If your child was accepted at a Top 20 School, what were their extracurriculars?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP I see posts like OP’s on here so often but at our school (independent feeder school not in DVM or NYC), those kinds of ECs are almost unheard of. Kids play varsity sports, do things like write for the school paper, theater, debate, and each year 25- 30 out of 100 seniors get into Ivy/top 15. I’ve never heard of anyone publishing any research let alone develop an AI service used by real corporate clients

That's because the kids at this school get in because of the wealth and accomplishments of the parents. In the normal world, students tend to need to distinguish themselves beyond theater club.

What do you mean? This parent dare not donors. These days, you need 7-8 figure donation to move the needle on admissions at a top 20

a kid working on cars and getting paid as a part time job is retro authentic, and an absolute gem on the application - rich parents funding wood working hobby meh

Looks like this car thing is the new rich person EC because I know two kids (one is the son of a billionaire) who are both working in garages. I wonder which college counselor is advising this.

I know another one, headed to Northwestern this fall.

Interesting. My public school kid fixes cars and motorcycles. Currently at a T20. Didn't realize it was a thing.

Mine does too. At an Ivy.

[Anonymous]

My public school kid fixes cars and motorcycles too, happily at a community college. Also didn’t realize it’s a thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP I see posts like OP’s on here so often but at our school (independent feeder school not in DVM or NYC), those kinds of ECs are almost unheard of. Kids play varsity sports, do things like write for the school paper, theater, debate, and each year 25- 30 out of 100 seniors get into Ivy/top 15. I’ve never heard of anyone publishing any research let alone develop an AI service used by real corporate clients

Same outcomes at our non-DMV private.

But kids do unusual sports outside of school (fencing; sailing; squash; equestrian) and that gets noticed esp if there are accolades.
PT Jobs/internships too.

Niche hobbies (woodworking; agricultural related; beekeeping; birdwatching; urban farming) are also growing more common.

But no businesses with corporate clients etc.

Same outcomes at our DMV private.

Don’t worry, high schoolers publishing “ground breaking” research in respected journals is not the norm.

You seem to really hate on kids that are interested in science and science research. In our public high School there is a 4-year research program and yes, part of it is a research project summer of junior year. I don't know if it is correctly categorized as and EC or regular rigorous coursework. It is a bit of both. It is not popular but it exists and the geeky kids that do it tend to do really well with their college admissions.

DP but it doesn’t really make sense for a high school student to do research, unless they’re extremely prodigious. For the most part, they can’t contribute much.

What are you talking about. It's a program for high school kids that are interested in research. It's not required. No one is born knowing how to do science research. You learn how to do it.

They start with basic scientific method. They learn how to read research papers. They learn how to find reliable sources for information. They learn how to do citations. They learn how to collect data. They learn how to analyze and manipulate data.

You think they start out doing some kind of advanced scientific research. Don't be ridiculous. They start as 9th graders and they progress for 4 years in their education and knowledge.

Well said. There are kids who actually like learning science. I'm surprised by the anti-intellectualism of some of the people who post here.

[Anonymous]

the car repair kids are generally very STEM and engineers.

[Anonymous]

Top 10 schools

4 kids

Public MOCO

Barely any ECs.

Varsity sports all four years for two
Part-time jobs all 4 sophmore year - senior.

High stats

MIT, YALE, Stanford

[Anonymous]

Drama. Various jobs including tutoring. Foreign language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Top 10 schools

4 kids

Public MOCO

Barely any ECs.

Varsity sports all four years for two
Part-time jobs all 4 sophmore year - senior.

High stats

MIT, YALE, Stanford

I like this one, highly realistic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Top 10 schools

4 kids

Public MOCO

Barely any ECs.

Varsity sports all four years for two
Part-time jobs all 4 sophmore year - senior.

High stats

MIT, YALE, Stanford

Sports and jobs are ECs.

[Anonymous]

Drama
Writing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Top 10 schools

4 kids

Public MOCO

Barely any ECs.

Varsity sports all four years for two
Part-time jobs all 4 sophmore year - senior.

High stats

MIT, YALE, Stanford

Sports and jobs are ECs.

Ok fair.

Not to DCUM forums where kids must have 10 EC's, gone to another country to teach, set up their own business, volunteered a ton etc.

Mine did none of that. They liked working making their own money and staying away from HS drama.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the advice to focus criteria first -
for my DC they wanted semester, rather than quarter system, wanted STEM but interdisciplinary so preferred schools with single college rather than separate schools within an umbrella (can be hard to take classes outside of your school at some), wanted smaller class size but not too small a school.

In terms of EC's it should be things that your student really likes and wants to do. For mine who is super social and active it was StuCo (elected all 4 years, ASB Pres as senior), proof based mathematics research, theater (lead roles in plays and musicals), debate at regional/national with awards)

My kid was accepted to several T20 and is class of '29 at an Ivy.

WHich schools were on your list?

[Anonymous]

to answer the original question: eagle scout, volunteer hours at specific charities discussed in essays, Boys' State, congressional intern, Yale Young Global Scholar, etc. Not EC: valedictorian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Top 10 schools

4 kids

Public MOCO

Barely any ECs.

Varsity sports all four years for two
Part-time jobs all 4 sophmore year - senior.

High stats

MIT, YALE, Stanford

Possible URM or rural DEI white?