Stress to Impress? Or Just Say Yes to CVS?
Teen Talk
By Sarah Coe-Odess | July 10, 2010
Sarah Coe-Odess
Allison was frantic because she still hadn’t landed a summer internship. Max had plans to be a counselor at a camp for disadvantaged children. He wasn’t getting paid, of course. In fact, he was paying a few hundred dollars to the camp, where they justified that it was a small price for a community service experience that would look good on his college application.
But he was spending a lot less money than Hailey, who was going to Argentina to work at a children’s cancer hospice. Weren’t there kids with cancer in the States? Oh, this would be more impressive, she insisted.
Then there was Jacob, who for the fourth consecutive summer was paying over 6,000 dollars to participate in a program in which he traveled to a third world country to serve an impoverished community, whatever that means; last year, it meant feeding elephants in Thailand.
In each case, the students viewed their unique summer plan, acquired with family connections and parents’ deep pockets, as the golden ticket to some elite college. But, after talking to alumni interviewers for two Ivy League colleges, I learned that such plum positions can have the opposite effect on some admissions committees.
A woman who had interviewed for Harvard told me that rather than making the student look like a great humanitarian, it makes the kid look over-privileged. What once seemed like a sure way to impress comes off instead as a calculated “resumé polisher.”
She suggested that a college admissions committee would be more impressed with something simpler that seems more genuine and consistent with the passions the student has previously demonstrated.
“Or,” she added, “get a paid job, even if it’s at your local CVS.”
The idea that a job unloading boxes at CVS would be more impressive than a trip to Cambodia cleaning rice paddies gave me pause. But an alumnus interviewer from Brown confirmed this.
“The admissions process should not be something that you go through to make yourself into someone that you’re not. Rather, it should reinforce the strengths of who you are.”
Be true to oneself? What a novel concept! And how inexpensive!
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Comments to date: 6. Page 1 of 1. Average Rating:  Gabrielle
San Francisco | 11:37am on Sunday, August 22nd, 2010  | So perceptive and insightful. My son and I fought about this topic before, and I had to explain that it's better to take up one activity than it is to take up several ones that are meaningless. Finally people are starting to understand this. |
a Location unknown | 6:15pm on Saturday, August 21st, 2010  | cool. |
Anonymous
Los Angeles, Ca | 11:47pm on Tuesday, August 10th, 2010  | Sarah, I understand your point of view. However, do college admissions officers really look at such experiences as pessimistically as you say?? I disagree 100% with you. Because if that is true, wouldn't they scrutinize every single opportunity you have taken with a disapproving eye? Sure, I'm no admissions officer. But I can guarantee you that if they thought that way, nobody would be getting in. Also, if you plan on insulting Eli, please do it to his face. Thanks!! |
Sterling C.
Brentwood, CA | 3:26pm on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 | A very insightful piece, taking an honest look at how much pressure many of us have put on our children to "succeed" -- sometimes without examining what "success" really means. |
College-WATCH Admissions Consultants
Walnut Creek, CA | 11:52am on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 | Finally, back to basics and the reasons students should be admitted to college-- academic performance, demonstrated personal interest, & personal goals and aspirations. Admissions should never be about privilege, but about talent, commitment, passion and living an authentic life that mirror personal values, beliefs, goals and ideas.
Community service does not have to be across the globe, but in a student's own backyard and community. As Dorothy from the Wizard of OZ said, "There is no place like home."-- And there truly is no place like home. |
Claire Law Educational Consultant
Charleston, SC | 6:48am on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 | It makes sense that admission to prestigious universities is based on merit and not privilege. As It makes sense that admission to prestigious universities is based on merit and not privilege. Store-bought experiences are not the same as what the student creates and earns for him/herself. Albert Schwitzer said something along these lines: to whom much is given, much is expected. Claire Law Educational Consultant Charleston South Carolina |
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