much.
As of my EC's, I did what I liked to do (piano, tennis) but didn't enter competition in either field. Tennis was more for fun, and I think the CD I sent in for piano might have helped, although I should mention that it didn't meet the requirement (not in terms of skill level but in terms of music selection).
Some people say I must've had a great essay, which could be true, but I'm not a spectacular writer. I just wrote about me and my experience, in plain English.
My school usually sends 1 or 2 kids to the ivies each year, but this year we've been very fortunate as my closest friends got into stanford, MIT, and notre dame honors program. But looking at them (and myself) I don't see anything 'spectacular'.. they just did well in school and passionately followed their EC's. And four years ago, I wouldn't have believed that these normal kids would get into any top tier schools b/c according to cc, my friends didn't fit the criteria of spectacular kids.. </p>
<p>so the point is, you don't have to be a superstar. do few things well. and BELIEVE in yourself/your son/daughter because I almost didn't apply to Princeton thinking I wouldn't get in.</p>
<p>Although, don't take this the wrong way:
Yes, the ivies accept students that didn't win any <em>big</em> awards etc.</p>
<p>BUT: how do you think places like Harvard, Pton, Duke, MIT recruit kids for their math team, sports teams, chem dept, physics dept, the list goes on and on.</p>
<p>You'll be suprised to know their "every-year" NEEDS, they're far more generous than they need to be.</p>
<p>Places like HYPS can accept all of their AMAZING ED candidates that will serve the college well.</p>
<p>Get the bigger picture? HYPS etc. aren't THAT self-serving, but soon they will be forced to be so. </p>
<p>Either way, getting accepted as an "average well-rounder" shows that your VERY LUCKY.</p>
<p>I had a talk with an ivy adcom (just so you know).</p>
<p>I recognize that many of the students admitted have awards and maybe the issue is that it is harder to distinguish oneself in the humanities fields...I may be wrong, but there do not seem to be as many humanities-type competitions on the national level as there are math and science. So maybe when they are looking to fill the science and math needs, they are able to pick only award winners. When trying to fill the humanities areas, they may have to use a different set of criteria...there may not be enough award winners in those areas to go around so they may "settle" for a kid who is a star in their own school and who has expressed their passions in a well-written way. That pretty much describes the kids from D's school who got in - good students with great scores and good school involvement.</p>
<p>The mantra I heard during the college search is that schools such as Princeton are looking for students who did well in high school taking the most rigorous courses available and who have demonstrated passion and commitment and been recognized for excellence. Colleges generally find more appealing a student who excels at a couple of things rather than is simply involved in many activities. A student who has been taking dance lessons since she was four and has danced in the Nutcracker on Bway probably has a better chance then the student who was treasurer of the debate team, back-up guard on the basketball team, member of SADD, 2nd violinst in the orchestra, and organizer of the Race for the Cure. Lets assume the student has the requisite GPA and standardized test scores. I think that the students who have the best chance to be admitted are the ones whose unique gifts could be summed up in a single compelling phrase such as the oboe playing, Intel award winner, or the tri-lingual, defensive lineman, or the screen writer, dancer or the chess champion, entrepreneur. The chess champion doesnt have to be a grandmaster or to have started a company worth millions of dollars, but if the student has the grades and stats and shows commitment and excellence, the student will have a good chance at being admitted by a highly selective school that values those talents.</p>
<p>LaRemedito: I eat during my classes and in between classes. I didn't schedule any classes over lunch, but I generally had so much to do during lunch (club meetings to run, papers to write, newspaper field work, college/internship/scholarship applications) that I didn't have much time to eat.</p>
<p>Well, majors might matter if you express an interest in an underrepresented field - for example, a girl applying to engineering. Of course, your background would have to show that that is a true interest - meaning that you have taken the requisite science and math courses in high school, etc. In that case they might admit a girl with lower stats over a boy with better ones.</p>
<p>The mantra I heard during the college search is that schools such as Princeton are looking for students who did well in high school taking the most rigorous courses available and who have demonstrated passion and commitment and been recognized for excellence. Colleges generally find more appealing a student who excels at a couple of things rather than is simply involved in many activities ...........</p>