Many interests, but not excel in any interests
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Anonymous
| My son is exposed to many interests from sports to scout/volunteering, but he is not excel like doing travel teams or earning awards or recognization in anything. Is it the worst that a kid excel at nothing outside of school academic? Can one put interests on college application? He is currently doing kayaking, rock climbing, scout, recreational basketball, recreational table tennis, and fencing as a 7th grader all just for fun. Some of them are seasonal and some around the year. |
Anonymous
| He’s in 7th grade? Relax, friend. Let him be. |
Anonymous
Travel team (or varsity) means nothing if not recruitable. |
Anonymous
| 7th grade??? Why are you here. |
Anonymous
Like a PP said, relax. Let him explore. There is time to converge to something he thinks he likes enough to stick with. What you don't want is an EC list from 9th grade on that contains too many seemingly unrelated activities each lasting only a year or less. Longevity counts. And let him work his way up the leadership ladder. He doesn't have to be the best athlete or player on the team. Be caring and supportive of other members on the team, and teammates will develop an affinity toward him. Enjoy the process and don't consistently ask "is this going to count for something in the college admissions game," like some here on DCUM do. |
Anonymous
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Ditto, relax and explore. He'll likely end up focusing on a smaller set of activities as he gets old simply because school becomes more demanding.
But, yes, you can just list hobbies on the common app. DS listed golfing even though he's never been on the school team or participated in any other competitions. He's played with his grandfather since he was 5 and sometimes plays with friends. My DD listed art, which she does purely for herself, and included in the brief space for description that it is her favorite stress relief. |
Anonymous
Seriously. OP kids and everyone should be doing what they enjoy |
Anonymous
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Interested people are interesting people.
Your son sounds like a great kid! |
Anonymous
I assume you are east Asian. |
Anonymous
+1000 You’re doing it perfectly. It’s great for kids to be interested and exposed to so many different things in middle school! Keep it going and just let his interests lead. Naturally, over time, kids tend to narrow things down - dropping some activities in order to focus more on the ones they like more. Usually sometime in 9th or 10th grade because the schedules overlap and they no longer can do it all. Some kids end up with one or two activities and go deep and excel in them. Many parents will tell you this is the way to go. But it’s also ok if they are broader than that - especially if some of the activities tie together in a way that support each other and even better, connect to their academic interests. But don’t worry about that now. Let your kid’s interests lead the way. By 10th grade, it’ll ge surprisingly easy to start making connections between their activities and academic interests. If you’re creative, there’s always a way. Finally, not every activity has to be included in the college application or “story”. It’s fine for kids to have things they do for fun that don’t fit the rest. In fact, it’s GREAT for their development - curiosity, exploration, joy! Relax for now and trust that you can pick this back up in 2-3 years. By then, it’ll be clearer for college apps AND your kid will better off as a result of trying lots of things! |
Anonymous
+1 you don't put middle school activities on college applications. |
Anonymous
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"Gentleman's "C""
This kind of thing is what used to be aspired to. Being a good-timing right fielder on the Yale baseball team, etc. All gone now. |