Non profits started by high school students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If parents are really smart their kids start one together and then all get into Ivies.

FWIW, I'm the PP about the kids who started a food and service nonprofit in COVID. None of them got into Ivies REA/ED. But all three got into good schools and that EC - and full pay - may have helped.

The sad thing is that AOs still fall for all these glam posturing. The top student in my kid's school started a social media account and posted aggressively 6 months before Nov1. The posts stopped the day after Harvard REA came out-he was in and done.

So...he was the top student and there's a problem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This reminds me of the kids who “publish” (I.e. their parents pay a prof to “work” with their kid and put their name on a paper).

Pretty sure no professors would go for this as a paid arrangement. Come on!

Junior assistant professors and lecturers do.

The big name New York private college counselors facilitate this for your kid….yes it happens. Quite easy tbh.

Remember who is reading the application. It’s usually mid to late 20s woman (super-liberal/woke) who majored in a soft major likely at that same institution. She’s not going to do deep research on whether or not this professor at a random - sometimes no name or lower ranked uni is reputable or not.

Ask me how I know.

The readers you describe are the first and/or second points of sorting/sifting in the process (sometimes the initial "read' is automated/algorithm). Do you think the senior AOs and Dean(s) who make the final decisions at elite, highly selective schools, usually through committees, don't know what is going on? Seriously asking your opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If parents are really smart their kids start one together and then all get into Ivies.

FWIW, I'm the PP about the kids who started a food and service nonprofit in COVID. None of them got into Ivies REA/ED. But all three got into good schools and that EC - and full pay - may have helped.

j

I feel like the entities some kids founded during the pandemic have a bit more of a ring of authenticity and may have actually been somewhat novel and helpful. It was an unprecedented situation and taking initiative at that time may actually say something about those kids. As a general rule, most of these organizations are ploys for admissions purposes. The kids may really care about whatever issue but starting up a new entity is rather obvious…however I’ve also seen it work with kids at my kids’ HS.

Do I think that the kids (and def one of the moms) was thinking this - yes. Did a large number of service workers in the care, construction, housekeeping, and restaurant industries in the area know that there was going to be cash, food, and personal products that they could go to X parking lot on Fridays and pick up these essential items for their families - yes.

I never saw one of these kids as being super community-minded, yet he put his time into this as opposed to nonstop gaming and streaming, so kudos there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who thinks a high school student is actually running their own successful non profit: I would love to sell you a timeshare.

THIS! I know a student who started a non profit where she ostensibly baked hundreds of cupcakes a week and sold them, donating the proceeds to her charity. The kicker- it was actually the family's nanny who did all of the baking and packaging!!

If she did the selling, I could understand that. Selling is often the hardest part!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AOs like the marketing talent of promoting a nonprofit, and the leadership of conning other kids to work for you instead of themselves. It signals the values of future donors.

We're talking about colleges here, the kinda of bloated ineffectual nonprofits.

Chuckling as the mom of one of DD's friends tried to get our DD to set up the website for her DD's activity (teens working with early elementary kids over Zoom in COVID). We loved the activity and both our DDs participated from time to time, but our DD didn't like that the mom was making clear that this wasn't something DD could "claim" for college as if DD was even thinking that.

[Anonymous]

These student non-profits often have slick websites that profile the kids involved with large pictures and bios of each. Then they all get into tippy top schools, and the website comes down.

[Anonymous]

There is an angry admissions officer on this thread trying unsuccessfully to defend her decisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is an angry admissions officer on this thread trying unsuccessfully to defend her decisions.

… says the person who can’t back up their claim because it’s BS. That’s called ad hominem.

And it’s more than one person calling out the BS , for the record.

I can’t speak for the others, but I am not, nor have I ever been an admissions officer.

[Anonymous]

Do you work at UVA? Don't worry. These kids with consultants are all going to HYPS, not interested in UVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This reminds me of the kids who “publish” (I.e. their parents pay a prof to “work” with their kid and put their name on a paper).

Pretty sure no professors would go for this as a paid arrangement. Come on!

Junior assistant professors and lecturers do.

The big name New York private college counselors facilitate this for your kid….yes it happens. Quite easy tbh.

Remember who is reading the application. It’s usually mid to late 20s woman (super-liberal/woke) who majored in a soft major likely at that same institution. She’s not going to do deep research on whether or not this professor at a random - sometimes no name or lower ranked uni is reputable or not.

Ask me how I know.

The readers you describe are the first and/or second points of sorting/sifting in the process (sometimes the initial "read' is automated/algorithm). Do you think the senior AOs and Dean(s) who make the final decisions at elite, highly selective schools, usually through committees, don't know what is going on? Seriously asking your opinion.

DP here. They do, but the problem is that by that time the non-hustling kid may have been weeded out already. Unless the more experienced senior person reads every single application, your kid has to fit the first AO's criteria, just so he or she can show up for the second reading.

Some universities, like Georgetown, have a specific criteria for "service". If candidates don't score well in that category, they've lost before they can play. In that scenario, even a fake service (ie initiated by parents, massaged and exaggerated) is better than just getting the required number of SSL hours. I have a college freshman and 8th grader who did not/are not doing their own non-profits, so I don't have a personal bias here. I'm just drawing conclusions from what I've observed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This reminds me of the kids who “publish” (I.e. their parents pay a prof to “work” with their kid and put their name on a paper).

Pretty sure no professors would go for this as a paid arrangement. Come on!

Junior assistant professors and lecturers do.

The big name New York private college counselors facilitate this for your kid….yes it happens. Quite easy tbh.

Remember who is reading the application. It’s usually mid to late 20s woman (super-liberal/woke) who majored in a soft major likely at that same institution. She’s not going to do deep research on whether or not this professor at a random - sometimes no name or lower ranked uni is reputable or not.

Ask me how I know.

The readers you describe are the first and/or second points of sorting/sifting in the process (sometimes the initial "read' is automated/algorithm). Do you think the senior AOs and Dean(s) who make the final decisions at elite, highly selective schools, usually through committees, don't know what is going on? Seriously asking your opinion.

DP here. They do, but the problem is that by that time the non-hustling kid may have been weeded out already. Unless the more experienced senior person reads every single application, your kid has to fit the first AO's criteria, just so he or she can show up for the second reading.

Some universities, like Georgetown, have a specific criteria for "service". If candidates don't score well in that category, they've lost before they can play. In that scenario, even a fake service (ie initiated by parents, massaged and exaggerated) is better than just getting the required number of SSL hours. I have a college freshman and 8th grader who did not/are not doing their own non-profits, so I don't have a personal bias here. I'm just drawing conclusions from what I've observed.

How have you "observed" that? Do you have insight into the process revealing what you have described?

[Anonymous]

The trouble with the argument that these kids who set up do-gooder nonprofits--bogus though they perhaps may be--are the go-getters, is that the parents or expensive hired advisors are actually the drivers and facilitators of these enterprises. The whole teenage nonprofit craze started after the head of admissions at Harvard put out a letter saying they were going to start weighing character heavily in admissions decisions, and the rest of the highly selective places largely follow their lead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The trouble with the argument that these kids who set up do-gooder nonprofits--bogus though they perhaps may be--are the go-getters, is that the parents or expensive hired advisors are actually the drivers and facilitators of these enterprises. The whole teenage nonprofit craze started after the head of admissions at Harvard put out a letter saying they were going to start weighing character heavily in admissions decisions, and the rest of the highly selective places largely follow their lead.

The argument still holds. Of course the process favors people with support staff. Having it in HS is precocious, but not having if following an elite education is one measure of failure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who thinks a high school student is actually running their own successful non profit: I would love to sell you a timeshare.

THIS! I know a student who started a non profit where she ostensibly baked hundreds of cupcakes a week and sold them, donating the proceeds to her charity. The kicker- it was actually the family's nanny who did all of the baking and packaging!!

If she did the selling, I could understand that. Selling is often the hardest part!

Selling cupcakes is hardly difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The trouble with the argument that these kids who set up do-gooder nonprofits--bogus though they perhaps may be--are the go-getters, is that the parents or expensive hired advisors are actually the drivers and facilitators of these enterprises. The whole teenage nonprofit craze started after the head of admissions at Harvard put out a letter saying they were going to start weighing character heavily in admissions decisions, and the rest of the highly selective places largely follow their lead.

Believe it or not there are many kids who are motivated by a cause and they don’t have parents that are involved outside of driving or mundane things. Kids who have seen things that affected them and they wanted to do something about it.

There’s a whole world out there with some amazing kids. Not everyone is in a suburb with parents controlling every move their kids make.