Struggling with ECs
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Anonymous
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My DC is currently in 10th grade and considering plans for this summer and next year ECs. Interested in business and economics.
What ECs / summer activities are kids doing these days to become competitive at top 50 colleges, while staying true to themselves. DC has expressed interest in research, but not sure what is involved or how to get started (and if it's indeed an advantage). While I am not suggesting only selecting ECs for college admission purposes, it would be great to see which ones yield a high return so as to inform our choices. Please kindly share your list or ideas of great ECs that might have helped with your college admission success stories. |
Anonymous
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Summer activity for a kid interested in business, easy choice: get a job at Safeway, McDs, etc.
Research is a myth perpetuated in forums like this one. |
Anonymous
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Do you really mean top 50 or top 20.
Schools like Ohio State aren’t going to care nearly as much vs say UPenn (for business). If your kid wants business, there is little value placed on research. Better they go get jobs…it probably helps to get an actual internship somewhere. It’s probably working for your friend’s company and BS…but not sure an AO is going to make a distinction. |
Anonymous
| “Research” doesn’t mean much when done by high schoolers unless they’re in a special structured program in their school. I think a kid generally interested in business / econ type things has a wide range of EC options that might sense: DECA, debate, student gov, investing club, a job, etc. Mostly, and this cznt be said to many times, they should follow their interests and use ECs to learn and grow. Doing things “for college” will backfire. |
Anonymous
| Create a business by themselves without parental help and make some profit. |
Anonymous
This…but nobody knows if the parent helped or not…so don’t get too hung up on that part. |
Anonymous
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Create a shop on Depop.
Concurrently blog about it / consider research angles gleaned from the experience ie consumer behavior, marketing, social e-commerce etc. |
Anonymous
this is pp I meant to add that my DC did a variation of this and is at a Top 10 undergrad business |
Anonymous
A college admissions consultancy that has advertised to me on Social Media recommends this approach. It may be the next "found a non-profit" idea |
Anonymous
This sounds so tiktok adjacent to me, and all the kids are doing it. |
Anonymous
No, no need to reinvent the wheel in a scenario of the blind-leading-the-blind. Get real world work experience by working for other people. Much more efficient than creating a business when you have no idea how business actually works. |
Anonymous
| a job |
Anonymous
e-commerce via social media is absolutely a strategy and consideration for large businesses today. You can research it. Denounce it. But it’s here to stay. And you’re also showing your age. |
Anonymous
Probably. For context though, DC graduated 2021 in the middle of Covid. The business was borne out of sheer and utter boredom in 2020 when everything shut down for her and with cabin fever setting in. I did nothing with the platform, didn’t even know a thing about Depop until DC told me had products to ship at the post office (lol). She learned a lot - customer complaints, marketing, customer thank you notes, shipping issues….. I don’t think it’s at the same level of ‘founded a non profit’ - that’s super disingenuous to me bc what child can actually stand up and do tax filings of a non profit on their own…… It’s more on the level of ‘garage sale via online lemonade stand’ |
Anonymous
| OP, thanks for the recommendations. So, no need to consider research? How about working at an established nonprofit, vs trying to establish one? |