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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, thank you for taking the time to post this Q&A, it has been extremely informative.  I'm wondering what advice would you give to the parents of a kid who has extremely strong academic credentials, but does not show a demonstrated passion?  My daughter is in 7th grade, and from how she is doing so far, I would expect she would be near valedictorian and have very high SAT scores.  However, she is interested in everything.  She is equally strong in STEM as she is in humanities/social sciences.  When asked what she wants to do as a career, she'll say she doesn't know, so many things are interesting to her.  Her activities are all over the place - soccer, theater, art, computers.  I can easily see where she will be the dreaded "well-rounded" applicant who doesn't stand out to admission offers.  And we can't be comforted by the notion that she will be accepted to a strong school somewhere as long as she casts her net wide enough.  Our budget only allows for instate colleges.  So basically if she doesn't get into the two top schools, she will have to settle for a school that is academically far beneath what she theoretically "should" be able to attend.  From a purely strategic perspective, should we try to encourage her to "specialize" in a certain area, so she will stand a greater chance of standing out to the admission officers?[/quote] As the parent of the "dreaded" well-rounded kid, please take this advice in the spirit in which it is intended. Take a breath and calm down. Your daughter is in 7th grade. She  isn't supposed to know where she want to go college or God forbid what she wants to study. The next few years are precisely when she should be trying new things across the board to figure out what she wants. My child does theater, chess, all of the competitive  academic clubs (e.g., quiz bowl), model UN, track, etc., has won or placed for  many awards from the National Latin Exam to the AIME and just about every discipline in between. We never tried to limit or direct what activities she should be involved in or push her to"specialize" for college admission. What a disservice this does to our kids and how many great thinks, researchers, and innovators are stifled because they pushed to find a passion before they knew who they really are and what paths are even available or of interest to them? This really is unhealthy for our kids and will stifle their curiosity. FWIW, she was accepted into a number of top tier schools, has overwhelming had a successful college search and we are expecting more great news in the weeks to come--and if not she already has great schools to chose from which great honors thrown in the mix.  The goal should not be a particular college, but a happy successful kid. Don't put a particular college tier above the interest of your child. You won't find much support for this attitude on DCUM or in the metro area, but where you go to college doesn't define who you are or how successful you will become.  Besides, you just might find, like we have, there is a place for that well-rounded kid who has a lot of interest and success across the board and shows an abundance of intellectual curiosity, aptitude and passion in a number of disciplines. My child has found that their is a niche are in her chosen career that combines to disparate disciplines and for which there is a great demand. She would likely never have discovered this or have considered this possibility if we had tried to limit her focus. [/quote]

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