But only has C1 level in one language - Spanish. |
| Also noticing that the kids hid they wanted to do premed, and another commenter said they did the same - pretended to be all about linguistics while gunning for premed instead. |
|
Kid needs to:
- start multi-lingual club at school asap - apply to some nationally recognized linguistics all-star programs (some mentioned above), including Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange and NSLI-Y (virtual) - do language tutoring for immigrants or refugees |
That’s pretty common though |
But kid did a ton with it. Compelling applicant. |
Right. However, not exactly evidence that "trilingual fluency is very common". |
How common are these types of ECs (from the reddit link)? |
Sorry meant to paste. ECs ELL (English language learning) director at immigration org in my city. Ran the ELL department, tutored ELL students of all ages, looked over volunteers and students each week. There is a lot I did with this and this was a major part of my four years in high school. Students and later class representative as part of Spain's Ministry of Education International Immersion program. Spanish language and culture classes run by Spanish diplomats, as well as some fun cultural immersion activities (like presenting on a Spanish news channel + meeting some big figures in Spain's government!). I graduated from the program the summer of my junior year. Linguistics club president! Member sophomore and junior year and then ran it senior year. Super fun club to geek out about languages
NSLI-Y virtual Turkish program. Somewhat selective US State Department program to learn critical languages for US foreign policy. I recommend this a million times over to anyone who loves foreign languages - 10 week course and I even got some Turkish sweets sent in the mail. Part-time job at tutoring company. Pretty standard high school job that I held for most of junior and senior year. English teacher at a sleep-away camp in Spain! Two week camp where I was one of the camp counselors in charge of the English learning activities. A lot of fun but definitely a test to how easily I can handle loud 5-11 year olds for hours at a time... Native American language revitalization project! I was an intern at a Native American org and worked on documentation research for Apache and Lakota language families and even helped compile a children’s book in Lakota! GeoBee organizer for my town's middle school. Covid led NatGeo to shut down their GeoBee which was a huge bummer because I loved that so much growing up, so a few friends and I decided to set up the geo bee at our school again and as a geography lover it was a lot of fun Warehouse associate! I worked as a warehouse associate over the summer after my junior year which was definitely interesting and I learned a lot about packaging/deliveries/returns/shipping. Varsity track and field. I ran track in the summer and did sprinting and jumping events. I wasn't too crazy at it but I decided at the last minute to cram it on this list! Awards: Congratulatory citation from my state's Congress. Signed by governor + a few state reps and it was awarded due to my first place selection in an essay contest that led to a 3k donation to org in EC#1 on my behalf! Certificate of completion of course in EC#2 along with a CEFR C1 distinction in Spanish (awarded due to same course) Volunteer award from town volunteer foundation for work with EC#1 org. One youth recipient per year. Seal of biliteracy in Spanish + French as well as NSLIY certificate of completion for Turkish course. English department award + book award (both from school) |
| This doesn't impress me so much, honestly. It is infinitely harder to win a major piano or violin competition or to make it to the finals for any academic olympiad team. |
Where in Europe? Only people that are barely fluent in one are: British. My point is growing up multi-lingual does not require effort. If you did not grow-up multi-lingual then you are speaking out of ignorance. If you did not grow up multi-lingual then speaking 5 languages seems out of reach. Read the Op: One parent speaks Spanish and the other speaks French; With your logic all international students should be smarter than most American students because they are fluent in multiple languages. |
I am from Eastern Europe - a place someone mentioned previous as a hotbed for multilingualism. Laughable. Maybe one in a 500 is at C2 level for one foreign language (English). "One parent speaks Spanish, other French" - means next to nothing re: languages their children will speak. Even if their kids attend weekend school regularly they will barely crack A1. Those kids can't take college level classes in Spanish or French. It requires a tremendous effort to get them to that level. Not sure what do you mean by "international students being smarter" but certainly you will agree that getting accepted to a top school while speaking a foreign language, scoring 1600 on SAT etc, is more impressive coming from a student who is not a native speaker of English? |
Clearly the colleges were impressed though, given these were his results. Linguistics is the way to go. I've gone down the reddit rabbit hole (r/collegeresults "linguistics) and its fascinating. Acceptances: Yale (Defer REA --> Accepted!) Princeton Brown Johns Hopkins (Hodson Trust Scholarship 55k/yr!!) —> Committed!! Duke WashU (Ervin full tuition scholarship!!) Emory (accepted to Atlanta, Woodruff full ride scholarship through Oxford campus!!) Rice (Trustee Scholarship 20k/yr!) Case Western Reserve University (Nord Scholar + 45.5k/yr scholarship!!) Williams Amherst University of Rochester (25k/yr!) Trinity (Global Health Gateway, research scholarship) William&Mary (Monroe research scholar) Duke Kunshan (in China, half tuition scholarship!) Boston College Fordham (full tuition Fordham University scholarship!) Waitlists: Vanderbilt (didn't accept spot); Northeastern (no) Rejections: Harvard |
I completely disagree. It is VERY hard to be multilingual unless you grow up in a country where several languages are actually routinely spoken and written. Even with an ESL parent, it is hard to be bilingual. Most Hispanic kids at our school cannot write Spanish well and do not get a 5 on the AP exam. I fully agree with the actual immigrant here, as an immigrant myself. True fluency is hard and impressive. |
Spanish lang is an easy 5 for any ESL student, at least down here in Texas. The Spanish literature exam is a different story but it’s the most rigorous Ap humanities exam |
The list of acceptances is impressive but the ECs not that much. I am wondering if this is the full story. |