Not all kids want to be the 'top 1%" ! For some kids it is not a comfortable position. Many kids don’t like limelight, prefer to avoid it. It has nothing to do with intellectual abilities
My daughter is comfortable in top 10%, but never in top 1%. Regardless of the peer group If she finds herself in completion, she would work her tail off to climb into top 10. If she is top student, she would slack and move into top 10, again. Or she would refuse to take a class. Like she refused to take Spanish. “Mom, I know Spanish better than other kids, what am I supposed to learn in this class?”
Surprisingly, my husband is similar. He is very uncomfortable if he is a top dog and “the expert”. He feels much better if he is around people smarter than he is. Thus, he decided to work for a top University, but not for industry.
Location and campus is absolutely perfect. Campus quality is so great, and the location cannot be beat… perfect college town with a city next to it? Kill me.
ResLife. The reslife at harvard is absolutely WOW. They put so much effort into it.
Great opportunities, great professors, and liberal arts core.
Financial aid is outstanding
Why I’m glad I DIDN’T get into Harvard and will be attending Brown instead…
Pretentious nature.
Student body ehh.
Competitive, non collaborative nature
party scene is for rich whiteboys at finals club, and freshmen girls.
Now… I had recently spoken to a senior in an international school, and she said that a majority of her achievements were in middle school, and she put those on her resume (way more than high school achievements). She said that they helped her get into Case Western, but will more competitive colleges accept that?
I think your friend’s experience at Case Western is an anomaly, as listing achievements or activities in middle school is looked upon as “padding your resume” by most colleges, including HYPSM. In fact, the Common Application has radial buttons which an applicant checks to indicate the year of achievement or involvement, and there aren’t buttons for any activity below 9th grade – as colleges are not interested in middle school or elementary school achievements.
Here’s a good rule of thumb: If you’ve been involved with an activity for a long time AND have pursed that activity throughout elementary, middle and high school, then list that activity on your resume, and in the ADDITIONAL INFORMATION section of the Common Application. For example: “Played piano since the age of 5, and have won numerous awards in middle and high school, including . . .”
Otherwise, I would advise NOT to list an activity or achievement in middle school.
That’s a quote from @Hunt on another thread about including middle school achievements and awards on your college application. And I completely agree.
If an applicant has a true passion for spelling and language, and was the runner-up in the National Spelling Bee in eighth grade, and then has gone on to win spelling Bee’s in high school, or pursues linguistics in high school, then yes list the award. But, if an applicant writes down that they’ve been the runner-up in the National Spelling Bee in eighth grade, and there isn’t any follow through with spelling in high school, what heck is an Admissions Officer supposed to think? What comes to mind is “Gee, I guess this kid lost interest as they got to high school!” And, how does that benefit an applicant?
My advice: omit middle school awards, unless they demonstrate a long term track record of commitment in a particular area.
I’m not sure how a student could follow up on being a 'Bee finalist. Is there a National HS spelling bee? At least the essays would need to be free of spelling errors.
It might be something to mention if the kid went on to other types of competitions, like Poetry Out Loud, debate, or forensics. Is it part of the story?
^^ I agree with most of what @gibby has posted except his views on the National Spelling Bee. It is a pretty big deal that I personally would equate with someone becoming say an Intel STS Finalist later on in life. I know someone who won the contest as an eighth grader and later attended Harvard. Winning $40,000 in prize money in middle school is quite an accomplishment. Just being able to place in the completion requires countless hours of dedication and hard work rarely seen in kids so young.
@Falcoln1: The example stated above was being a runner-up in the Spelling Bee in 8th grade, not actually winning the contest and $40k. That’s a oner!
@JustOneDad: A kid that loves spelling has an enjoyment of words and their usage. That enjoyment can then be carried over to writing poetry, extemporaneous debate, linguistics, etc in high school. Colleges look at a student’s EC list for a long term commitment to an activity. The key word is “commitment.” The thinking being that a student who shows commitment to an activity has a transferable sets of skills.
It would be hard to make a case for the runner-up having measurably less commitment than the winner of such a bee.
It’s also difficult to come up with too many other activities which start with so many participants and narrow it down to so few winners (or runners-up).
I’m thinking it might be one of the few “middle school” things someone would want to put on there.
My daughter won national recognition from a well-known honors program associated with a top college.
She just started middle school. We will attend an awards ceremony for her. Not sure yet about the press release; the college provides one to use, and we’ve seen many similar press releases. Then again, it got into our district news that a classmate of hers got to the state semifinals in a spelling bee (no, he didn’t win anything).
Let’s just hope this is the beginning, not the end of her accolades…
Our response to her winning the award was “wow, she paid attention for that long!” not “Yay, now she’ll get into Harvard!”.
I think that placing highly in the National Spelling Bee is a fairly singular achievement. It seems to me to be an exception to the general rule concerning activities prior to high school. That’s just my two cents.
@rhandco If we’re talking about the same thing then my kids both got the same national award. It doesn’t even begin to compare with going to the finals of the National Spelling Bee contest.
A lot of schools have top faculty and students. Only Harvard is the oldest. It’s the only old established college in a metro area that’s often considered a theme park for college-aged people. Pretty buildings too. All those things AND a great name. The name is pretty, easy to spell and pronounce, fits nicely on the front of a t- shirt. It’s a classy and WASPY name that is easily recognizable and unforgettable.
Imagine if a Canadian billionaire said he’d donate 20 billion bucks to Harvard as long as.it changed its name to honor the billionaire’s father,
Umber’o Iiggelczevski. So suddenly all the t-shirts and buildings and le.tterhead that previously said Harvard now said “Umber’o Iiggleczevski.”. I bet applications would drop in half. Same faculty, same great financial
aid, same location, but without the magical name.
