Reply to Do top colleges "punish" kids for taking fun electives?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Do top colleges "punish" kids for taking fun electives? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No, my kid had all core APs but took art and shop (which he loved) and was ivy admitted.  If it is inline with a passion I think it’s actually a benefit as opposed to the students who jam in every AP class in a GPA race.  I think it helped him a lot as a differentiator.

Passions matter, and what makes a kid interesting and memorable matter.  What they bring to campus.

Study what you love, in HS and in college.[/quote]

This. My STEM kid that had the high stars and checked the boxes did the core. Plus AP theory (not an easy AP BTW, even if you have a decent music grounding), 4 years of band.   Great results.  But, he also marched. Played in an additional EC orchestra. Took private lessons.  Played pit orchestra for drama.  Etc.

Plus, he was a switcher among wind instruments and wrote about it for many of his supplemental essays.  Played his primary instrument in curricular band and took lessons on it.  But, also played a second closely related instrument for curricular band when they needed it, because it was a specialized only need one/ only need it sometimes instrument.  Marched a different related instrument. And played a fourth in the school’s orchestra “because it’s cool”.  He picked them up really quickly and loved the challenge and actually plays a 5th in college.  The band director loved it because he could play the specialized instrument they needed once or the one they needed to round out the orchestra.   He was jack of all trades. All district, not all state.  Now plays in the college non-major orchestra.  Fortunately, the school provides instruments for switches, so we are only responsible for the primary one.

I have seen music kids, drama kids, arts, and writing/ journalism kids who following this path and go all in on their do area really well, even if it doesn’t relate to their intended major..  The kid who takes a year of art, a year of culinary management, a year of social justice and a year of tech?  Much less so.  I love the fine arts path for kids who love fine arts because it is a big pause in their day. Stress relief, more relaxed, different part of the brain and often a cohort of similar kids to themselves . But, this isn’t going to work for a kid who doesn’t love their track, because you are adding a huge outside of class commitment.

BTW— I’m a  Huge believer in AP Stats for Math kids, in addition to calc.. It may be an “easier” AP, but it’s Math they need a grounding in. In fact, most humanities kids probably need stats more than Calc. Not sure colleges see it that way, unfortunately.  But, inmany fields, it’s important to be able to interpret data. Than— whatever you do with Calc as a politics major. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics