Convincing athlete to commit to robotics?

[ASD20]

Originally Posted by Ed Law

I don't quite understand your point and your example. From listening to dozens of talks from admission officers, I gathered that colleges are interested in 6 main areas:
1) GPA
2) Standardized test scores
3) Essays and supplemental questions if any
4) Extra-curricular activities and Leadership
5) Work experience and Entrepreneurship
6) Recommendation letters
They are not in any particular order. Every college will put different things as higher priority. A student has more control over some of these than others but I would argue that there is nothing on that list that the student has no control at all. These are things that admission officers use to see whether the student will be a good fit for the college. What students want to do with their life has nothing to do with these 6 things. Are you suggesting that students should do whatever they want and not care about what colleges are looking for? And none of the 6 areas are things that could help in their future whatever they decided to pursue?

It's not that students should ignore college completely throughout high school, it's that by the time you are an incoming senior, there is very little you can change in a significant way. You have your essays and maybe SATs if you haven't taken them before (If you've already taken them the odds are you won't do that much better). Basically just don't let your grades drop and don't get suspended and let what happens happens. Also, high school seniors do not need to be told to think about college with every decision to think about college with every decision.