I think it is more of NYC thing. Some of the people we keep in contact with are doing it. Some kids in rowing, a couple at very high levels in tennis. One in diving, from gymnastics. Since gymastics was not strong, but diving is less competitive. I was a little shocked when DD was in 8th grade (the school goes 7-12) and hearing all these mothers talking about US admissions and the talk about consultants. One wanted to push her daughter into sailing, despite the kid not wanting it, to distinquish her from other Chinese ethnic students. Thanks for the link indigo. Wasn't on the board much then. And now that she is getting older, and the whole lawsuit, thinking about it. But I agree you cannot push your kid into any activity they don't want to do and expect them to excel. If my kid didn't love sailing, they would not allow her to race and she wouldn't have a sailing CV. So it cannot be done. My point was taking the things they want to do and making it work. On the link indigo posted, Bostonian mentioned college confidential. I peruse the pages after EA. And it is really interesting the kids that get in with lower scores compared to the kids with high scores that get waitlisted or rejected. It is always a choice to say I don't want to pay the dues to join that club, and that is always something I say to my kid. You have choices to go to a CDN university for much less money with scores being the only determining factor. Since we see that here, it is really competitive for some programs.