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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Honestly, if you really want a line by line edit of ECs, save your money and run it through AI.

This isn’t going to make or break the application. These aren’t even verified unless your kid had some huge nationally recognized published thing.  [/quote]

It actually can be a huge miss. Our CCO showed us 2 - one was a very tippy top student who did Student Govt, MUN, debate, Math, research, soccer, a passion project, and it was a scattered hot mess of 10 entries and 5 honors. All of the parents were confused too, bc it seemed like the kid threw everything they did in (and they were all great things) but none of them matched the major.

Then showed us one for a top 25% student who was very purposeful in only showcasing certain things which supported their story/major or whatever you want to call it. Only had 8 entries and 4 honors. The 2nd one was so much stronger.

There's a lot written online about how to do this well.

[/quote]

Why is it bad that a high school student -- a child -- tried a variety of activities and didn't hone in on a major at age 14? Why would not mentioning some of these great things have made a stronger application?[/quote]

That's a great strategy for most schools OUTSIDE the most selective. The top 20 or 25 schools in the country aren't looking for well-rounded kids who try lots of things but don't go deep on anything. They are looking for probing kids brimming with intellectual curiosity who are puzzled by something and do something about it - not random unrelated activities that look like they are just gathering trophies from a lot of the top clubs.

The Yale podcast does an excellent job of explaining why it matters to them. Being well-rounded isn't a bad thing - if it's cohesive. It's a problem if it's not cohesive and scattered, and you can't explain why you do the things you do.

Most kids need to be reminded to look at all their activities and see if there's a common thread that connects them, be it a value (like community), a goal (overcoming social anxiety), or something else. then tie that back to you and your story. AOs want to know WHY you do the things you do and what motivates you, not simply that you did them.

Note, the Dartmouth podcast will tell you that they don't remember the well-rounded kids. They really like the spikes.[/quote]

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