How normal is it for parents to set up non profits, research, etc for kids to get into college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you may know a few who do this and are adding “many” into your statements. How many parents are telling you that they hired people to write their kids’ essays.

Many meaning more 10, not a majority. I can think of at least ten kids whose moms are asking the community for donations for their kid’s nonprofit. The better ones with professional looking websites and big donors are definitely crafted by parents. My kid has been doing science Olympiad since elementary school and I saw the parents who would carry the build structures like it was theirs and be the ones to explain how it works. I’m not saying all or the majority has parent help. There is one kid in my kid’s grade whose dad definitely built and won first. My child also competed in the same event and placed top 5. We didn’t help at all besides buy him some supplies he requested.

Our child definitely grew up with privilege and also has advantages. It is obviously easier for a well established adult in their forties or fifties to set up a start up or nonprofit than a 15yo.

So you really have no proof. Just a suspicion which you state as fact since the real annoyance is for you is that kids who must be getting help (per you) are the ones beating your kid.

I have a hilarious Science Olympiad story (and I’m totally outing my kid and embarrassing her but it was a long time ago). My kid and her partner did SO in elementary and did the Robotics section. They built their robot from scratch with the guidance of her partner’s fabulous mom. It was clearly a home made robot and it was both kids’ first competition. Imagine their shock when virtually every other team (or maybe every other, I don’t remember) had a Lego Mind storm and basically just had to build it from a kit with instructions and program it. Their robots were fast and efficient and blew our kids’ away. Our kids literally had a rock on theirs they were using as a ballast (because the mom asked them what they thought they needed to solve the problem of the robot tipping and what material they could find to use—instead of doing it for them). They lost (and some teams literally laughed at them), but I think they won. They got to know each other and had fun building it and they learned a ton. It was fascinating to see, though, how smug some parents were, how horrified others were and how amused/impressed some were. Clearly, they had done the work themselves. Not relevant for college, of course.

Some parents. Your story change it for another event/activity/club. it happens in each one. You have to wonder if parents:
a. Never did any of these activities when they were kids themselves
b. their kid's activity and the outcome from activity defines their parenting quality
c. get so invested for bragging rights (tell their sibling who could care less, a neighbor who doesn't even remember they have a kid, to send greetings to "friends" on holidays with a photo of kid holding a trophy and so on)
d. all of the above

[Anonymous]

Yes very common. Parents doing a lot of BS for their kids. On top of that, those same kids are cheating. Total joke when they get in to a top school.

[Anonymous]

Does admissions care about starting a non profit these days?

[Anonymous]

I don't know if it is normal, but it is definitely privilege.

I was thinking about this today when I saw an acquaintance post about sending their hs kid to an elite filmmaking camp in NYC to "build a portfolio" for college apps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Colleges claim they can tell if it is the kid or the parents, but I'm not sure they can.

How would colleges know if they got it wrong, and why would people keep doing it if they were always found out.

How would an applicant know if anyone was "found out"? College admissions is pure superstition and cargo culting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It may or may not be common, but it is definitely abnormal.

and immoral. However the U.S. isn't really a bastion of morality now is it?

[Anonymous]

i suppose some do. Nonprofit starting is so 2018 it hurts applicants these days: better for kid to find a current community organization they care about and volunteer.

real research vs fake is hard to determine.

Mine did none of this. Their main activities were things they started at age 8--a summer camp, a musical instrument, girl scouts for one, church group another. Those plus leader of a school club and or sport. Top rigor, top scores, almost very top of class. They were kind caring top students so teachers nominated them for various honors/awards and summer programs such as highly selective Gov School and stem programs. They got in to ivy/t10 no hooks during some of the most difficult application years their high school has seen. This past cycle the school is back to the precovid normal of 6-8 unhooked kids in at ivy+ instead of 3.
Parents do not need to do anything for these kids other than encourage them to pursue the things they like with excellence in mind, and find one community organization they care about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes very common. Parents doing a lot of BS for their kids. On top of that, those same kids are cheating. Total joke when they get in to a top school.

sure there may be some that fit the above, but most ivy/+ kids are extremely self-motivated, driven students who do not find the hardest high school classes terribly difficult, even at top prep schools. We have met many ivy kids through friends of our kids at different schools, both college and high school friends. The students who cheat at ivies, again very few, may be the same kids who have had lots of helicoptering from parents to help get them there, or may cheat for other reasons. However, they do not do well once there, because the majority there run circles around them! For one, cheating on papers is not hard to figure out by professors. Mine have known professors who caught it. Cheating on in-person long-answer physics or chem tests is almost impossible.
The students not ready academically for ivies face huge mental health hurdles when they realize even if they start gunning hard they cannot get above the mean and frankly do not belong. There goes the med school or top finance dream. For the vast majority who got there on merit, it is nice to have 15%-20% or so that are easy to beat on tests, whether recruited athletes who would not have made it without the sport hook or helicoptered fakers who shouldnt have gotten in. just sayin. It all shakes out in the wash. DCUM parents need to worry less about others and let their kids end up where their kids are meant to on their own. The highly academic kids who just miss out on ivies but are equally qualified can go to a top school for med or law from --gasp--UVA or WM or VT. The cheaters at ivies wont get there, neither will the ones whose parents did most of the work in HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The nonprofit establishment is pretty extreme, but internship/research acquisition help is normal if the parents have the connections and this continues during and after college. In fact at one of my dc's college orientations they told the parents to be ready to use their network to help their kids.

+ 1
We are not connected and my kid has to apply to 200+ positions to even get an internship in HS and in college. He has been interning from end of freshman year in college, but, regardless of his record and credentials...being unhooked, unconnected and not from HPYSM for CS (he in UMD) means that that each year he has to jump through a lot of hoops to get internship positions. Yes, we are proud that he gets the position on his own strength but each year it's like starting from scratch and previous experience does not seem to matter.

All things being the same - GPA, experience etc - if we had the network which would at least get him a look from the recruiters, I would not hesitate to use it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does admissions care about starting a non profit these days?

Yes, if there is demonstrated impact.

Otherwise it's just an extracurricular and maybe a little better than a volunteer job or paying job.

If you're David Hogg and you've organized rallies attended by millions of people, they will care. If your nonprofit mostly just raises money to do things that other non profits are already doing, then not so much.

[Anonymous]

So common as to be almost normal. There's so many variations of this. I know a kid whose parent wrote his prize winning John Locke essay. And don't get me started on Regeneron/ISEF - most of those kids have parents in science/science connections. I know a kid whose mother set her up with a lab mentor in Israel and flew her back and forth for 2 summer for her research. And many parents who use media connections to get their kid' writing published in places like the NY Times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you may know a few who do this and are adding “many” into your statements. How many parents are telling you that they hired people to write their kids’ essays.

Many meaning more 10, not a majority. I can think of at least ten kids whose moms are asking the community for donations for their kid’s nonprofit. The better ones with professional looking websites and big donors are definitely crafted by parents. My kid has been doing science Olympiad since elementary school and I saw the parents who would carry the build structures like it was theirs and be the ones to explain how it works. I’m not saying all or the majority has parent help. There is one kid in my kid’s grade whose dad definitely built and won first. My child also competed in the same event and placed top 5. We didn’t help at all besides buy him some supplies he requested.

Our child definitely grew up with privilege and also has advantages. It is obviously easier for a well established adult in their forties or fifties to set up a start up or nonprofit than a 15yo.

So you really have no proof. Just a suspicion which you state as fact since the real annoyance is for you is that kids who must be getting help (per you) are the ones beating your kid.

I have a hilarious Science Olympiad story (and I’m totally outing my kid and embarrassing her but it was a long time ago). My kid and her partner did SO in elementary and did the Robotics section. They built their robot from scratch with the guidance of her partner’s fabulous mom. It was clearly a home made robot and it was both kids’ first competition. Imagine their shock when virtually every other team (or maybe every other, I don’t remember) had a Lego Mind storm and basically just had to build it from a kit with instructions and program it. Their robots were fast and efficient and blew our kids’ away. Our kids literally had a rock on theirs they were using as a ballast (because the mom asked them what they thought they needed to solve the problem of the robot tipping and what material they could find to use—instead of doing it for them). They lost (and some teams literally laughed at them), but I think they won. They got to know each other and had fun building it and they learned a ton. It was fascinating to see, though, how smug some parents were, how horrified others were and how amused/impressed some were. Clearly, they had done the work themselves. Not relevant for college, of course.

OP here. When my kid was 11 or 12, he had some event where they couldn’t complete the task. I can’t remember what it was, but I know they spent countless hours and could not get the thing to complete the task. They were discouraged and went to the competition expecting to lose. We were all shocked when they came in first place. All the other contenders were disqualified. I can’t remember what they did or why certain teams were disqualified, but I clearly remember DS telling me that one team couldn’t explain what they did and it was obvious the parents did it. This would never happen at a high school level tournament, but in elementary they won first at that particular event.

[Anonymous]

I remember being a kid, maybe 10 or we, and entering a competition. When I got there, my project looked so simple and I was so embarrassed. I wanted to cry. There were kids with robots and crazy advanced contraptions. My teacher came up to me and told me it was obvious to her I was the single only person there who got no help from my parents and she could tell I did everything on my own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does admissions care about starting a non profit these days?

I can't imagine any school being impressed with just setting up a non profit.
You can set up a non-profit online for $45 in about 25 minutes (not joking).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does admissions care about starting a non profit these days?

I can't imagine any school being impressed with just setting up a non profit.
You can set up a non-profit online for $45 in about 25 minutes (not joking).

And you can raise $100k in the time it takes Mom and Dad to write a check.