What extracurriculars would you *not* mention, because they reek of privilege/other negatives?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did not list Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, even though DC did it for many years and has been so instrumental in finding his strengths and interests.

It's a pay-to-play, and was so expensive.
Although I would still say it was so worth it.

CTY has scholarships too.... not everyone has to pay to play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Short-term community service that you have to pay (sometime big-time) to do, like teaching reading for 5 days in an isolated village in an impoverished distant country or going on a Habitat for Humanity trip to a tropical realm. More subtractions in my mind if that paying community service doesn't obviously align with a serious, long-term interest that begins and continues at home. Less subtraction if it's done with a larger group or activity in which the student is already invested, like a church or a civic organization.

Nothing to do with being rich or privileged, but can't imagine a 5-day trip is a worthwhile EC mention.

You'd be surprised how often I see this sort of thing mentioned as "study abroad experience" or "service" on fellowship applications (I'm a college prof).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Short-term community service that you have to pay (sometime big-time) to do, like teaching reading for 5 days in an isolated village in an impoverished distant country or going on a Habitat for Humanity trip to a tropical realm. More subtractions in my mind if that paying community service doesn't obviously align with a serious, long-term interest that begins and continues at home. Less subtraction if it's done with a larger group or activity in which the student is already invested, like a church or a civic organization.

Nothing to do with being rich or privileged, but can't imagine a 5-day trip is a worthwhile EC mention.

You'd be surprised how often I see this sort of thing mentioned as "study abroad experience" or "service" on fellowship applications (I'm a college prof).

Geez talk about snooty. What exactly do you expect white suburban kids to do? Short-term community service in the summer is all they have time for and all their parents have money for. They're not going to go live in Honduras or Ghana for a year FFS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Short-term community service that you have to pay (sometime big-time) to do, like teaching reading for 5 days in an isolated village in an impoverished distant country or going on a Habitat for Humanity trip to a tropical realm. More subtractions in my mind if that paying community service doesn't obviously align with a serious, long-term interest that begins and continues at home. Less subtraction if it's done with a larger group or activity in which the student is already invested, like a church or a civic organization.

Nothing to do with being rich or privileged, but can't imagine a 5-day trip is a worthwhile EC mention.

You'd be surprised how often I see this sort of thing mentioned as "study abroad experience" or "service" on fellowship applications (I'm a college prof).

Geez talk about snooty. What exactly do you expect white suburban kids to do? Short-term community service in the summer is all they have time for and all their parents have money for. They're not going to go live in Honduras or Ghana for a year FFS.

Here's what I'd expect: that any kid who is serious about really helping others will dedicate time and effort that extends beyond a one-week parachute into a gratuitously distant environment. The location and the community being supported are largely immaterial when there is real commitment there. There are *plenty* of organizations here in the DC area that assist people in need and welcome the help of volunteers, including organizations with chapters and clubs at schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Short-term community service that you have to pay (sometime big-time) to do, like teaching reading for 5 days in an isolated village in an impoverished distant country or going on a Habitat for Humanity trip to a tropical realm. More subtractions in my mind if that paying community service doesn't obviously align with a serious, long-term interest that begins and continues at home. Less subtraction if it's done with a larger group or activity in which the student is already invested, like a church or a civic organization.

Nothing to do with being rich or privileged, but can't imagine a 5-day trip is a worthwhile EC mention.

You'd be surprised how often I see this sort of thing mentioned as "study abroad experience" or "service" on fellowship applications (I'm a college prof).

Geez talk about snooty. What exactly do you expect white suburban kids to do? Short-term community service in the summer is all they have time for and all their parents have money for. They're not going to go live in Honduras or Ghana for a year FFS.

Here's what I'd expect: that any kid who is serious about really helping others will dedicate time and effort that extends beyond a one-week parachute into a gratuitously distant environment. The location and the community being supported are largely immaterial when there is real commitment there. There are *plenty* of organizations here in the DC area that assist people in need and welcome the help of volunteers, including organizations with chapters and clubs at schools.

You may like to poopoo these trips, but you quite frankly are missing the point. First of all, some schools in our area strongly encourage their students to attend these week-long service trips and if students can't afford them there is often money available to assist. Second, these trips allow students to get out and see a part of the world they have not experienced before. In many cases it opens their eyes to new and different populations and environments that are different than their own. Could they serve a local population in need, absolutely, and all of them do between 9-11th grade for yearly service hour requirements. These service trips abroad or in other regions across the US allow these rising seniors to get out of their homes, communities, and comfort zones to go to parts of the world and/or country that they have not been to before and serve populations that are not in their backyard. It opens their eyes and allows them to experience first hand, different communities in need around our globe. Not to mention many of these service trips are immersion, so the teens live in the community they are serving - meaning they don't get to go home to their comfy beds and homes after a few hours of service, they live there for a week. These trips often have a profound effect on many of these teens and are different than local service. Are they better or worse, no, they are just a different experience for teens who have typically done their service locally.

[Anonymous]

Poverty Tourism. Disgusting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Poverty Tourism. Disgusting

Hmmm does it matter that it actually helps the poor? What's so disgusting about that? Better to just send a check with no real sense of the community one is supporting? So much judgement on the board. Helping people matters in every way, shape, and form.

[Anonymous]

I think the person who said fox hunting won the thread.

[Anonymous]

If you are rich other people in your circle are presumably rich too. So, unless you are in college and there is a diverse income population, I don't understand who you are hiding these things from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Poverty Tourism. Disgusting

Hmmm does it matter that it actually helps the poor? What's so disgusting about that? Better to just send a check with no real sense of the community one is supporting? So much judgement on the board. Helping people matters in every way, shape, and form.

It often does not help. Send money through recognized NGOs.

You build a school? Guess what. If you donated, local craftspeople could be paid to build a school and get a school plus income.

It often does more harm than good. There is a lot of literature on this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting, I don't think of lacrosse as a rich people sport, but I'm from upstate NY where every public high school has a team.

It is viewed as a preppy sport full of "lax bros" by some.

Sigh. Only by people who don't understand the geography of lax. The DMV is the only area where lax is a private school thing. Everywhere else it is all public. Long Island, Atlanta, New York, etc, all publics. Some people in this area don't "get" that the DMV isn't on most people's horizon.

Why bring up Atlanta in a thread about high school lacrosse? I guess you don't really "understand the geography of lax" either.

Outside of Upstate New York and the NYC suburbs, the high school game is dominated by private school teams, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Anonymous wrote:Activities such as fencing and squash can be a hook at some schools. For example, Lawrenceville squash players have a hook with Princeton University. Lacrosse is another sport which may indicate economic well-being to some. Golf as well.

After my morning fencing match, I like to engage in a spirited game of squash, then talk to my lacrosse coach while playing a quick nine about strategy for the upcoming game keeping secret my plans to pilot my plane to Tanzania to do a swift climb up Mount Kilimanjaro after which I will ride bareback to partake in a sailing competition on Lake Victoria before jetting--first class so that I can assist the pilot if needed--back in time for warm-ups prior to playing in the lacrosse match.

Lawrenceville squash players don't have a "hook" with Princeton -- athletic recruiting just doesn't work like that, not even for fake sports like squash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the person who said fox hunting won the thread.

Ha, yeah, it really checks all the boxes: animal cruelty, class privilege, white privilege, etc.

[Anonymous]

Who is the bozo who keeps insisting lacrosse is just for private school kids? Most publics across the country have lacrosse teams. It just isn't the rarefied sport you'd like to pretend it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who is the bozo who keeps insisting lacrosse is just for private school kids? Most publics across the country have lacrosse teams. It just isn't the rarefied sport you'd like to pretend it is.

In general, the only high level public school lacrosse is played in New York State and in the NYC suburbs. There's nothing wrong with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is the bozo who keeps insisting lacrosse is just for private school kids? Most publics across the country have lacrosse teams. It just isn't the rarefied sport you'd like to pretend it is.

In general, the only high level public school lacrosse is played in New York State and in the NYC suburbs. There's nothing wrong with this.

My public high school had a lacrosse team in Pennsylvania in the 1980s. (shrug)