What to do with a strong generalist

[Anonymous]

He might thrive at a good liberal arts college with an open or flexible curriculum. That way, he can discover his passion freshmen or sophomore year before declaring a major. I have a similar kid. While we liked the idea of big or urban universities, it was unnerving to apply to a specific major/school at some of these schools.

[Anonymous]

My kid is similar, equally strong in all subjects and didn't want to be forced into focusing on stem over humanities so did both all through HS including in his EC's (did have strong leadership and a couple of national level competition awards). He focused on the colleges that either were single college applications (Yale and UChicago are two) or those that have interdisciplinary studies programs. He did great in RD and is at an Ivy. He found it easy to write essays for schools with that academic approach.

[Anonymous]

Mine student got a BK at UMD, he picked that over Northwestern and Michigan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sophomore DS is at one of the top DC publics and getting straight As and looks likely to get a 1520-1560 SAT based on testing to date.

Loves his niche sport, but is at the top 25% of the crowd, not top 10%.

Great at English and history and can knowledgeably talking to anything he reads and politics but does zero reading on his own.

Probably top of his class for math but seems to care nothing about experimentation or fixing things. In science, he gets everything right but is bored that the classes just seem to be teaching a lot of rote concepts and don’t seem to do anything interesting. Teachers he likes least are the science teachers.

Has an strong interest in volunteering in the human assistance sense (think Martha’s Table) but not in any resume building way.

Very pliable/directable but also a capable leader at any task he’s set. I am sure as an adult he would be someone people would love to hire - very conscientious and enterprising within tasks he has been given. Good habits, positive anttitude, and doesn’t get distracted, not phone or video game obsessed, etc.

He just doesn’t have that personal passion project where he can demonstrate proactively that he is tremendously capable and interested in X, Y, or Z. And he doesn’t seem to have a professional direction at age 16 that this forum seems to think kids need while still teenagers.

What do you do with a very capable generalist? Somebody here must have experience with kids like this.

What about his AP scores?

Consider Oxybridge if they are high.

McGill, and a couple Canadian schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sophomore DS is at one of the top DC publics and getting straight As and looks likely to get a 1520-1560 SAT based on testing to date.

Loves his niche sport, but is at the top 25% of the crowd, not top 10%.

Great at English and history and can knowledgeably talking to anything he reads and politics but does zero reading on his own.

Probably top of his class for math but seems to care nothing about experimentation or fixing things. In science, he gets everything right but is bored that the classes just seem to be teaching a lot of rote concepts and don’t seem to do anything interesting. Teachers he likes least are the science teachers.

Has an strong interest in volunteering in the human assistance sense (think Martha’s Table) but not in any resume building way.

Very pliable/directable but also a capable leader at any task he’s set. I am sure as an adult he would be someone people would love to hire - very conscientious and enterprising within tasks he has been given. Good habits, positive anttitude, and doesn’t get distracted, not phone or video game obsessed, etc.

He just doesn’t have that personal passion project where he can demonstrate proactively that he is tremendously capable and interested in X, Y, or Z. And he doesn’t seem to have a professional direction at age 16 that this forum seems to think kids need while still teenagers.

What do you do with a very capable generalist? Somebody here must have experience with kids like this.

My goodness, that’s a lot of words to say you have a regular kid who tests well.

[Anonymous]

This is DC , where everyone is so so special and important! We don’t know what to do with average kids and can’t even comprehend the huge number of regular colleges available to them.

[Anonymous]

This was me 30+ years ago, though I had a spike in math. I got into multiple Ivies, as did many others with the same profile back then.

My kid is exactly who I am and I am anxious as well-rounded is a curse these days, which is a shame. I am hoping my legacy will help. They think they want to do CS but we might actually push towards humanities to be different - XCs don't scream any of these. Otherwise, not sure what we will do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sophomore DS is at one of the top DC publics and getting straight As and looks likely to get a 1520-1560 SAT based on testing to date.

Loves his niche sport, but is at the top 25% of the crowd, not top 10%.

Great at English and history and can knowledgeably talking to anything he reads and politics but does zero reading on his own.

Probably top of his class for math but seems to care nothing about experimentation or fixing things. In science, he gets everything right but is bored that the classes just seem to be teaching a lot of rote concepts and don’t seem to do anything interesting. Teachers he likes least are the science teachers.

Has an strong interest in volunteering in the human assistance sense (think Martha’s Table) but not in any resume building way.

Very pliable/directable but also a capable leader at any task he’s set. I am sure as an adult he would be someone people would love to hire - very conscientious and enterprising within tasks he has been given. Good habits, positive anttitude, and doesn’t get distracted, not phone or video game obsessed, etc.

He just doesn’t have that personal passion project where he can demonstrate proactively that he is tremendously capable and interested in X, Y, or Z. And he doesn’t seem to have a professional direction at age 16 that this forum seems to think kids need while still teenagers.

What do you do with a very capable generalist? Somebody here must have experience with kids like this.

My goodness, that’s a lot of words to say you have a regular kid who tests well.

This (though she is guessing he will end up testing well). Mom is asking about a kid where he has 1 full year of grades, no actual testing done yet, and

Does no extra reading, is avg at his sport, not interested in experimentation or fixing things (despite claiming science class bores him - meaning still no extra steps on his own), no massive impact or leadership related to service work, yet mom is certain that at 16 he nevertheless will be someone people love to hire.

Not sure where OP gets that he is a capable leader because he sounds more like a worker bee (can effectively do what he’s told) but not a proactive problem solver.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was me 30+ years ago, though I had a spike in math. I got into multiple Ivies, as did many others with the same profile back then.

My kid is exactly who I am and I am anxious as well-rounded is a curse these days, which is a shame. I am hoping my legacy will help. They think they want to do CS but we might actually push towards humanities to be different - XCs don't scream any of these. Otherwise, not sure what we will do.

Praying for you.

[Anonymous]

“Strong interest in volunteering at Martha’s Table” or similar ==>rather than worry about resume/specific colleges for your sophomore, I’d give kudos to you and DC for raising/being a human that the world needs more of! Can you build on this strong interest with as many volunteer hours as DC can manage & enjoys (easier if DC can take public transit to get there)…connections will be made that 2 years from now, you’ll have easy, organic answers to your other questions. Go, DC!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is DC , where everyone is so so special and important! We don’t know what to do with average kids and can’t even comprehend the huge number of regular colleges available to them.

Average kids are actually easy. There are literally hundreds of state schools all over the country that welcome them, and at ordinary schools DCTAG covers the gap between in state and OOS.

The stress begins when an otherwise average kid springs a 4.0/1580 and is the strongest math student in their grade, and everyone starts to tell them that they’re “aiming too low” when they don’t ED to a T20.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is similar, equally strong in all subjects and didn't want to be forced into focusing on stem over humanities so did both all through HS including in his EC's (did have strong leadership and a couple of national level competition awards). He focused on the colleges that either were single college applications (Yale and UChicago are two) or those that have interdisciplinary studies programs. He did great in RD and is at an Ivy. He found it easy to write essays for schools with that academic approach.

My kid aced every academic area, took the most difficult AP in every area and had 5s in those most difficult ones by the time of the applications. They were top of class/top SAT, significant awards/honors in humanities and Stem and also had years of experience in the arts. At an Ivy, RD, and got into multiple other top-10 schools. Ivies expect strength across disciplines. One can have a strong academic interest or not, but breadth and performance across all disciplines is table stakes for unhooked kids like mine at the top schools. At least half of the unhooked kids there seem to have excelled at everything in high school.
OP if your kid is really a top student (straight As can mean top third these days) and has top rigor, go for the ivies. They can explore fields, study anything they want, many double-major in disparate fields, and do not have to declare until sophomore year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is DC , where everyone is so so special and important! We don’t know what to do with average kids and can’t even comprehend the huge number of regular colleges available to them.

Average kids are actually easy. There are literally hundreds of state schools all over the country that welcome them, and at ordinary schools DCTAG covers the gap between in state and OOS.

The stress begins when an otherwise average kid springs a 4.0/1580 and is the strongest math student in their grade, and everyone starts to tell them that they’re “aiming too low” when they don’t ED to a T20.

A kid with 4.0/1580 who is also the top math student in their grade is not average. They may or may not be 97 v 99th v 99.9%ile but they are not average, and they should go for T20 or better

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“Strong interest in volunteering at Martha’s Table” or similar ==>rather than worry about resume/specific colleges for your sophomore, I’d give kudos to you and DC for raising/being a human that the world needs more of! Can you build on this strong interest with as many volunteer hours as DC can manage & enjoys (easier if DC can take public transit to get there)…connections will be made that 2 years from now, you’ll have easy, organic answers to your other questions. Go, DC!

Agree!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is DC , where everyone is so so special and important! We don’t know what to do with average kids and can’t even comprehend the huge number of regular colleges available to them.

Average kids are actually easy. There are literally hundreds of state schools all over the country that welcome them, and at ordinary schools DCTAG covers the gap between in state and OOS.

The stress begins when an otherwise average kid springs a 4.0/1580 and is the strongest math student in their grade, and everyone starts to tell them that they’re “aiming too low” when they don’t ED to a T20.

A kid with 4.0/1580 who is also the top math student in their grade is not average. They may or may not be 97 v 99th v 99.9%ile but they are not average, and they should go for T20 or better

He has a 4.0 after freshman year (and you have no idea abt the rigor or the classmates’ GPAs). Sophomore grades aren’t set AND the 1580 is mom’s best guess as to what he will score.