Early start: How do I prep my child 4 college admissions re: extracurricular projects, initiatives,
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Anonymous
Lol... On travel for work but stay tuned and I will share tonite when I'm back at a keyboard! |
Anonymous
It is not as dire as has been advertised. It is competitive, but not as dire. My DC is a freshman in college and by and large the ones we thought would go to the likes of W&M and UVA did and the rest (who stayed n state)are interspersed between the various in state colleges. We are in McLean HS so I have those stats from last year (2015) - remember the GPA is weighted and is after senrio year (students tend to get a boost senior year). The GPA and SAT scores are at the 50th percentile for those who were accepted. The class was just under 500 students. Applied/Accepted/Attended. Weighted GPA and SAT (1600) UVA. 134/50/31 4.20. 1417 W&M. 94/47/18. 4.12. 1420 Virginia Tech. 160/101/40. 3.99. 1351 JMU. 147/107/29. 3.78. 1279 George Mason 152/115/29. 3.64. `1260 CNU 56/38/9. 3.57 1226 Mary Washington 56/52/7. 3.54 1226 VCU. 113/98/24. 3.45. 1208 JMU. 147/107/29. 3.78 1279 |
Anonymous
Uh, no. My DS is a senior at a regular NoVA high school (not TJ), where he takes a combination of regular, honors, and AP classes. He takes no advanced math or science classes. His ACT score is 30, uw GPA about 3.7. He's been accepted at several small liberal arts schools (top 50), where he has been offered enough merit aid to bring the cost below what UVA or W&M would cost us. His activities are: volunteering 2 afternoons a week at the same organization for 4 years (doing something that is really meaningful to him), high school student council, and a club sport that practices 1x per week, plus 1 weekend game. Starting senior year, he has a part-time job at a fast food restaurant, 5-10 hours/week, and so has cut his volunteering to one day/week. He took a foreign language for 6 years in school, no outside enrichment classes in anything. |
Anonymous
We moved to Iowa at the end of DC's freshman year. He attended one of the DCUM approved "big" schools. He struggled a bit academically (well, a lot) freshman year so his grades were rather poor. His small private HS in Iowa was much easier, he managed to pull almost straight A's for the last 3 years. He really wasn't a sporty kid but he is a big kid. He decided to play football as a way to make friends. He took to football like a fish to water. For the next 3 years he played both sides of the ball. Apparently, huge kids are hard to find and huge kids that can play both sides of the ball on the line with good grades and a decent ACT score are even harder to find in the world of D3 football. So when college time rolled around, he was pursued by several D3 coaches (yes, I know D3 does not carry academic scholarships, but they do recruit). DS was clear that he wanted a SLAC, he sorted through various admission with merit aid offers from several top SLACs. He finally chose Carleton because he loves the twin cities, he could be within a couple of hours from home and it's a great school. Carleton does not offer merit aid, but they were able to make the total out of pocket cost work. Oddly enough, 4 boys that he hung around with at his DC school were all turned down by Carleton. Had we stayed in DC, he would be another face in the crowd... a kid with decent grades from a world class HS with EC's, leadership and AP's out the wazoo. But his school was so small the sports were no-cut so after football he wrestled, his friends played baseball so he joined the team. No one wanted to go to HOBY so he told the guidance counselor that he would. He literally got a chance to do EVERYTHING because his school was small, everyone in his class wanted to to to Iowa or Iowa State, and they were practically guaranteed admission, so the other kids didn't really put any effort into EC's, leadership or even prep for the ACT. At the end of the day his profile was a well-rounded kid from a no-name HS in the middle of nowhere, who was good at playing a hard to find position on the football team who also took advantage of every chance he had for advanced coursework, lettered in 3 varsity sports, academic decathlon, volunteered, chaired the tech team, went to HOBY, pulled good grades for 10th, 11th and 12th and an ACT of 30. He interviewed like a boss and had a great essay. It sounds like he was crammed into a hectic schedule but he wasn't. Moving to Iowa and playing football was the deciding factor in him getting into several great colleges that have NEVER taken a kid from his HS. |
Anonymous
totally OT I know, but my son would totally love a D&D-ish games camp- do you happen to remember what it was called or where in Arlington it was located? |
). The other was helping out an organizations backpack and school supply campaign. Apart from orchestra, he had no other participation in sports or other school related activity. He did not save the world or cure cancer.
Anonymous
Go Knights! |
Anonymous
It is called Kidrealm and it is in one of the elementary schools. It switched elementary schools when DC was there because the schools were under construction, so I don't know where it is now. https://www.kidrealm.com/ Here is the website. |
Anonymous
Congrats to him. Unfortunately, moving to Iowa is not for everyone. I grew up in rural White-landia and have no desire to return. Although looking at National Merit cut scores did make me contemplate West Virginia for a millisecond. |
Anonymous
Let me rephrase this for OP. OP, what colleges are lookinig for is not a list of "brags" but a list of "brags that show focus". You need to demonstrate that your child has had a long-standing (several years - you have to provide the no of years for each activity on the common app.) interest in a specific area or level of accomplishment with an instrument or language. They do not want to see 10 ECs that have no connection with one-another and were all taken up in the last year of high school. I absolutely hate the word now (just finished the College application mess) but when schools say they want to see "passion" they are saying they want to see a mature person who has excelled at a special interest to the degree that the college admissions officers can envision your student on their campus taking part in certain activities, clubs, orchestra or academics. They want to see great grades, test scores and ECs that all come together to present a student who has unique interests and has excelled in those exploring those interests to the max. they can in high school. I can't mention my DD's "passion" because it's so unique it would out her, but I can relate a story I read about a "B" student who allegedly got into Harvard because he had taken it upon his own to become a trained EMT with the local fire department - and had focused on prep for a pre-med experience in college. That's the sort of "passion" (ugh) they are searching for in those 35,000 applications. Somehow you have to start prepping your child early in a true interest (can't fake it) and take it to the max. so their application pops out at the committee. |
Anonymous
Husband went there. Northfield = "Land of cows, colleges and contentment". He hated it (cold cold cold) but admittedly didn't try to take advantage of what the area offered except for cow tipping. |
Anonymous
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Good grief this is a ridiculous thread. OP i feel sorry for your kid, that you are so hung up on this NOW!
Come on let your kid be a kid and this experience be about THEM and what THEY want to do, THEIR INTERESTS not some carefully charted calculated grand master plan. There are no shortcuts or hidden secrets. My SIL was a very well regard and well known admissions head at an Ivy for years..her stories over the years have entertained us. Bottom line they see the parents like you who planned all this out coming from miles away....back off is my best advice. |
Anonymous
I'm the "I want to hear the rest of this story!" PP. Congrats to your son on shining so brightly at his new school (an at Carleton, I bet)! What does he want to do post-grad? Also, why did you decide on Iowa -- was it for family/work or for his college admissions prospects? |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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I have a preteen who spends 99% of his time training for his unpopular sport (in which he is nationally ranked) and a high schooler who spends every summer at every medical and hospital program he can find because he wants to be a doctor.
How do colleges view kids that are passionate and dedicated, but only to one thing? |
Anonymous
They love it. |