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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b][quote=Anonymous]Frankly the only counselors who can truly move the needle are the ones who are planning things from at least grade 9 on.  If you simply hire someone when your kid is a junior or senior then it's too late.

But the kid also has to be doing exceptionally well in school. I would imagine that most families who have money for this type of counseling are private school kids and it's not easy to do well at many top privates. In our experience at a Big3 school, the unhooked Ivy admits (aside from Cornell) are all from the top of the class. I had one of these kids and they got into an Ivy with their own [b]random assortment of extracurriculars and our haphazard attempt at guiding a narrative[/b] in the 11th hour.  So no 4-5 years of packaging is needed if the grades are there. And no packaging will help if the grades are not there.  So honestly, I don't see the point of it.

Maybe it's more helpful in the public realm where there are large classes and many kids with top grades and so it's important for kids to have very built-out narratives to separate them from their academically identical peers. [/quote][/b]

Can you give examples of these random activities and narratives? Give equivalents if you want to protect your identity. Thanks![/quote]

DP, but our kid did this and was admitted to their T-15 reach.

An example - DC lived and breathed their sport until toxic team dynamics caused them to quit in 11th grade and just play rec with some friends.  But - DC had been coaching since 8th, and they kept that up and also got a job as a counselor at a bilingual after school program and summer camp using their 2nd language. DC coached the sport as part of that. Also, DC’s friend started a literacy tutoring club, and DC did that - focusing on helping kids who speak 2nd language.  On the app that rather random sequence of events comes across as a logical mixing of three lifelong passions - the sport, the language studied since childhood, and the coaching and volunteering.

Now applying to grad school it’s the same - DC is applying in a field that combines environmental science and art, so their science undergrad (with last minute art studio assistant work and exhibiting in one one show as a senior) combined with summer art classes taken for fun plus a post grad intensive program reflects a passion for what they want to study, and the sketchbook that they carried around and doodled in all through college became the basis for a portfolio and shows years of technical development. Time spent purely for fun helping the biologist next door collect samples and gap year time spent at field research stations in two different countries (where they speak DC’s 2nd language) also demonstrates longstanding interest and development.

This is why I think the notion of curating kids’ experiences is dumb.  Looked at correctly, the life experience of kids who follow authentic interests becomes a really compelling story.  [/quote]

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