Let your daughter choose her activities!

Only she knows what she likes and is passionate about. Never force your daughter to join some clubs she dislike and has no interest. From the long-term goal point of view, students should develop their own passions no matter which subjects or activities, which is alos very useful for writing essays for college application. As parents, we should support and help them to be successful in those extracurricular activities they choose. My daughter did many activities and chose several ones such as debate, newspaper, art, and envionmental protection as her major extracuricular activities. All these activities made her a well-rounded student. I fully supported her choices (I didn't give any suggestions to my daughter and she was really following her passions) and even sacrificed my time to drive her to attend these activities and competitions. I could say that her passions in these activities were clearly shown in her college applications. Her essay in the common application was about debate and how debate has changed her and made her a better student and person. A short essay in the common appl. was about her volunteer experience in environmental protection (volunteer in a local wildlife refuge). To join her school newspaper definitely helped her to improve her writing skill. She used her talent in art to become the art editor of the newspaper. You see that all these activities not only made her school life more interesting and colorful but also helped her with her college applications. Her volunteer in environmental protection played an important role to win a local community scholarship. So please respect your daughter's choices about her subjects or activities. I believe that your daughter will be very successful and become a well-rounded student.