Anonymous wrote:Travel sports are common and not impressive. Pay to play a game.

-1. Crazy amount of travel, dedication and time management skills. No other EC is as time consuming as high level travel sport. AOs know this.

Travel sports are common and not impressive. Pay to play a game.

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Anonymous wrote:This post is interesting. My son decided to switch from track and field to robotics after last year, because his times were average and he thought robotics would look better for college applications. But sounds like people think it may not matter. And maybe it actually doesn't, since it turns out he likes robotics a bit better anyway.

Interested in engineering? STEM? Have him tie the interests together?

A wearable sensor system or "smart tracker" to analyze running biomechanics combining hands-on experience as a runner with new robotics skills?

Internship with similar wearable sensor companies?

Non-profit that helps disabled people with movement using “trackers”

These are ideas that people with degrees in engineering can’t do well, let alone a high school student.

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Anonymous wrote:Travel sports

-1. A travel sport combined with top grades and top scores from a rigorous HS is a dream candidate: smart AND hard working. A recipe for life long success. Doesn't get better than that.

Boring and really common. Nothing close to a dream candidate. Everyone applying is hard working.

Anonymous wrote:Travel sports

-1. A travel sport combined with top grades and top scores from a rigorous HS is a dream candidate: smart AND hard working. A recipe for life long success. Doesn't get better than that.

Anonymous wrote:This post is interesting. My son decided to switch from track and field to robotics after last year, because his times were average and he thought robotics would look better for college applications. But sounds like people think it may not matter. And maybe it actually doesn't, since it turns out he likes robotics a bit better anyway.

Interested in engineering? STEM? Have him tie the interests together?

A wearable sensor system or "smart tracker" to analyze running biomechanics combining hands-on experience as a runner with new robotics skills?

Internship with similar wearable sensor companies?

Non-profit that helps disabled people with movement using “trackers”

Anonymous wrote:Ross Ulbricht
Eagle Scout serving 2 life sentences for setting up the Silk Road dark web.

Yeah, well I guess he was innovative...

This, folks. This.

This post is interesting. My son decided to switch from track and field to robotics after last year, because his times were average and he thought robotics would look better for college applications. But sounds like people think it may not matter. And maybe it actually doesn't, since it turns out he likes robotics a bit better anyway.

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Anonymous wrote:Eagle Scouts, sports (other than those being recruited to play at college level), student government, NHS, any kind of peer counseling or tutoring

You clearly have no understanding of the effort required to make Eagle Scout —it’s an extremely elite rank — maybe you mean generally involved in Scouting USA?

this is super regional. for example, making eagle in a mormon troup (before they left scouting) was pretty not so hard.

Having done eagle scout and a black belt. I'd say the black belt was more work.
The eagle scout project was a PITA but otherwise the eagle scout was a lot easier and more fun.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eagle Scouts, sports (other than those being recruited to play at college level), student government, NHS, any kind of peer counseling or tutoring

You clearly have no understanding of the effort required to make Eagle Scout —it’s an extremely elite rank — maybe you mean generally involved in Scouting USA?

this is super regional. for example, making eagle in a mormon troup (before they left scouting) was pretty not so hard.

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Anonymous wrote:So this a thread designed to make people feel bad about what their kids are doing? People should decline to participate in this!

+1. And these people are basically listing the ECs that my unhooked white kid dkd — they are now at a top 10 school.

You are probably full pay, which is a hook.

LOL Full pay is not a hook. Every person I know is full pay. Not that special, trust me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So this a thread designed to make people feel bad about what their kids are doing? People should decline to participate in this!

+1. And these people are basically listing the ECs that my unhooked white kid dkd — they are now at a top 10 school.

You are probably full pay, which is a hook.

Anonymous wrote:The three Eagle Scouts from my son's HS did not fare well in admissions last year. They're all at targets/safeties; none were accepted at their reaches. Not that this is hard data, but interesting to me.

(Kid applied to Ivies: Villanova. Kid who ED1 to BC: Bates. Kid who applied to a ton of schools, including ED to Lehigh: UVM.)

As the parent of a Scout, not Eagle but working towards it, not all Eagle Scouts are equal. There are kids in our Troop who do the bare minimum of merit badges, a simple but acceptable project, and held leadership positions that don’t require leadership (bugler, librarian, and Chaplin’s). I would hate to think what their essay would look like if they wrote about Scouts because they were not the most involved and outgoing Scout. Then there are Eagle Scouts who were the Senior Patrol Leader, attended all the camps, planned camps, lead volunteer projects, and had a killer Eagle project.

This area produces more Eagles than most other areas of the Country. Plenty of families/Scouts are capable of checking the boxes without really enjoying the experience. I would guess that kids who were whole heartedly into Scouts could write a killer essay even if they don’t make Eagle.

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Anonymous wrote:The three Eagle Scouts from my son's HS did not fare well in admissions last year. They're all at targets/safeties; none were accepted at their reaches. Not that this is hard data, but interesting to me.

(Kid applied to Ivies: Villanova. Kid who ED1 to BC: Bates. Kid who applied to a ton of schools, including ED to Lehigh: UVM.)

This post tells us nothing. It’s one data point. Was scouting their only EC? Did they take the most rigorous courses? GPA? SAT/ACT?

Exactly. The lack of logic in the post is concerning.

This. My DD is a younger Scout on track for Eagle. Her troop members applying to colleges this year have a range of stats and other EC commitments. Since we're sharing anecdata, one is in at Penn.

No the whole eagle scout thing is very minor. Very old school, like 1970s. It's not impressive to be part of a larger organization, it is impressive to create changes within one. If your kid is doing that, they should shout about it in their essays. If they're not, well ok.

You clearly know nothing about the kind of leadership, teamwork, service, and years of hard work Eagle entails.

I think you're missing the bigger argument. The Scouts is an organisation you join. They have rules and uniforms which is pseudo-militaristic, but also they have systems in place for their outreach programs.

Kids are not coming up with new outreach or innovations on the existing outreach, it is just a wheel that is going around and around in the same way, ad nauseam and the kids jump on and off that wheel.

Do you not see how this shows zero initiative, zero original thought, zero genuine change / impact?

Actually, the scout has to come up with an idea themselves and spearhead every aspect of it. I used to think the same thing until I actually looked into scouts. It’s an impressive organization, and I’m impressed by the Eagle Scouts I know.

I should mention that this is my first post on this thread. I’m not the only pro-scout parent.

It is truly no more or less impressive than any long term activity. Your scout didn’t do the culminating project for year and years…there were projectS done. It’s a great activity - just like a lot of activities.

Ross Ulbricht
Eagle Scout serving 2 life sentences for setting up the Silk Road dark web.

Yeah, well I guess he was innovative...