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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My friend has a daughter who has always been smart and gifted. Family never pushes her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. She has no extracurricular activities besides enjoying writing and drawing. I don’t think she has any competitions or awards. Both parents attended public state schools.

Can a girl like this get into any top schools? UVA?[/quote]

Probably not a T10, but a very good school, certainly. IMO, the brightest kids resist behaving like trained monkeys and follow their own paths, so they do not always jump through the right hoops and get into top schools. One of my friends decided her unfortunate child, who was then about 8, was going to go to a top school. She consulted one of those admissions corporations, and they came up with a plan for this poor child. She did exactly what she was told for years but didn't enjoy any of it. She played two sports, became a Gold Star Scout, and engaged in student council. Hated all of it, but plodded along as programmed. She was bright but not exceptionally so and is rather unimaginative. Her "natural" ACT result was about 30, which caused much alarm. The poor child was dragged off for hours and hours of SAT/ACT coaching and, after several attempts at taking the test, managed to raise her ACT to 35. A lot of money and a miserable childhood got her into a top school, and she actually did reasonably well there (she graduated cum laude).

Your friend's family is doing the right thing. They're letting their daughter enjoy her youth and develop her own interests. She can get a wonderful education at a relatively unacclaimed school, especially if she joins an honors program. Perhaps she should look at "good but not great" LACs, where she will get lots of individual attention. I don't know her stats, but UVA may be within reach. [/quote]

I agree, let her enjoy HS and pick her path.  But IMO kids in MS/HS should have some activities outside of just academics and should have some volunteering.  Not for college applications, but because it's a good thing to make you more well rounded.  In Preschool/ES, we had our kids involved in 1 sport/athletic area and 1 art/music type activity.  The kids could help select, but they needed to have at least 1 in each area. Why---because it is good for overall development.  Oh and by ES we decided they would also do karate, just because we found an amazing dojo where the intent is to develop character, community and self discipline.  Karate was allowed to be the "sport" if they wanted.  But it was a required activity. Now we don't do church/religious activities/ethnic activities/etc.  So our kids had 1 sport, karate, and 1 Artsy activity to develop them into well rounded individuals.  2 of the kids ended up getting their black belts and it really shaped who they are (in a good way).  All 3 kept up with at least 1 sport thru HS, and all 3 played an instrument in the Band thru HS.

By HS, if all they want is academics, then get them involved with tutoring in the community.  But IMO a kid needs something else to engage themselves, and by HS they should be picking it.  [/quote]

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