There is a lot of pressure for students to do extracurricular activities. Many colleges view EC’s as a critical element of the application. There are varying degrees of a student's engagement level: Is the student doing enough in this regard? Are they following their passions? Or are they doing the activity because they were told to?

I pose the following critical question to get to the core: Who owns the extracurricular activity?

It sounds like a crazy question…shouldn’t the answer be “Of course, the student owns it?”

But, consider the possibility that the parent owns the activity:

The image of a parent working on their elementary or middle school students school project is something many of us can relate to. To the parents, they may remember their own experience gaining assistance on building a volcano that used some type of baking soda to erupt or a 3D view of a scene from history—maybe something like George Washington crossing the Delaware River in a boat. Once the student is in high school, the academic grades become even more important—especially for college admission—and extracurricular activities compete for the student’s available time. It becomes tempting for some to take “shortcuts”. This may be simply a parent wanting to stem the tide of tears when a complex high school assignment is behind schedule and the student struggles to complete it in time. Time for Super Mom or Super Dad to step in and save the day!

From a practical matter, is the student the one asking how they can help volunteer for a community service organization, or is the parent the one that sets up the activity? Although most parents would say that “helping” their son or daughter is their only option, this support may include some long-term harm. What will happen when their kid is in college and the parent can no longer “own” or get involved with the activity?

When it comes to applying for college, students are often primed for a period of intense stress. They know that they’ll have to keep up their 4.0 GPAs, take 15 AP classes, and join the crew team, or maybe start taking harp lessons. The overwhelming questions that come to mind might be, “Am I smart enough?” Or, “Am I interesting enough?” Or, “Am I unique?” The college process demands that students turn inward and evaluate what they do, how successful they’ve been, and where they’re headed. But having clear and mature answers to all of these questions is far from what most teenagers (or college admissions officers) can imagine.

Even more, now that our world has been hit by a pandemic which has wiped out testing opportunities and put more pressure on students to stand out, the existential questions are pouring in faster. What about a gap year or community college? Now in competition with students that had deferred and international students, how are these kids supposed to manage?

Building Your College Profile

Tips for Current Sophomores and Juniors

High school students have been enormously impacted by the pandemic this year, and last. With activities interrupted, distance learning and disruptions to the testing industries, the mental, emotional and physical burden that teenagers have been facing is unprecedented. However, while the toll of the pandemic has demotivated many, high school Sophomores and Juniors shouldn’t lose sight of the future. While many students have had their plans completely dismantled, now is the time to refocus and bring new energy to constructing a college profile.

When it comes to building your college profile, the work needs to start early. While adolescence is a time of confusion and experimentation, it is also a time where commitment to a few key goals can really pay off. Starting Sophomore year, students can already begin crafting their resumes and projecting themselves as future college students, even if that future is unclear. Here are some tips to get the process started.

Think about your core values.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in listing off to colleges everything that you’ve done, but that gets superficial very quickly. Instead, start with this values exercise. By thinking about your top values, you can more easily link them to anecdotes that represent these values, which can end up being excellent fodder for essays. Your core values should also be able to explain the activities and courses you choose to take.

Don’t over-explain.