Thoughts on ECs for junior--do we need anything else?

[Anonymous]

Three varsity sports is doable at a high FARMS public high school. Not a lot of competition for spots on most teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Three varsity sports is doable at a high FARMS public high school. Not a lot of competition for spots on most teams.

It’s very hard to do three varsity sports at a large school, FARMS or not. The sheer number of kids to choose from means that for basketball, football, soccer and baseball, the four most popular sports, it’s very rare to have multiple students in different teams. Usually you’re doing two practices and two individual training sessions per week. The kids that do multiple sports are really talented.

At a small private it happens. If there are 60 kids per grade they’ll be in multiple teams, otherwise the school won’t have many teams to field.

It’s easy to see what teams are better from how far they get in state championships. Hint, it’s not the small privates.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I am not quite sure what is the big deal about coaching. DC went to his badminton facility from a young age, they have all high school kids/athletes coaching the younger kids. Where we live, badminton is a popular sport. I think many badminton facilities do that. It’s quite common.

Coaching a rec team involves a lot of work outside of practice / game time:
-Organization meetings
-Email/text communications with parents, age coordinators, refs
-Hand-holding of newbie parents
-Schedule / field changes
-Dealing with unruly parents
-Coordinating snack schedules
-keeping track of equipment
-Selecting All Star players

Both of my kids did this for a few seasons. It is at least a 6 hour commitment per week. Then add the All Stars Tournament. They were only two coaching at a time. Each played the sport on different club teams, so at least one would be able to coach games if the other one had a club game.

Thanks for explaining. What still isn’t clear to me is why you think OP’s DC could not have coached. Yes, it’s a ton of work, and yes you have to be really good at it to coach (the young badminton coaches were competing nationally). But it’s doable? So why you don’t give her the benefit of doubt? That part is still not clear.

Since OPs kid has coached for “several seasons”, it sounds like he was doing all that in middle school. For many places kids must be over 16 to coach. I’m skeptical.

In order to be a coach my kid needs to do the following:

- be over 16
- complete classes and get certified by Red Cross on first aid, CPR, AED
- take course on recognition and prevention of concussion from CDC
- take Safe Sport class on harassment and abuse in sports for coaches
- become a certified camp counselor with the national sport organization
- become a certified instructor with the national sports organization
- live scan
- work permit from school
- I9 for wages
- two additional certifications

I see kids listing in their college application coaching as an extracurricular when they just taught a few younger relatives shoot hoops last summer.

In my view it’s a stretch to call it coaching, and is just the typical exaggeration that takes place in college applications. The kids that can back up their extracurriculars will rise above the cheaters and the liars.

My kids made sure they explained the coaching workload as much as possible on activities section. They included hours spent (including practice planning), number of players on team, extra tasks and certifications. One of my kids wrote their common app essay about a challenging situation they faced while coaching. They are still coaching in college, and are the campus liason between the student coaches and the local youth sports organization.

That’s the way to do it, hard work and honesty.

Unfortunately there will always be people like OP and her son, who will try to cheat and fake everything: sports coaching, construction job, internship with the federal judge. What are the chances he actually founded a club and was president of the other. Quite low! I’ve seen statistics that about 40% of students lie about extracurriculars, most commonly faking leadership roles and exaggerating roles and responsibilities. OP and her kid are textbook examples.

Only redeeming part is that bright kids don’t need to resort to these cheap tricks, they’ll shine through.

It’s the same for job applications and interviews, people lie and exagerate on their CV all the time, but it’s quite easy to figure out who the qualified candidates are.

As far as college admissions, I wouldn’t worry much about OPs kid. He’s not even motivated enough to come up with his own fake extracurricular activities. That task is outsourced to the parent. Mom will write the essays, keep track of deadlines, ask for letters of recommendation. Too bad she can’t take the SAT.

Yes, the test score is low for T20. The construction job angle is pretty good. AOs will buy the story. Overall this is a flip coin unless he applies to double legacy ivy school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Three varsity sports is doable at a high FARMS public high school. Not a lot of competition for spots on most teams.

It’s very hard to do three varsity sports at a large school, FARMS or not. The sheer number of kids to choose from means that for basketball, football, soccer and baseball, the four most popular sports, it’s very rare to have multiple students in different teams. Usually you’re doing two practices and two individual training sessions per week. The kids that do multiple sports are really talented.

At a small private it happens. If there are 60 kids per grade they’ll be in multiple teams, otherwise the school won’t have many teams to field.

It’s easy to see what teams are better from how far they get in state championships. Hint, it’s not the small privates.

Public and private schools compete in different leagues and championships in Maryland.