OT-National Student Leadership Conference and Others

[Knight Shift]

My son is a freshman at Biotech High School, and he's liking it a lot and doing well. He took the PSATs and also scored well.

We are getting inundated with mail from various colleges for summer programs and we got a very impressive looking invitation to pay several thousands of dollars to go to American University this summer to attend the National Student Leadership Conference.

I looked this organization up, and there seem to be a lot of these send fancy invitations to thousands of students and they make a lot of money on such conferences.

Are any particular summer conferences or organizations worthwhile? Many years ago, it was considered a good move to go to NJ Boys State, and I see that program is still active, but it is only for high school juniors.

 

[RUTBAY]

Putting that on a college application marks you as a sucker. You would be better off using that money to organize or develop some type of charitable interest that your son manages or claims to have started.

BTW every one of my kids friends as got one of those letters as did my kids. The organization targets affluent communities.

 

[Knight Shift]

Putting that on a college application marks you as a sucker. You would be better off using that money to organize or develop some type of charitable interest that your son manages or claims to have started.

BTW every one of my kids friends as got one of those letters as did my kids. The organization targets affluent communities.

That's what I thought. But as I read the invitation, they make it sound like your son/daughter is a future senator or secretary of state. LOL.

 

[RU4Real]

For most kids, these things don't really do much. They're not student resume material and the ROI, in most cases, simply isn't there.

That said, we sent our youngest daughter to one of these conferences early in her high school career. We felt that she could benefit from being forced out of her comfort zone a little and this seemed like a good opportunity to do that. She's brilliant, has always been a perfect student, but she lacked some of the social and collaborative tools that would be needed for success beyond high school. From that perspective, we got our money's worth.

 

[Knight Shift]

For most kids, these things don't really do much. They're not student resume material and the ROI, in most cases, simply isn't there.

That said, we sent our youngest daughter to one of these conferences early in her high school career. We felt that she could benefit from being forced out of her comfort zone a little and this seemed like a good opportunity to do that. She's brilliant, has always been a perfect student, but she lacked some of the social and collaborative tools that would be needed for success beyond high school. From that perspective, we got our money's worth.

Your daughter sounds like our son. He is going to be volunteering at Monmouth Medical Center next summer. And when he turns 16 in September, he says his is going to join Station 43 as a junior member. My experience as a junior at station 52-3 150 years ago was really formative for me in a lot of ways.

 

[RU4Real]

Your daughter sounds like our son. He is going to be volunteering at Monmouth Medical Center next summer. And when he turns 16 in September, he says his is going to join Station 43 as a junior member. My experience as a junior at station 52-3 150 years ago was really formative for me in a lot of ways.

Yeah, right now she's trying to figure out what she wants to do with the rest of her life. I'm expecting a career academic. Which is fine, really. It's what she likes.

 

[RUTBAY]

For most kids, these things don't really do much. They're not student resume material and the ROI, in most cases, simply isn't there.

That said, we sent our youngest daughter to one of these conferences early in her high school career. We felt that she could benefit from being forced out of her comfort zone a little and this seemed like a good opportunity to do that. She's brilliant, has always been a perfect student, but she lacked some of the social and collaborative tools that would be needed for success beyond high school. From that perspective, we got our money's worth.

I can see that as a very good reason to send your kid there. We sent one of our kids to an away camp for music theatre. Socially she learned a lot as I'm sure did your daughter. As a resume builder for a college app not so much.