10th grader with no interesting ECs, top grades and scores

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCUM tends to overestimate the types of ECs necessary for top college admission. Activities are not awards.

It's not about what the ECs are. It's about what you put into it - initiative taken - and what you get out of it - self-development.

OP, junior year is prime time for ECs. Let your kid follow their interests. Insist that they do something. If all else fails, get a summer job.

College coach here. Disagree about the timing. It's good to have a few activities with deeper roots. Everyone panics junior year and picks up activities. AOs notice. There are some ECs that have age restrictions that make sense to start junior year, but OP's kid should explore others now. Dabble in different activities. Also, explain situation bluntly to kid and let him decide he wants to be motivated. UMD is a great school. He will need to keep those grades and test scores to get in though.

[Anonymous]

I spelled it out for my kid junior year that his ECs were weak. He just didn’t want to change. He got into one top 25 with a lot of rejections and waitlists. It would have been fine if he’d gone to the targets and safety.

At the end it’s their college experience and life lesson. Let it go.

He may be upset to see less “academically smart” kids get into better schools thanks to ECs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I spelled it out for my kid junior year that his ECs were weak. He just didn’t want to change. He got into one top 25 with a lot of rejections and waitlists. It would have been fine if he’d gone to the targets and safety.

At the end it’s their college experience and life lesson. Let it go.

He may be upset to see less “academically smart” kids get into better schools thanks to ECs.

Agree. Let your kid know the reality of holistic admissions and then let them choose. Let them know that whatever they end up doing or not doing, they may need to be prepared to discuss it an an interview or in an essay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is a 10th grader at a suburban public. He is in all AP and Honors courses and a straight-A student. Just got back from PSAT and was in the 98th percentile without prep. He is a smart kid but seems to have no interests or EC that will make a different. He is on the golf team, and that's all he really does at school, and he isn't a great golfer/won't be recruited. I am trying to figure out how to make him interested in college apps and start to develop a passion or interest in general. Summer after 9th grade he did nothing. He wants to go to a place like MIT or an ivy, and that just won't happen even with good ECs of which he has none. I mentioned this to my friend who works at a top DC private and she bluntly said, well he will get into a school like UMD or BC/BU if he is lucky. I was taken aback as this is a kid who is at the top of his grade and views himself as "better than" a school like UMD or a 40/50 school like BC or BU. He won't be hooked for admissions anywhere, aside from us being full pay which I know is not a hook but she said it can make a difference at some SLAC. What do I do??????????

He is not ivy level, nor MIT or any top 10. The unhooked kids at those schools are naturally 99th percentile on standardized tests their whole lives , without prep. A large portion are 99.7-99.9. Thats why that person is telling you not possible or atleast highly unlikely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is a 10th grader at a suburban public. He is in all AP and Honors courses and a straight-A student. Just got back from PSAT and was in the 98th percentile without prep. He is a smart kid but seems to have no interests or EC that will make a different. He is on the golf team, and that's all he really does at school, and he isn't a great golfer/won't be recruited. I am trying to figure out how to make him interested in college apps and start to develop a passion or interest in general. Summer after 9th grade he did nothing. He wants to go to a place like MIT or an ivy, and that just won't happen even with good ECs of which he has none. I mentioned this to my friend who works at a top DC private and she bluntly said, well he will get into a school like UMD or BC/BU if he is lucky. I was taken aback as this is a kid who is at the top of his grade and views himself as "better than" a school like UMD or a 40/50 school like BC or BU. He won't be hooked for admissions anywhere, aside from us being full pay which I know is not a hook but she said it can make a difference at some SLAC. What do I do??????????

He is not ivy level, nor MIT or any top 10. The unhooked kids at those schools are naturally 99th percentile on standardized tests their whole lives , without prep. A large portion are 99.7-99.9. Thats why that person is telling you not possible or atleast highly unlikely.

Not sure about that. Some of those high scoring kids have had SAT prep since middle school or even elementary school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:gap year for an interesting EC

A significant percentage of kids get messed up by taking a gap year. There needs to be both a solid reason and a passion for taking a gap year in order to get a boost in college admissions beyond being a bit more mature.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is a 10th grader at a suburban public. He is in all AP and Honors courses and a straight-A student. Just got back from PSAT and was in the 98th percentile without prep. He is a smart kid but seems to have no interests or EC that will make a different. He is on the golf team, and that's all he really does at school, and he isn't a great golfer/won't be recruited. I am trying to figure out how to make him interested in college apps and start to develop a passion or interest in general. Summer after 9th grade he did nothing. He wants to go to a place like MIT or an ivy, and that just won't happen even with good ECs of which he has none. I mentioned this to my friend who works at a top DC private and she bluntly said, well he will get into a school like UMD or BC/BU if he is lucky. I was taken aback as this is a kid who is at the top of his grade and views himself as "better than" a school like UMD or a 40/50 school like BC or BU. He won't be hooked for admissions anywhere, aside from us being full pay which I know is not a hook but she said it can make a difference at some SLAC. What do I do??????????

He is not ivy level, nor MIT or any top 10. The unhooked kids at those schools are naturally 99th percentile on standardized tests their whole lives , without prep. A large portion are 99.7-99.9. Thats why that person is telling you not possible or atleast highly unlikely.

Not sure about that. Some of those high scoring kids have had SAT prep since middle school or even elementary school!

Most have not. Mine are all 99th %ile and so were their friends from the high school who ended up at ivies and T10. These kids all discussed SAT and psat. None had any significant prep because they were already high scorers. There were several other high scorers who took the hard classes and who were still shut out of t20. The kids who prepped were the ones who were chasing the top kids, usually ones who got around 1300 on the 10th grade psat. These kids were the same ones who had tutors in middle school just to barely stay in math trVk that did BC in 11th and Multi and Modeling in 12th. Almost 25% of the graduating class was 98-99%ile. The school released all of this data on CTP/ERB testing throughout the years. The school placed into the top math group and top reading/latin group based on these tests in 4th grade. The superstars stayed the superstars for the most part, and the next group who got added to the top math later were the ones with the middle school tutors. Only the hooked ones in that group ended up at ivies/stanford/etc.
The Psat is easy for any true 99th percentile kid: no prep needed especially for math and for one who has any shot at MIT or stem at a t10. OP is quite borderline. Even if they got in, they would be in the bottom 1/4 on all the curves. That is a self esteem destroyer, to mostly B and C in college. Ivies grade inflate but bottom 1/4 is still B- and Cs in stem. It is B+ in humanities and athlete-easy classes but these are joke and employers and grad schools expect A’s in those. They expect more A than B in stem, as do med schools, in other words at least top half in ivy stem.
OP needs to aim for BC or Wake or the like for stem, or RPI or RIT for engineering.

[Anonymous]

Send him to Canada or UK schools where stats matter and ECs less so.

[Anonymous]

First off, dispel the myth that he is "better than" any school, whether it's UMD or Montgomery College.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First off, dispel the myth that he is "better than" any school, whether it's UMD or Montgomery College.

+1. Parents can (usually unintentionally) play an unfortunately role in getting their kids to think they’re “better” than any school. So important that you respond positively when various colleges are mentioned around your kid over the next couple years. It will make for a happier admissions process. 99%-ile kids can find their academic peer group at many, many colleges, not just the T-50’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is a 10th grader at a suburban public. He is in all AP and Honors courses and a straight-A student. Just got back from PSAT and was in the 98th percentile without prep. He is a smart kid but seems to have no interests or EC that will make a different. He is on the golf team, and that's all he really does at school, and he isn't a great golfer/won't be recruited. I am trying to figure out how to make him interested in college apps and start to develop a passion or interest in general. Summer after 9th grade he did nothing. He wants to go to a place like MIT or an ivy, and that just won't happen even with good ECs of which he has none. I mentioned this to my friend who works at a top DC private and she bluntly said, well he will get into a school like UMD or BC/BU if he is lucky. I was taken aback as this is a kid who is at the top of his grade and views himself as "better than" a school like UMD or a 40/50 school like BC or BU. He won't be hooked for admissions anywhere, aside from us being full pay which I know is not a hook but she said it can make a difference at some SLAC. What do I do??????????

uh thats not a top score. your friend is telling you the truth. ECs will not make him likely to get ivy either. He should do ECs he cares about and should find a way to make an impact so he has a good chance at T25-40 schools, but he is not on a solid track for T10. Don't believe me? wait until he takes BC calc, AP Chem, APPhysicsC...he will start to struggle. MIT-level kids ace them easily, with 5s, have straight As in all subjects and 1570+ (99.8%) and yet still most of that group are rejected from MIT and "settle" for ivy/Hopkins CMU type schools. These kids know each other from competitions or competitive governors schools or other summer programs for highly gifted. That is the typical ivy stem kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is a 10th grader at a suburban public. He is in all AP and Honors courses and a straight-A student. Just got back from PSAT and was in the 98th percentile without prep. He is a smart kid but seems to have no interests or EC that will make a different. He is on the golf team, and that's all he really does at school, and he isn't a great golfer/won't be recruited. I am trying to figure out how to make him interested in college apps and start to develop a passion or interest in general. Summer after 9th grade he did nothing. He wants to go to a place like MIT or an ivy, and that just won't happen even with good ECs of which he has none. I mentioned this to my friend who works at a top DC private and she bluntly said, well he will get into a school like UMD or BC/BU if he is lucky. I was taken aback as this is a kid who is at the top of his grade and views himself as "better than" a school like UMD or a 40/50 school like BC or BU. He won't be hooked for admissions anywhere, aside from us being full pay which I know is not a hook but she said it can make a difference at some SLAC. What do I do??????????

He is not ivy level, nor MIT or any top 10. The unhooked kids at those schools are naturally 99th percentile on standardized tests their whole lives , without prep. A large portion are 99.7-99.9. Thats why that person is telling you not possible or atleast highly unlikely.

Not sure about that. Some of those high scoring kids have had SAT prep since middle school or even elementary school!

Most have not. Mine are all 99th %ile and so were their friends from the high school who ended up at ivies and T10. These kids all discussed SAT and psat. None had any significant prep because they were already high scorers. There were several other high scorers who took the hard classes and who were still shut out of t20. The kids who prepped were the ones who were chasing the top kids, usually ones who got around 1300 on the 10th grade psat. These kids were the same ones who had tutors in middle school just to barely stay in math trVk that did BC in 11th and Multi and Modeling in 12th. Almost 25% of the graduating class was 98-99%ile. The school released all of this data on CTP/ERB testing throughout the years. The school placed into the top math group and top reading/latin group based on these tests in 4th grade. The superstars stayed the superstars for the most part, and the next group who got added to the top math later were the ones with the middle school tutors. Only the hooked ones in that group ended up at ivies/stanford/etc.
The Psat is easy for any true 99th percentile kid: no prep needed especially for math and for one who has any shot at MIT or stem at a t10. OP is quite borderline. Even if they got in, they would be in the bottom 1/4 on all the curves. That is a self esteem destroyer, to mostly B and C in college. Ivies grade inflate but bottom 1/4 is still B- and Cs in stem. It is B+ in humanities and athlete-easy classes but these are joke and employers and grad schools expect A’s in those. They expect more A than B in stem, as do med schools, in other words at least top half in ivy stem.
OP needs to aim for BC or Wake or the like for stem, or RPI or RIT for engineering.

The top kids are working hard to get straight As, get 5s on multiple AP tests, doing all these extra curricular to boost their resume. And then they skip studying for the SAT? Really?

[Anonymous]

Thanks all for the advice. I do not think he will get into mit or the Ivy League schools. I am discouraging him from thinking with that mindset. With prep, I think it’s reasonable he will have over 1500 sat. He is a great test take and on track for 12 APs, he has 2 5s from 9th grade already. He is smart. He would be fine at a top school, at least academically, but I know he won’t get in since he isn’t special. I want to ensure he can at least get into a school like BC or BU at minimum. Thanks for all the suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Send him to Canada or UK schools where stats matter and ECs less so.

This basically. My kid has got into all the UK schools they applied to this year. The ECs they mentioned in their application were all relevant to the subject major they were applying for. This means that years of language study taken in MCPS (Chinese, Arabic, Italian & French) were never even mentioned. The fact they are now first cello in the school orchestra after years of independent study - again never even mentioned. The SSL hours were not listed (over 250) but some of the SSL activities, again only if related to major, were.

You can be the most EC'd up to the eyeballs kid and in Canada and the UK (and the rest of Europe) they do not GAF.

Lean into the academic excellence of your kid - send them to Edinburgh or Cambridge, or McGill or UBC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is a 10th grader at a suburban public. He is in all AP and Honors courses and a straight-A student. Just got back from PSAT and was in the 98th percentile without prep. He is a smart kid but seems to have no interests or EC that will make a different. He is on the golf team, and that's all he really does at school, and he isn't a great golfer/won't be recruited. I am trying to figure out how to make him interested in college apps and start to develop a passion or interest in general. Summer after 9th grade he did nothing. He wants to go to a place like MIT or an ivy, and that just won't happen even with good ECs of which he has none. I mentioned this to my friend who works at a top DC private and she bluntly said, well he will get into a school like UMD or BC/BU if he is lucky. I was taken aback as this is a kid who is at the top of his grade and views himself as "better than" a school like UMD or a 40/50 school like BC or BU. He won't be hooked for admissions anywhere, aside from us being full pay which I know is not a hook but she said it can make a difference at some SLAC. What do I do??????????

He is not ivy level, nor MIT or any top 10. The unhooked kids at those schools are naturally 99th percentile on standardized tests their whole lives , without prep. A large portion are 99.7-99.9. Thats why that person is telling you not possible or atleast highly unlikely.

Not sure about that. Some of those high scoring kids have had SAT prep since middle school or even elementary school!

Most have not. Mine are all 99th %ile and so were their friends from the high school who ended up at ivies and T10. These kids all discussed SAT and psat. None had any significant prep because they were already high scorers. There were several other high scorers who took the hard classes and who were still shut out of t20. The kids who prepped were the ones who were chasing the top kids, usually ones who got around 1300 on the 10th grade psat. These kids were the same ones who had tutors in middle school just to barely stay in math trVk that did BC in 11th and Multi and Modeling in 12th. Almost 25% of the graduating class was 98-99%ile. The school released all of this data on CTP/ERB testing throughout the years. The school placed into the top math group and top reading/latin group based on these tests in 4th grade. The superstars stayed the superstars for the most part, and the next group who got added to the top math later were the ones with the middle school tutors. Only the hooked ones in that group ended up at ivies/stanford/etc.
The Psat is easy for any true 99th percentile kid: no prep needed especially for math and for one who has any shot at MIT or stem at a t10. OP is quite borderline. Even if they got in, they would be in the bottom 1/4 on all the curves. That is a self esteem destroyer, to mostly B and C in college. Ivies grade inflate but bottom 1/4 is still B- and Cs in stem. It is B+ in humanities and athlete-easy classes but these are joke and employers and grad schools expect A’s in those. They expect more A than B in stem, as do med schools, in other words at least top half in ivy stem.
OP needs to aim for BC or Wake or the like for stem, or RPI or RIT for engineering.

DP. Prep can come in the form of acceleration and enrichment from an early age. Not just specialized prep. But, of course you'd like to think that your highly enriched kid is just naturally brilliant.