Reply to Thoughts on ECs for junior--do we need anything else?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Boy, varsity athlete playing year-round (but doesn't want to play in college), public school 3.9 UW/4.3 W (not VA or MD), 1520 SAT, 11 APs total by graduation, humanities kid, founded & president of school debating club, Model UN, several seasons of coaching kids teams in youth sports, has worked in construction over the summer (when not doing sport), doing internship with federal judge, volunteers w/Special Olympics.  History or Econ as potential major.

Not a whole lot of time to do much else, but is there any EC that's obviously missing?  He is hoping for a top 20, SLAC or mid-sized.  Double egacy at Ivies but obviously a long shot. [/quote]

This is so obviously fake, a made up extracurricular project for mom.

Best thing you can do is to actually help your son find something he cares about and get out of the way.

Founder and president of the debate club and model UN is mostly meaningless on its own, you have to have some activity or related project he worked on as part of the club besides meeting during lunch time. Kids lie about these clubs all the time because it’s not verifiable information.

In what capacity did he coach kids? Is he throwing the ball with the neighbors kids, or it’s a real coaching job? Unlikely sophomore kids get to be coaches, sports camp counselor go through extensive training. High schoolers don’t get to work with minors as “coaches” just like that.  Sounds more like he plays a sport and you’re making up other activities to pad up his college applications.

As others have pointed out, doing an internship with a federal judge is so suspect of being made up because there’s not a lot that a high schooler can do in that setting. If it’s real, I’d be interested to know what he actually did.

I call BS on the construction summer job too. Minors can’t work in most construction jobs, because it’s considered hazardous occupation, unless they are part of an apprenticeship program.

I’d advise against making stuff up, because it’s really easy to spot the fake activities, since they lack depth and authenticity and are hard to connect with essays, recommendation letters, awards and the rest of the application.

He just needs to ding something he likes and spend some time exploring his interests. Sounds like mom is in the way.[/quote]

Yup. I would ding this kid in a heartbeat. He is trying way too hard. Or make that his mom is trying way too hard. He has lived his life to create what his mom thinks is the perfect application. No joy. I have interviewed kids like this who go through their whole list and are very impressed with themselves. Usually don't get in. Once they get out of range of mom's helicopter they don't know what to do with themselves.[/quote]

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