Do smart kids without extracurriculars get into top schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, this kid seems refreshing for not getting caught up in the BS activities around them. Except for a few, most kids are doing activities for college so kids who like writing and art who are not caught up in the rat race may end up being happier. So many useless non- profits are shut down as soon as the kid gets into college.

Except there are plenty of kids who have developed portfolios, submitted for competititons, have had their work displayed or read somewhere, for poets, had a reading, etc.

So sure, she can make the claim, but there are thousands of other applicants who will have some way of accounting for it.

There is no way these kids who are in multiple activities as captains, presidents, etc. are actually doing much of anything along with a rigorous course load and lots of AP. They show up, do the minimum and that's it. (said as a mom of an overloaded kid)

Speak for yourself. Lots of kids (mine included) do far more than the minimum in their activities. Of course, not everything is top priority all the time, but mine definitely don't phone in tge minimum-- how can you even do that as captain?

My impression of the "captains" on my kid's team last year was that they didn't really do anything beyond "be on the team" and "be a popular upperclassman". Didn't hear about them doing anything outside of regular practice and games. What do your kids do as captains that's beyond the minimum?

I'm not being snarky, I'm genuinely curious.

Pretty much. My kid's HS team had 10 captains. Was a sport with like 40 kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These things that are mentioned are stupid unless you are a studying to be a politician or volunteer company they are worthless for future employers. We really need to make it all skills based from gpa, courses and sat/act.

+3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Almost daily:
Get on the group text and hype teammates up for game/practice. Relay messages from the coach to the team.

Game days: talk to the school about morning announcements to get someone to announce the game and get fellow students to attend. Organize pregame warmups. Put something on the team instagram (a Game Day post.)

Post game: Also post to Instagram (results, individual goals, photos.

[/b]End of season: organize a card and gift for the coaches. [b]

It's not a lot, but it's not nothing.

The parents do the last one at our school. Basically the captains are there for the coin toss at the start of the game. They are supposed to set the tone for the team—by their own behavior.

[Anonymous]

OP doesn't say which year in high school the girl is currently in. If junior or lower, she might get in if she's very talented. Colleges often have specific requirements for portfolio submissions. Review them and submit Enter some of her work in the Scholastic competition. Take some of her work to a National Portfolio Review day.

If her work isn't outstanding, she's not getting into a top college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friend has a daughter who has always been smart and gifted. Family never pushes her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. She has no extracurricular activities besides enjoying writing and drawing. I don’t think she has any competitions or awards. Both parents attended public state schools.

Can a girl like this get into any top schools? UVA?

No for top schools in general -- except with extreme luck. Or URM status.

[Anonymous]

Parents often confuse the college application process for box checking. Just because another kid does activities X, Y and Z gets into a school, does not mean that your kid needs to do those same or similar activities. If a kid is taking rigorous classes, doing well, and gets recommendations from teachers/counselors that the student is among of the best in the school, that kid is going to do well in admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^ sorry, that was in response to this:

"My impression of the "captains" on my kid's team last year was that they didn't really do anything beyond "be on the team" and "be a popular upperclassman". Didn't hear about them doing anything outside of regular practice and games. What do your kids do as captains that's beyond the minimum?

I'm not being snarky, I'm genuinely curious."

The captain for a team at our high school organizes a summer camp which raises thousands of dollars for the program. Including things like determining activities to keep 50 kids engaged. Designing drills, organizing the other athletes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friend has a daughter who has always been smart and gifted. Family never pushes her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. She has no extracurricular activities besides enjoying writing and drawing. I don’t think she has any competitions or awards. Both parents attended public state schools.

Can a girl like this get into any top schools? UVA?

I'll go against the grain and guess that she may well get into some top schools. OP, please update if you hear anything when college results become available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, this kid seems refreshing for not getting caught up in the BS activities around them. Except for a few, most kids are doing activities for college so kids who like writing and art who are not caught up in the rat race may end up being happier. So many useless non- profits are shut down as soon as the kid gets into college.

Except there are plenty of kids who have developed portfolios, submitted for competititons, have had their work displayed or read somewhere, for poets, had a reading, etc.

So sure, she can make the claim, but there are thousands of other applicants who will have some way of accounting for it.

There is no way these kids who are in multiple activities as captains, presidents, etc. are actually doing much of anything along with a rigorous course load and lots of AP. They show up, do the minimum and that's it. (said as a mom of an overloaded kid)

Speak for yourself. Lots of kids (mine included) do far more than the minimum in their activities. Of course, not everything is top priority all the time, but mine definitely don't phone in tge minimum-- how can you even do that as captain?

My impression of the "captains" on my kid's team last year was that they didn't really do anything beyond "be on the team" and "be a popular upperclassman". Didn't hear about them doing anything outside of regular practice and games. What do your kids do as captains that's beyond the minimum?

I'm not being snarky, I'm genuinely curious.

My capt did a lot of organizing, team texts, choreography, running practice, other team activities. It was a big job. Only 3 captains.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If this is a high stats kid, isn't she the definition of "spiky"? the kid who is focused on one thing?

No. At this tier of school, everyone has high stats. Specialized magnet or DE classes coukd be somewhat helpful, but many applicants have these. The kid will want more tangible ways to demonstrate a spike -- awards, portfolio.

There are plenty of great schools for which high stats alone recommend a student. But, for top tier schools, high stats are kind of the base, since so many applicants have them.

+1
your kid would be out of place at most Top tiered schools if they didn't have a few ECs they were actively involved in. THat's just the nature of what those schools are looking for---they want people who are involved in more than just academics.

My kid is at a T40 school, my kid's ECs were basically one activity very intensely and volunteered to teach at that activity and Band (they wont be continuing band at college). Majority of their friends at college are really active in 4-5+ different activities, and by active I mean hands on, really involved, leadership in at least 2+ of them. These kids are go-getters....and it's helping my kid come out of their shell and do More differing activities. But these kids are the "T20" rejects---every single one of them was WL at at least 2 T25 schools, along with my own kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend has a daughter who has always been smart and gifted. Family never pushes her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. She has no extracurricular activities besides enjoying writing and drawing. I don’t think she has any competitions or awards. Both parents attended public state schools.

Can a girl like this get into any top schools? UVA?

Probably not a T10, but a very good school, certainly. IMO, the brightest kids resist behaving like trained monkeys and follow their own paths, so they do not always jump through the right hoops and get into top schools. One of my friends decided her unfortunate child, who was then about 8, was going to go to a top school. She consulted one of those admissions corporations, and they came up with a plan for this poor child. She did exactly what she was told for years but didn't enjoy any of it. She played two sports, became a Gold Star Scout, and engaged in student council. Hated all of it, but plodded along as programmed. She was bright but not exceptionally so and is rather unimaginative. Her "natural" ACT result was about 30, which caused much alarm. The poor child was dragged off for hours and hours of SAT/ACT coaching and, after several attempts at taking the test, managed to raise her ACT to 35. A lot of money and a miserable childhood got her into a top school, and she actually did reasonably well there (she graduated cum laude).

Your friend's family is doing the right thing. They're letting their daughter enjoy her youth and develop her own interests. She can get a wonderful education at a relatively unacclaimed school, especially if she joins an honors program. Perhaps she should look at "good but not great" LACs, where she will get lots of individual attention. I don't know her stats, but UVA may be within reach.

+1

I agree, let her enjoy HS and pick her path. But IMO kids in MS/HS should have some activities outside of just academics and should have some volunteering. Not for college applications, but because it's a good thing to make you more well rounded. In Preschool/ES, we had our kids involved in 1 sport/athletic area and 1 art/music type activity. The kids could help select, but they needed to have at least 1 in each area. Why---because it is good for overall development. Oh and by ES we decided they would also do karate, just because we found an amazing dojo where the intent is to develop character, community and self discipline. Karate was allowed to be the "sport" if they wanted. But it was a required activity. Now we don't do church/religious activities/ethnic activities/etc. So our kids had 1 sport, karate, and 1 Artsy activity to develop them into well rounded individuals. 2 of the kids ended up getting their black belts and it really shaped who they are (in a good way). All 3 kept up with at least 1 sport thru HS, and all 3 played an instrument in the Band thru HS.


By HS, if all they want is academics, then get them involved with tutoring in the community. But IMO a kid needs something else to engage themselves, and by HS they should be picking it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend has a daughter who has always been smart and gifted. Family never pushes her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. She has no extracurricular activities besides enjoying writing and drawing. I don’t think she has any competitions or awards. Both parents attended public state schools.

Can a girl like this get into any top schools? UVA?

No for top schools in general -- except with extreme luck. Or URM status.

URM is a hook, it isn't a free pass that is less exceptional and active than other applicants. Please just stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, this kid seems refreshing for not getting caught up in the BS activities around them. Except for a few, most kids are doing activities for college so kids who like writing and art who are not caught up in the rat race may end up being happier. So many useless non- profits are shut down as soon as the kid gets into college.

Except there are plenty of kids who have developed portfolios, submitted for competititons, have had their work displayed or read somewhere, for poets, had a reading, etc.

So sure, she can make the claim, but there are thousands of other applicants who will have some way of accounting for it.

There is no way these kids who are in multiple activities as captains, presidents, etc. are actually doing much of anything along with a rigorous course load and lots of AP. They show up, do the minimum and that's it. (said as a mom of an overloaded kid)

My kid does 3 sports and is in the most rigorous academic level. Does he occasionally get a B? Yes. Does he have something after school every day and on the weekends? Yes. I don't tell him to do this.

+1

My kid danced 15-25 hours/week, took 4 AP each junior and senior year, and still had time to hang out with friends and have a social life (well it was covid, so much of it was via Zoom or FT like apps). They ended HS with 3.92 UW. I'll admit they didn't sleep as much as they should (no getting 7 hours each night during the week). However, they didn't do AP ENg/APUSH, and stuck to AP STEM courses. They could have done those, but then they would have slept 2 hours each night. So we let them pick the activities with friends that they loved and that taught them so much and to scale back for regular humanities courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend has a daughter who has always been smart and gifted. Family never pushes her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. She has no extracurricular activities besides enjoying writing and drawing. I don’t think she has any competitions or awards. Both parents attended public state schools.

Can a girl like this get into any top schools? UVA?

No for top schools in general -- except with extreme luck. Or URM status.

URM is a hook, it isn't a free pass that is less exceptional and active than other applicants. Please just stop.

It is a hook, but it is not less exceptional? Wut? That is almost the definition of a hook: If you have the hook you can be less exceptional and get in..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend has a daughter who has always been smart and gifted. Family never pushes her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. She has no extracurricular activities besides enjoying writing and drawing. I don’t think she has any competitions or awards. Both parents attended public state schools.

Can a girl like this get into any top schools? UVA?

No for top schools in general -- except with extreme luck. Or URM status.

URM is a hook, it isn't a free pass that is less exceptional and active than other applicants. Please just stop.

A hook IS a free pass by definition, at least to a large extent. Enjoy it while it lasts, but don’t be an a$$ by denying the unfair advantage you’re receiving.