Do parents help set up these non profits and businesses?

[Anonymous]

Reminds me of a commercial in late 90s of a teacher talking to her class and one of the kids talks about their business that he is planning to take IPO. 'Does the product have a name?' 'We're doing market research.'

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the most part, yes. Window dressing for apps. Hopefully the AO are on to this by now.

Yes they are. I know someone who won a Byron Cameron scholarship for volunteer work, who started a nonprofit. The scholarship is for 15 students a year nationwide, and pays full tuition at any college. Another of the 15 is from Loudoun. The student I know, I was surprised to hear was not admitted to Harvard, either early or regular. Excellent application outside of the volunteer work as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These projects are nothing more than the high school version of the second grade science project. Parent conceived, directed and constructed, with a tiny bit of help from the child. Because those are the projects that win!!!

OP here. DH and I had no help from our parents. My son did Science Olympiad and some of the build events were insane. I doubt my child will ever win one of these competitions on a national level. He placed 5-10th place on several events but that is just states.

When my kid was in 4th grade, his class had to do projects on the Titanic, the Terrcotta Army, (and something else - I can't remember). My son made some sort of poster on the Titanic, but kids from his class had giant 3-D models that had been professionally built. It was ridiculous -- and clearly obvious it had not been created by the student.

I don't know a single HS kid who has a non-profit or start-up, yet I keep hearing about it like it's ubiquitous. I think it's all on paper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just reading the Linkedin profiles of a few kids from area high schools who were accepted to Ivies this cycle and several set up national level projects in 8th grade.

My 8th grader is not capable of complex web design, canvasing hundreds if not thousands of people, etc. There is zero way kids think of this on their own and then execute things.

Nothing says "Mommy did it" like a website in 2023. A kid would use TikTok or Instagram at best.

[Anonymous]

Not always a ruse. My DS started a sneaker resale biz during covid lockdown using allowance money. After about $5k, he asked for money to scale. We made him do a business plan and gave him a small boost, but that was the extent of it. He was also the youth member on an actual board of an actual large non-profit. Also on his own. Can never say those things got him into college, but he applied to only T20 schools and got into 9 of them. Would chalk it up more to looking like he took initiative to do something during covid at all.

[Anonymous]

Most people on boards go to a meeting a month and do nothing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course it's 99% parent-done. It's such a waste of resources. If a kid really wanted to help they would probably be better off working for/fundraising for an established non-profit rather than putting the effort into starting something new that will last only long enough to get accepted to college.

Op here. I hate that we have to do this. I guess it is better than letting my boys play video games all day. I will let them brainstorm and come up with a business plan.

If you want to do something stupid and crappy, just own it. Don’t hide behind “hate to” and “have to.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just reading the Linkedin profiles of a few kids from area high schools who were accepted to Ivies this cycle and several set up national level projects in 8th grade.

My 8th grader is not capable of complex web design, canvasing hundreds if not thousands of people, etc. There is zero way kids think of this on their own and then execute things.

Neither are those kids.

[Anonymous]

Our counselor said that AOs can see thru this very easily during an interview. Unless the student can speak about the NP with authenticity and genuine enthusiasm (which is harder to fake than you’d think) they know it’s a parent driven thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not always a ruse. My DS started a sneaker resale biz during covid lockdown using allowance money. After about $5k, he asked for money to scale. We made him do a business plan and gave him a small boost, but that was the extent of it. He was also the youth member on an actual board of an actual large non-profit. Also on his own. Can never say those things got him into college, but he applied to only T20 schools and got into 9 of them. Would chalk it up more to looking like he took initiative to do something during covid at all.

Exactly. I bet your son was able to talk with great authenticity about the project, the problems he encountered, his goals etc. You can’t fake this as much as we all would love to try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kindergartener has a nonprofit with a pretty good online advertising team.

Hoping to direct admit to HBS after 2nd grade

My sixth grader is a board member of three of his peers’ non profits.

for real? This makes me throw up a little in my mouth, and I never use that expression.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our counselor said that AOs can see thru this very easily during an interview. Unless the student can speak about the NP with authenticity and genuine enthusiasm (which is harder to fake than you’d think) they know it’s a parent driven thing.

I don't doubt that AOs can see thru it necessarily, but hw frequent are those interviews? And even small Ivy Leagues schools aren't doing alum interviews that matter- it wouldn't be like a job interview in which the AO tells the interviewer to look for ABC at least in my experience

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not always a ruse. My DS started a sneaker resale biz during covid lockdown using allowance money. After about $5k, he asked for money to scale. We made him do a business plan and gave him a small boost, but that was the extent of it. He was also the youth member on an actual board of an actual large non-profit. Also on his own. Can never say those things got him into college, but he applied to only T20 schools and got into 9 of them. Would chalk it up more to looking like he took initiative to do something during covid at all.

Not sure what you mean by actual - as if it’s impressive? Lots of places intended for adults have a token spot for a youth member.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, most of the time high schoolers are not establishing non-profits or getting fancy internships without a lot of parental help. I hope that most AOs have figured that out, but who knows. The best advice we got was to have our DCs participate in ECs that are authentic to them because it makes high school more enjoyable and when it's time to apply for college, there's a consistent and believable story to tell. Oldest DD (an unhooked student who had great grades/test scores/recommendations, but didn't have any ECs beyond varsity sports and other school engagement) just finished sophomore year at an ivy. Younger sibling (graduating this year) had the same, but did have a very unique summer project that fit her interests and showed a lot of initiative. She is headed to HYP this fall. High school should be it's own experience. Not everything needs to be done with an eye towards college admissions.

You are leaving something out or you're a troll. Donated a building? Legacy? Something. Your normal and average kid did not get accepted to HYP without a hook.

Full pay?

Actually, that was my kids’ experience post Covid too. No weird extracurriculars, just excellent scores, grades and run of the mill extracurricular leadership experiences. Not undermining what they did, just saying it’s the same stuff that got kids in a million years ago. BUT, while they did get into a couple Ivy League schools each, the rest of the Ivy League rejected them. My point is that it’s a crapshoot, even for top students, frankly even for top, full-pay, non-profit -founding students. Let them have an experience that includes involvement, any kind of consistent involvement, in the stuff that interests them, whether that’s sports, volunteer work, working on the yearbook, etc. In my family’s case, my kids were not legacy/athletes/donors/URM, but they were full pay. I agree that the trips to Africa and founding nonprofits approach is over-used and contrived and could even undermine their other, more authentic involvement because their app feels too orchestrated.

[Anonymous]

A few of these nonprofit kids are getting into top schools but now the AOs have seen too many of them. They know it is BS and you are seeing more rejections because the AOs think the rest of the app is fake too. Be careful.