Kids who don't have any activities
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Anonymous
It's really deep and meaningful how the possibility of getting college is the main reason do do stuff. That's an amazing lesson to impart. And sort of pointless, because look at how many I DO EVERYTHING kids get rejected because they are competing against so many other I DO EVERYTHING kids. OP, your kid needs to find a couple of things he likes and build off of that. Try a bunch of rec classes or activities, or some volunteer jobs. Throw a wide net. If he likes to read, he can volunteer at the library or eventually get a job in a bookstore. He can tutor younger kids. He will figure it out. |
Anonymous
| The college thing cracks me up honestly. So they'll take a kid with 14,000 different activities over a kid with just a few? Do they really believe quantity over quality is better? The more activities a kid has the less I believe that the kid actually wants them. |
Anonymous
You don’t need a ton of activities. You could just do one thing and be very good at it. |
Anonymous
It’s truly so dumb. Four years of being a joiner and checking all the right boxes and then you find out everyone else was doing the same thing, so you’ve distinguished yourself not at all. |
Anonymous
Well OP’s kid basically has nothing. I doubt his one hour a week activity is “quality.” Maybe he’s really awesome at TikTok watching? But, yes, colleges do actually want kids who are interesting and have something to contribute. |
Anonymous
Have you actually gone through an admissions process with your kid? My kid just did an hour long admissions interview and beyond discussing his favorite subject and his career aspirations for 10 minutes, the entire rest of the interview was focused on his “activities,” specifically art, writing, and a high level sport he plays. |
Anonymous
+1 Colleges don't fall for it. |
Anonymous
I wasn't referring to OPs kid, I was referring to colleges admissions in general. And its sad if pp think you aren't interesting and have nothing to contribute I not for activities. |
Anonymous
What do you mean they don't fall for it? College admission is practically the entire reason for all these activities that have become apparently necessary for kids. |
Anonymous
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Kids should do stuff they are interested in doing. 14 year olds very often don’t have specific interests yet absent a sport or instrument or dance that they will stick with through high school and beyond.
So - have some talks about what may be interesting to do in high school. You want school stuff because of the social connections. As anyone who has had kids apply to college can tell you - the big schools only care about gpa and test scores. The small schools care about $ and also what your kid does. BUT no high prestige school cares about kids who are jacks of all trades. The are looking for kids who focus on one or maybe two major things so their enticing class can be interesting and diverse. |
Anonymous
I don’t think anyone is saying this at all. OP’s kids is basically a do-nothing and people are advocating he do something not a million things, something. |
Anonymous
I’ve always thought activities were for the purpose of developing hobbies, socializing, learning how to work as a team, becoming physically fit, helping to discover areas of interest for potential career paths, etc. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
I know, i was commenting on college admissions and activities,which someone brought up earlier. |
Anonymous
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I got tired of my kids asking to try something and then immediately wanting to quit. Like knock down drag out “you can’t make me do this activity”, quitting. I got exhausted with that song and dance.
They really don’t like sports. They aren’t good at sports. They like reading and drawing, so that’s what they do. We try to not worry about not pushing them into activities ….but I do worry about college admissions, and whether they will regret not sticking with things. My kids are awesome, and so different than I thought they would be 
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