Top student with high test scores which activities have the most value?

- 4 years 6A football (Quarterback)
- 4 years 6A Baseball
- Student Council
- Decathlon
- Debate
- Church Youth Group
- Part Time Job

If you are talking about value to highly selective universities (Ivy+ schools), sports don't matter unless you are a recruited athlete. The exception to that is service academies, which almost require proof of high school sports participation. Student council and debate might matter IF you really stood out in some way in either role. Church youth group probably won't matter to most woke schools (pretty much all of the top 20-30 US News ranked schools) unless it contained some sort of highly unusual emotional hook that you can base your essay on. It would likely matter most to Christian universities. Part time job might matter IF you were doing it to support your family OR if the job was particularly relevant to your intended major.

These responses are based on lessons we learned when my son was looking at MIT and Rice last Fall. We were trying to get him in as a basketball player at MIT but he just wasn't a standout athlete at the MIT basketball camp. The expectations for extracurriculars from an affluent white male are nearly impossible at all of these "elite" schools. They are looking for kids who win a national math competition, get an independent research paper published, start a non profit business that makes real money for a charity, etc. On the other hand, if you are from an "underrepresented minority" and your essay happened to tug the heart strings of the far left admissions officer, you might get in with surprisingly modest grades, scores and extracurriculars.

Hundreds of more normal colleges probably look at these things much more realistically. I guess we'll find out in about a year when my son gets his responses back from colleges like A&M, School of Mines and Purdue. He was just never going to chase the ridiculous expectations that schools like Rice and MIT have for extracurriculars from a white male applicant. He lettered in track and basketball, placed top 5 in the TAPPS state academic competition in math as a freshman (competing against seniors), represents the school every year in debate and math on the Academic Team, has tons of service hours, and NONE of that appears to count for anything to the highly selective schools.

That's a great answer and what I'm looking for. My son will be a high school freshman next year and scores 99% in all tests and will take as many honors and AP courses we offer at a large Kansas School district (Blue Valley - Overland Park).

I'm curious if the universities know just how much time, effort, and energy goes into playing football, baseball, or basketball at a large school. Much more than other sports (it's year round for all three of you play at a high level). It's significantly more time that you will spend with any club or voluntary activity.

I will also force him to have a job because I think that's the most important life lesson at a young age.

I would echo Buck. The reality is all of those EC's are typical, especially at an elite school and even a T30.

What they want is things that are interesting and different and high achieving. They want to see doing unusual and exceptional things and to do so in a way that seems authentic. They don't want you to look like a box checker, they want you to look like a really cool and unusual kid with a ton of upside potential that could benefit from their school. Same applies to elite scholarships as well.

Now if your kid is really passionate about sports that's great, they should do what they are passionate about and follow their dreams. The worst thing they can do is quit doing something they love simply to do something that they think colleges will like. That doesn't work either and in the end getting into that elite school really doesn't mean all that.

Still the things I would look to augment would be things that are most relevant to what they want to major in or are interested in. It's about crafting a story based around a hook but you have to do it in a genuine way, it's not trivial. A great podcast to listen to on the topic is "The Game" from Great Minds Advising but be prepared to be humbled. It's a no nonsense podcast of a guy that works with mainly elite level private school kids and gets them into Ivies and can tell you what it takes. What you find is that most things that people think of as being exceptional are barely minimum table stakes. He's honest though and doesn't blow smoke or even try to sell people which is different than most of the podcasts out there. I also can't recommend doubleb highly enough, Robb is fantastic and without his help I have no doubt my son would not have gotten a full ride scholarship and had the results he did.

If your son had all of the activities you listed AND great grades, he would be attractive to the service academies. They actually want well rounded applicants who are simultaneously good students, good athletes and with some leadership experience. The Ivy+ type schools really want kids who are specialists and who have excelled to a high level in one specific thing (on top of great grades and test scores of course). I realized that my son would be very attractive to the Air Force Academy, but pretty uninteresting to MIT. Sadly, he wasn't interested in a military career. That basically meant he was going to focus on well regarded public universities known for their engineering programs.

We eventually shifted from looking at overall US News and Niche rankings to rankings by specific majors. That's when we realized that A&M's undergraduate engineering program is ranked higher than the undergraduate engineering programs of nearly all of the Ivy League schools (Cornell being an exception). Purdue, Illinois and Georgia Tech beat all of the Ivies at undergraduate engineering. If you get more granular, you see that in certain engineering disciplines, A&M is pretty much at the top (petroleum engineering for example). I was also pleased to learn that other programs at A&M have moved up a great deal since my time as a student. For example, the architecture program has moved up to #11 nationally.

My advice would be to really consider whether you want to make your son's life revolve around admission to an "elite" school for the next 3-4 years, because that's what it typically takes. Even then, the odds are not great. My niece (senior in HS) has done everything right according to her consultant, including a competitive summer research internship at Brown University and its looking like she will get into zero Ivy+ schools. BTW, we started with a consultant at the end of my sons sophomore year and it was really a late (probably too late) start.

If your son has an idea what major he wants to pursue already, you might be better served looking at the specific rankings for that major instead. You just might find your son can skip all of the performative BS required by these woke schools who don't really want another white or Asian male anyway and get into a BETTER program for his intended major just by having a strong transcript and good test scores.

Good to know.

As of now, he's only planning on football and baseball. I've just heard they aren't valued that much so thinking he might need to do debate? It's unfortunate because the high level athletes in the three major sports spend significantly more time on their activity than anything else. I hate throwing more in his plate. As I said earlier, I think a part time job trumps all extra curricular activity.

He scores very high (99% on all tests as long as we can remember). He busses to the high school for Honors Geometry while in 8th grade.

These questions are coming as he maps out his high school schedule right now…he just turned in freshman.

The big question later on will be does he drop football and baseball after high school and just go to his school of choice (he's all in on A&M). He's very athletic…major level baseball and QB in football and 7 on 7.

If your son really loves the sports he is playing, but is not likely going to be a D1 athlete, I have seen plenty of kids from my son's school get into academically strong D2 and D3 schools as athletes. We've sent football players to MIT, School of Mines and Hillsdale in recent years. One of my son's friends is going to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology as a football player next year.

Buck Turgidson said:

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If your son really loves the sports he is playing, but is not likely going to be a D1 athlete, I have seen plenty of kids from my son's school get into academically strong D2 and D3 schools as athletes. We've sent football players to MIT, School of Mines and Hillsdale in recent years. One of my son's friends is going to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology as a football player next year.

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You son's friend is the third kid I know this year going to Rose-Hulman as an athlete. A young lady from our program wants to play soccer at the next level but academics are very important for her and that is why she chose Rose-Hulman.

Wow, this is a loaded question, and there is no single correct answer. However, there are some steps students can take to improve their applications.

• Consistency. Colleges love to see well-involved students who are committed to their activities. Students who engage in several short-lived activities are not well regarded, because it takes time to develop impactful experiences.

• Quality over Quantity. You don't have to be involved in 10 different activities to make yourself stand out. Take a few and really commit to making an impact. Plus, I see students all the time who "volunteer" 100 + hours but have no real connection to it. I'd rather see a student who is deeply invested in a non-profit's mission and values and volunteers there for 2 hours per month for 2 years. That demonstrates consistency, commitment, and that real relationships can be forged.

• Time-suck Activities. These are your sports and band activities, which leave very little room for students to explore other interests. The impact from these activities is not created by titles, but by a student's impact on others, and the characteristics they are nurturing. What kind of teammate are they to others? How often are they initiating outside activities for themselves and others? How much discipline and sacrifice do they show on their own? They need to be able to articulate this in very specific terms.

• Leave your legacy. Find ways to leave your mark behind. It can be a new event or initiative that supports your organization's mission. Create something that, when you look back on the organization in 5-10 years, this effort is still being supported.

There is so much more I could share; however, much of it is dependent on the individual student. I will say that Texas A&M still values the well-rounded student who demonstrates strong leadership skills. Just recently, a mother shared this information with me, written as a small note on her son's Business Honors acceptance letter.

• Mock trial, sports, theater, service, and StuCo - I loved seeing the versatility of your leadership. However, your ability to grow as a reflective person stood out the most!

With this student, I helped him start the mock trial club and recommended that he attend a rigorous summer camp to learn the ropes. Additionally, I encouraged him to pursue Theater to strengthen his communication skills and learn to read/connect with an audience, which will eventually help him with his public speaking as a future trial lawyer. However, what really set him apart was his essay. He wrote about learning to play his guitar, how he learned to slow life down, be vulnerable, and reflect on the growth process as he developed into a better person.

Most importantly, your activities need to communicate a narrative, a story that can be sold. If they're a collection of activities put together with no rhyme or reason, then it is difficult to stand out among tens of thousands of applicants.