College admissions

[Anonymous]

My kids are still in elementary school but what exactly goes into college admissions today? Is it still an application, SAT scores and a written essay?

[Anonymous]

And letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities and awards. All those things to different degrees, depending on the particular school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities and awards. All those things to different degrees, depending on the particular school.

What types of activities are they looking for exactly? Is this just listed in the application?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities and awards. All those things to different degrees, depending on the particular school.

What types of activities are they looking for exactly? Is this just listed in the application?

Whatever you kid decides to pursue! Sports, arts, instrument, clubs like debate and Model UN, plays, part time jobs. If the Common App is still around when your kids apply to college and if they’re still using the same process, your kid can list up to 10 activities. They name them, describe them and enter how many hours (or weeks, or whatever). It’s not a drop down. The kid types this all in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities and awards. All those things to different degrees, depending on the particular school.

What types of activities are they looking for exactly? Is this just listed in the application?

There is space to list 10 things and you can only write a short bit about each one. You also indicate how long you've been doing it, how many weeks per year/hours per week. Something unusual that can't be describe in that could be explained further in an "additional information" section. Or you might talk about an important activity in your main essay.

They are just looking to understand who you are, how you use your time outside of academics, how are you making an impact in your school community and the larger community.

With two kids who went through the process recently and weren't aiming to super-selective schools, their activities lists included school sport, a hobby sport outside of school, church volunteering, school band, a couple in-school clubs, theater stage crew, summer jobs, an art hobby.

[Anonymous]

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but my recollection is; (1) you can only list things you did in HS and (2) this list of 10 is one big bucket for sports, volunteer work, paid jobs, school government and school clubs. You don’t need 10. 20 is the max u can list.

[Anonymous]

Sorry. 10 is the max

[Anonymous]

Just spend a little time in the College forum. And then tiptoe back out and enjoy your kids while they’re little.

[Anonymous]

OP I strongly recommend you start thinking about this when they are in middle school and you can see the trajectory of their studies (Stem choices / FL etc). I don't think you need worry about it now because so much may well change in terms of emphasis. If you worry for 6 yrs about essays you might find a bunch of top colleges have decided not to ask for them any more, for example. The college forum here is hit and miss and contains some real nut jobs (which forum doesn't) but there's also college confidential.

[Anonymous]

I'd also recommend that you pop in to the colleges and universities forum except that I don't want you to FREAK OUT. Parents obsess about this for years before kids actually apply to college; the forum is full of angst; you'd have much better mental health by waiting til 9th grade (or later) before you give it a look.

[Anonymous]

You need to start thinking about this in middle school, to position your kids on the right academic track (sometimes that needs to happen by late elementary for some school systems) and long-term activities in sports or arts (those that require many years of practice to reach proficiency, like violin or ballet).

[Anonymous]

Please don't "position" your kids, extracurricular-wise, from elementary school. Let them try things and discover their passions. If your kid is going to be a sports star or a prima ballerina, they will do it from passion and not college entrance. In terms of college admissions, there's plenty of time to have them build a coherent set of activities from 8th or 9th grade. (You won't report anything before 9th grade, anyway.)

[Anonymous]

I don't understand that College forum. Parents act like the Ivy acceptance rate is 0.00001% and that DC needs a Nobel Prize to be competitive. In fact, the Harvard acceptance rate is 5% (1 in 20 is getting in). Difficult, but hardly impossible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand that College forum. Parents act like the Ivy acceptance rate is 0.00001% and that DC needs a Nobel Prize to be competitive. In fact, the Harvard acceptance rate is 5% (1 in 20 is getting in). Difficult, but hardly impossible.

hahaha. well done. 5% of 100 is not bad but 5% of 30,000 is quite something else

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand that College forum. Parents act like the Ivy acceptance rate is 0.00001% and that DC needs a Nobel Prize to be competitive. In fact, the Harvard acceptance rate is 5% (1 in 20 is getting in). Difficult, but hardly impossible.

You’re a newbie with young kids. It is really hard to get into certain colleges today. I attended a T20 school and was accepted to a few others as well. No way would that happen to me today with the stats I had.