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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Parent of Class of 2022 HS grad here — kid is CS major and admitted to 2 of the top 3 universities. I know most people do not listen to free advice, but for the ones who do, here it is….Focus your perfect stats kids HS years and application on two things. (1) What has your kid done to help others in their community? (2) How will they use the elite school education to help others in their community. It’s not about the perfect stats or the awards, although those help. It’s NOT about how well the essays are written — it’s about the HS experience affecting your kid in some way that they ended up genuinely helping others (not racking up hours at a food pantry), and what are they going to do beyond getting a good job that will change the world for the better?? Without the desire and evidence of having a positive impact on their community, my kid would have been at a safety school (which is really not as bad as some make it out to be!) Oh and leadership “titles” do not count as much as actual leadership — can your kid lead others without a formal title? I’m not saying that being President of a club is bad, just that the kid needs to do something after they get the title….or do lead others without a title. Make sure to have documentation — news articles etc.

Or “When others zig, your kid should zag.” Do something different. For CS, do not do robotics or build apps that no one uses. I cannot say what my kid did without doxxing, but this is also important. Why should a college pick your perfect stats kid who was President of their Robotics Club over the 100’s of other similar kids? What sets them apart?

I hope that makes sense![/quote]

Can you give some examples ? [/quote]

Sure…obviously these are not what my kid did but I hope they help.

(I will say that my personal advice is not to tutor at places that teach math or send too much time on a single club like robotics unless it’s one of the best in the country.)

Try to get a paid internship, but an unpaid one will do too. Often your city will need some help with their IT systems. If you build something for them, it will be used and will make you stand out from the crowd! If you can be paid for building it, even better. Startups often look for talented high schoolers, so scour the web looking for them, use LinkedIn or use parent’s network. Can you get a research position at a university? Again connections come into use here; not sure “cold calling” is the way to go. If you have an internship one summer, don’t do something different the next summer. Continuity is good when it comes to jobs and internships, as it shows your bosses liked you! That’s like a Letter of recommendation that you don’t submit!

Something I heard in an podcast was that elite colleges have tons of resources and they are looking for kids who will be motivated and have the skills to make the most of the resources. Your college application should show evidence that you have already done that in your high school years.  Another tip: they say pay-to-play programs should not be reported on applications. I would say that they are sometimes OK. After my kid was rejected REA from one school, I watched a YouTube video by a kid who had been accepted there — he said one of his activities was pay-to-play. From then on, we decided to list a couple of pay-to-play activities on the application. My kid made sure to connect the dots in activity listings or essays to show how they used learnings from the paid activities to do something big in our community outside of the high school (so it was more than a check-the-box activity, KWIM?). And we made sure to get news articles about it. Local reporters are willing to highlight awesome things that kids are doing, so I would encourage reaching out.

For school year activities I would look at Math (either accelerating in coursework or other competitions like AIME) or CS competitions (USACO, etc)

Here is a heart blog — https://holdmeback.com/to-stand-out-start-by-looking-in/

The other thing colleges care about is what you have done for others? Have you stood up for a kid who might have been vulnerable? Have you done anything with DEI? The best thing will be to do it for at least 2 years — maybe have a book drive and connect it with something else in your story.

These things also help with Coke Scholars etc. Oh yeah, that reminds me — an excellent place to see what other kids have done and be inspired to come up with your own ideas is to read the bios of kids who win scholarships. Apply for all the scholarships you possibly can. Even if you do not get them, the practice writing essays pays off. And if you’re lucky, you will get one honor that will snowball!

An excellent book to read is How to be a High School Superstar by Cal Newport IIRC. I read it only recently — my kid had bought it in 9th grade, but I had never read it. Looking back at it, we did many of the things he says. Also listen to the Yale Admissions podcast. I forget what it’s called but it’s very good and we based a lot on that. College Coach is another one, but not all of their episodes are that helpful. There are other podcasts too.

Hope this helps! I could go on and on, but I have chores to do. Cheers![/quote]

Look...don't think there is one "formula" for success.  I find it funny that PP is very down on the everyday robotics team...when my UMC white child accepted to Top 5 for class of 2023 is in fact the HS robotics team captain.  The top robotics teams in the US have gobs of $$$s and literal rocket scientists and MARS Rover designing mentors helping those teams.  It is, unfortunately, a very unfair playing field between the top World teams and everyone else.  However, my kid increased robotics membership by a factor of 3, qualified the team for a regional final (first time in like 10 years for the school), etc.  So, yes you want to show some accomplishment and your team should compete on the FIRST circuit or on the Underwater Robotics circuit.

Also, my kid did like zero...yes zero community service.  I think he listed at most 2 hours per week helping mentor an elementary school robotics program.  I was concerned this would be an acceptance killer for him...but I guess not.

Yes, he has had multiple paid internships since he was HS Freshman, including one going on two years now.  It is possible people if your kid really knows their stuff...he is flown to client presentations and company off-sites and is really a contributing member to the company.

My own belief is that colleges want people they think will be successful in life...and they define success in many different ways.  I imagine that Princeton is equally proud of the woman who founded Teach For America and Jeff Bezos...both enormously successful in the non-profit and for-profit world.

Interestingly enough, my kid is looking forward to a number of STEM community service clubs offered by the college and perhaps he will be the unicorn that actually does community service in college vs. HS.  Hopefully your kid doesn't fall into the 95%+ kids who did all this amazing community service in HS and then zero once they got to college.[/quote]

So your kid had paid internships. That is exactly my advice is it not? The robotics accomplishments have little to do with your kid’s acceptance as they are honestly commonplace. (Sorry if I hurt your feelings.)

If your kid does FIRST and another kid on the team is nominated for Deans List but your kid is not…. And both apply to Georgia Tech as OOS, I would bet that they would take the Deans list person. Two kids on the same team, one nominated…. Who would they take? Your kid might have put in as much as the other kid…. But they get the honor. That is my problem with activities like it. Team activities that are not sports but someone gets an honor for work done behind the scenes. Positions like President etc do not cause this problem as most clubs have them, but this is the huge drawback to being on a robotics teams where a single person is given an award. I have seen it at my kid’s school with MIT, GT and Ivies.

I agree with the poster who said to work with existing non-profits. My kid did that — the outside school activity. [/quote]

Hmmm...did you miss that he was accepted to a top 5 school?  BTW, yes he was nominated for Deans List.[/quote]

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