Anonymous wrote:

As the mother of a high performing senior, here is my advice to you. Follow your kid’s interests and lead. You are not going to craft her into someone she is not and if you let your high achieving kid become who she should be, I promise you it will pay dividends for both you and your kid. My DD has applied to some reach schools. She may get in. But regardless, I am so amazed by the woman she has become. She will change the world no matter where she goes to school. And this person would not have emerged if we had tried to curate her activities.

10000% this. My DS has lots of ECs, but they are all due to his organic interests and his application reads that way, instead of having signed up for a million unrelated activities in hopes of improving his college admissions profile.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Purely practical suggestion: If her school requires physical education sophomore year of high school (my DC's did -- they had to do PE freshman and sophomore years, it was not required of juniors and seniors):

If there is any option to take "summer PE" and get that credit out of the way, have her do it. In our case (FCPS), a lot of kids take summer PE the summer after freshman year so that the free up that class slot during sophomore year and can take another class in that slot, rather than a year of PE/health classes.

Summer PE in FCPS was self-directed. They met at one school to pick up heart monitors and get instructions, then did online health classes in summer and had to do a certain amount of physical activity. Some activities they already do (like certain sports and in DC's case, extensive daily dance classes) can be counted toward the physical activity requirements (but you have to obtain permissions for that).

Even if you're not in FCPS (and I have not read this whole thread), see if your kid is required to take sophomore PE and if so, how to get that out of the way the summer before sophomore year. Freeing up that class slot for other courses of vastly more interest is a FAR better use of that time. Not just for building up the GPA or taking tough classes, OP -- but because, frankly, it's such a bore for many kids to have to do PE in school. Get it over and done with even if your kid isn't enthusiastic. They'll be so glad they did.

And an added bonus: keeps your kids away from troublemaker students

Anonymous wrote:

You don’t understand. SHE is the one driving the bus here. We would prefer she get a local job and volunteer over the summer, she wants to live somewhere else and learn/do something more novel.

The problem is you framed her desire in the context of wanting to improve her chance of getting into a selective university, instead of just pursuing something she is actually interested in. There is a big difference and it lies in authenticity.

Summer college programs are a scam. They make the families think they have a shot at the school. The school rents out their empty facilities to a separate unaffiliated company and hire the professors as paid consultants. It all has the veneer of being a college experience.
Paid internships are BS. A real job speaks more about real experiences than an artificial "job" paid for by mommy and daddy.

You don’t understand. SHE is the one driving the bus here. We would prefer she get a local job and volunteer over the summer, she wants to live somewhere else and learn/do something more novel.

As the mother of a high performing senior, here is my advice to you. Follow your kid’s interests and lead. You are not going to craft her into someone she is not and if you let your high achieving kid become who she should be, I promise you it will pay dividends for both you and your kid. My DD has applied to some reach schools. She may get in. But regardless, I am so amazed by the woman she has become. She will change the world no matter where she goes to school. And this person would not have emerged if we had tried to curate her activities.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD is a high school freshman, all As, does some sports but not very well, more into debate and model UN. What would be a good use of her summer?

We are looking at academic programs like CTY and Duke, spouse is thinking they should get a job or internship — but I can’t find many internships for 15 year old high school freshman.

We talked to counselors at high school but they just point us to the county volunteer website.

As the mother of a high performing senior, here is my advice to you. Follow your kid’s interests and lead. You are not going to craft her into someone she is not and if you let your high achieving kid become who she should be, I promise you it will pay dividends for both you and your kid. My DD has applied to some reach schools. She may get in. But regardless, I am so amazed by the woman she has become. She will change the world no matter where she goes to school. And this person would not have emerged if we had tried to curate her activities.

Anonymous wrote:
Purely practical suggestion: If her school requires physical education sophomore year of high school (my DC's did -- they had to do PE freshman and sophomore years, it was not required of juniors and seniors):

If there is any option to take "summer PE" and get that credit out of the way, have her do it. In our case (FCPS), a lot of kids take summer PE the summer after freshman year so that the free up that class slot during sophomore year and can take another class in that slot, rather than a year of PE/health classes.

Summer PE in FCPS was self-directed. They met at one school to pick up heart monitors and get instructions, then did online health classes in summer and had to do a certain amount of physical activity. Some activities they already do (like certain sports and in DC's case, extensive daily dance classes) can be counted toward the physical activity requirements (but you have to obtain permissions for that).

Even if you're not in FCPS (and I have not read this whole thread), see if your kid is required to take sophomore PE and if so, how to get that out of the way the summer before sophomore year. Freeing up that class slot for other courses of vastly more interest is a FAR better use of that time. Not just for building up the GPA or taking tough classes, OP -- but because, frankly, it's such a bore for many kids to have to do PE in school. Get it over and done with even if your kid isn't enthusiastic. They'll be so glad they did.