Whatever happened to catching a bus to talk to a professor whose paper you read in the library then ending up working for him for two years while in high school?
That article is basically describing an arms race in college admissions. It's presumably doing a lot of damage and is really a shame.
It would not take more than 10 minutes with the "resume padding" kids to find them out.
There are LOTS of kids with "perfect" grades and test scores. With AP classes, the student can get above a perfect 4.00 GPA, and there are lots of prep courses for the tests.
It's important for your child long-term to have hobbies/outside interests to get into a good college. Actually, that's a good idea for LIFE. I don't support this kind of pursuit for the ideal personal essay but it is good to have SOMETHING you can write your essay about.
I think its time to push calculus down into the 10th grade and add some more mature math/physics/chem classes to the 11th and 12 grades to differentiate the kids further.
As for real passions, I wonder if its hard to develop any if the kids are 100% programmed.
