Child exceptional developer/contracts and makes 20k/year how can we make sure Colleges notice?

[Anonymous]

Who cares if they notice or not? He is doing amazing. Just let him keep doing what he’s doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:unless he gave that money to you (his parents) because you needed it to put a roof over your head and food in your bellies, I wouldn't focus on the fact that he earned money.

Why not? Why is going through the motions and volunteering more impressive than running your own business?

I'm not the person you're responding too, but I would not be at all surprised if this is the predominant opinion among admissions officers. Little conception of what is involved and how difficult it is, a tendency to regard it as luck, instead of skill, a vague feeling that business is icky, etc.

Your son needs to talk about it in his essay, because it explains why he isn't coming in with the typical curated list of fake activities that admissions officers usually see. But it means that admissions will be more of a crapshoot, since if he doesn't get an admissions officer who has more of an understanding of reality, he would have to rely on the essay overcoming resistance - so I recommend aiming the essay that direction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:unless he gave that money to you (his parents) because you needed it to put a roof over your head and food in your bellies, I wouldn't focus on the fact that he earned money.

Why not? Why is going through the motions and volunteering more impressive than running your own business?

I'm not the person you're responding too, but I would not be at all surprised if this is the predominant opinion among admissions officers. Little conception of what is involved and how difficult it is, a tendency to regard it as luck, instead of skill, a vague feeling that business is icky, etc.

Your son needs to talk about it in his essay, because it explains why he isn't coming in with the typical curated list of fake activities that admissions officers usually see. But it means that admissions will be more of a crapshoot, since if he doesn't get an admissions officer who has more of an understanding of reality, he would have to rely on the essay overcoming resistance - so I recommend aiming the essay that direction.

I disagree. Admissions officers at very selective institutions will know how much work and talent went into this. But this is why writing about it in the essays is important, OP. Your kid needs to give his achievement the right context for readers to properly understand the stakes.

I have a kid who performed solo at Carnegie Hall. It's meaningless if she doesn't speak of her experience in her essays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If he doesn’t have the grades and rigor, the business won’t get him accepted. Agree with others it is best addressed in essays.

Whay PP is trying to say is that essays get read only after your child has crossed the threadhold of min GpA and test scores. If they don’t pass those hurdles no one reads the esssys. Obviously being a URM or first-generation is a plus. The average application gets less than a six minute read at a small slacs. It’s even less at large university. The colleges hire by-the-hour readers to assess the application against a checklist for gpa, test scores, urm, first generation, athlete (usually comes in a different route), Questbridge, extraordinary achievements, etc. Only after that culling do the successful applications go up to the admissions officers for your particular region for a first read after which more are culled and so on. Ask your college counselor about how to approach this. They can be if help by flagging your son’s achievement to visiting reps to the smaller schools. They can also help by writing a great letter of recommendation but some schools don’t even read letters of rec anymore (Virginia tech, for example). It’s very much a numbers game for many schools. You need to aim for those smaller schools tgst might be interested in your son’s unique profile. You high school college counselor should be able to help. I disagree about private counselors. We used one to hone essays -no they didn’t write them as some allege-they just bat about ideas and make suggestions. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

See if you can get your son to be in a 30 under 30 type of article. Some type of news feature would help AOs “notice”. Basically he need to receive recognition (not just money) to stand out!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:unless he gave that money to you (his parents) because you needed it to put a roof over your head and food in your bellies, I wouldn't focus on the fact that he earned money.

Why not? Why is going through the motions and volunteering more impressive than running your own business?

I'm not the person you're responding too, but I would not be at all surprised if this is the predominant opinion among admissions officers. Little conception of what is involved and how difficult it is, a tendency to regard it as luck, instead of skill, a vague feeling that business is icky, etc.

Your son needs to talk about it in his essay, because it explains why he isn't coming in with the typical curated list of fake activities that admissions officers usually see. But it means that admissions will be more of a crapshoot, since if he doesn't get an admissions officer who has more of an understanding of reality, he would have to rely on the essay overcoming resistance - so I recommend aiming the essay that direction.

I disagree. Admissions officers at very selective institutions will know how much work and talent went into this. But this is why writing about it in the essays is important, OP. Your kid needs to give his achievement the right context for readers to properly understand the stakes.

I have a kid who performed solo at Carnegie Hall. It's meaningless if she doesn't speak of her experience in her essays.

Disagree. My kid was on national TV. That recognition was never spoken about in essays.

Essays should bring out a part of you that the reader cannot see anywhere else. My kid spoke about their dreams, past and present. Stuff that you could never guess from EC list or anywhere else. Maybe one line referred to an activity.nothing else.

Kid was admitted to 2 T3s and did amazingly in the admissions process just last year.

[Anonymous]

Having a business like that needs to highlight more than the fact he is a good app developer. Did he have to market himself or his business? Did he pay his own taxes? (Filing your own taxes on self earned income as a 16 yo is impressive. That's huge executive function.) Did he have to present to clients? Deal with difficult clients or difficult feedback? Value his work to decide what to charge? Negotiate a contract? Manage deadlines? Balance work with school? Did he build a professional network?

I wouldn't use the job to highlight that he's good technically--that's not extraordinary. Highlight that he's an entrepreneur and has the skills and fire in his belly to take over the world. He's a go getter with the skills to make it happen. Sell him as the total package with the executive function, communication and social skills to round out his technical strengths.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also include in resume if he can submit it. Should also include in his list of extracurricular activities as a work activity.

The activities section of the common app gives very little space for explanation. So, yes, list it there and I would assume he would focus on this business in his main essay but if there are specifics about it not covered in that, I would detail them in the "Other Information" section (my DD did that with an unusual EC that she didn't focus on in her essay). Some colleges also allow students to upload a resume so he should do that where possible.

[Anonymous]

Op: This is very different so either include something in the application package that makes it clear or, like a news story, make it the lede.

For essay something like:
Since 2020 I have developed X apps and earned a total of x dollars doing so. Please check them out in the app store. They are (name them). If we worked with or lead a team, spell that out too.

Cool btw He doesn't really need college. My bud, way back in the day, won a computer science coding comp for high-schoolers and IBM hiried her and then said that she didn't need a degree but they'd pay for it if she got one. So she worked and got paid to go to school. Now she owns a retirement home on a foreign island! How cool is that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:unless he gave that money to you (his parents) because you needed it to put a roof over your head and food in your bellies, I wouldn't focus on the fact that he earned money.

Why not? Why is going through the motions and volunteering more impressive than running your own business?

I'm not the person you're responding too, but I would not be at all surprised if this is the predominant opinion among admissions officers. Little conception of what is involved and how difficult it is, a tendency to regard it as luck, instead of skill, a vague feeling that business is icky, etc.

Your son needs to talk about it in his essay, because it explains why he isn't coming in with the typical curated list of fake activities that admissions officers usually see. But it means that admissions will be more of a crapshoot, since if he doesn't get an admissions officer who has more of an understanding of reality, he would have to rely on the essay overcoming resistance - so I recommend aiming the essay that direction.

I disagree. Admissions officers at very selective institutions will know how much work and talent went into this. But this is why writing about it in the essays is important, OP. Your kid needs to give his achievement the right context for readers to properly understand the stakes.

I have a kid who performed solo at Carnegie Hall. It's meaningless if she doesn't speak of her experience in her essays.

Disagree. My kid was on national TV. That recognition was never spoken about in essays.

Essays should bring out a part of you that the reader cannot see anywhere else. My kid spoke about their dreams, past and present. Stuff that you could never guess from EC list or anywhere else. Maybe one line referred to an activity.nothing else.

Kid was admitted to 2 T3s and did amazingly in the admissions process just last year.

Congrats to your kid! At this point, do you mind naming the schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So many rich kids fake these kinds of accomplishments, that anyone claiming them will be viewed skeptically

And like young actors, having a parent in the business is reason for skepticism too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree with PP, I think your child has done something quite uncommon and wonderful. He's not the only high schooler creating apps and selling them, but he's part of a much smaller group than my son, loaded up on APs, as you said

He definitely needs to write about his career in his essays. Something really thoughtful about how his entrepreneurship has made him grow as a person, develop a work ethic in the real world and made him ready for college and beyond.

All applications will have the space for details about his work, but the clincher is the essay, because it's the only way for him to show how he thinks about his career. He MUST include the dollar amounts and as many factual details as he can, to make convincing and show this isn't piddling money.

If he has gotten to know one or two professionals well, perhaps they can write a letter of recommendation for him, to add to the ones from his teachers.

Ok so the essay portion will speak to this? I am concerned they will be glossed over. We've also talked to him about using some of his earnings towards a college admission counselor which are sometimes in the 5k range. We just feel the admissions process is overlooking his situation. His sats are also very good in the mid 1500s. Its just odd as 30 years a go the test scores alone would guarantee admission but it seems that things have changed especially with all the test optional things going on.

Write about it in the essay. Emphasize his love and desire for learning CS with leading professors despite the job; List it as an activity with the level of income included in the description (Self-employed software developer earning $20k/yr; 20 hrs a week); Include a resume that clearly shows his self employment and length of time.

Colleges will absolutely prefer someone like him over an AP-loaded kid (which is the vast majority of apps they see). Let's not kid ourselves. The primary reason for college for a is to eventually get a high paying job, which your kid already has. Only a foolish college admissions counselor would ignore this.

[Anonymous]

I would approach the essay with a bit of humor….”What I learned from paying my quarterly taxes”. This allows him to discuss how he found himself in this situation, show that he understands the bigger life picture, and demonstrate that he still has the willingness to learn from others (someone had to teach/show him how to file).

[Anonymous]

Essay! Any personal statement. Links to apps etc. they will notice. Also do any interviews and on campus tours ahead of time. Have DC email dept heads an introduction with some questions about programs etc. Ask if a grad student can give a tour of dept. Congratulations to your child for pursuing an interest deeply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree with PP, I think your child has done something quite uncommon and wonderful. He's not the only high schooler creating apps and selling them, but he's part of a much smaller group than my son, loaded up on APs, as you said

He definitely needs to write about his career in his essays. Something really thoughtful about how his entrepreneurship has made him grow as a person, develop a work ethic in the real world and made him ready for college and beyond.

All applications will have the space for details about his work, but the clincher is the essay, because it's the only way for him to show how he thinks about his career. He MUST include the dollar amounts and as many factual details as he can, to make convincing and show this isn't piddling money.

If he has gotten to know one or two professionals well, perhaps they can write a letter of recommendation for him, to add to the ones from his teachers.

Ok so the essay portion will speak to this? I am concerned they will be glossed over. We've also talked to him about using some of his earnings towards a college admission counselor which are sometimes in the 5k range. We just feel the admissions process is overlooking his situation. His sats are also very good in the mid 1500s. Its just odd as 30 years a go the test scores alone would guarantee admission but it seems that things have changed especially with all the test optional things going on.

Your language suggests that it's the job of the readers to notice him: you want to "make sure colleges notice this, and he doesn't get lost in the mix." You wonder if "the essay portion will speak to this?" The short answer: it's your son's job to make his accomplishments clear to the readers of the application. If he has relevant honors, he needs to explain them. If this was his primary extracurricular, he needs to explain that. If this was a major part of his life (and explains why he wasn't doing other activities or taking harder classes), he can elaborate in the essays. It's his responsibility to make it clear to the readers, who indeed might not know that he is at the level of being able to be hired for his work.

That said, you all should remember that the colleges are looking at what he has to offer to the college. They're not interested in hiring him as an entry level developer.

This.