Reply to My son is in 8th grade, I'm an immigrant - give me the College 101 please!

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "My son is in 8th grade, I'm an immigrant - give me the College 101 please!"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I didn't go to school in the US, and am feeling woefully under-prepared for my son's college application process. He's only in 8th grade but I need more visibility on what's ahead, so I can start nudging him in the right directions.

The basics: My son is STEM oriented, 4.0 GPA, does all schoolwork without any parental involvement and has always read way above his grade level.  But he has zero motivation to do anything else -  he doesn't even organize friend meetups unless his friends organize them, and his only sport is soccer because he's been doing that since kindergarten. In other words, he needs a heavy push to prepare for any major life change.

My questions:
1-Does he need to have any special skills/accomplishments to get into a place like UMD, aside from his 4.0 GPA? (I realize 4.0 GPAs are fairly common now.)
2-He has intermediate knowledge of Japanese and French, does that count for anything?
3-When does the 'resume building' need to start? 
4-Does paid work count as a substitute for fancy academic accomplishments - for example, if he tutors?

Help please! Thanks. 
[/quote]

Another immigrant here.  For my kids, the resume building started in HS.  Before that, they did not really participate in any significant ECs. HS offers many more opportunities to connect with like minded peers or follow some kids who are a couple of years ahead.   Work absolutely counts, especially if it’s a real job, aka someone might actually yell at you, and the kid makes a good use of it in their essay.   [/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