[WalterBright]

I walked home from school. I can't recall my parents ever picking me up.

The Boy Scouts didn't run on money. A chess club, book club, drama club, dance club, photography club, math club, etc., don't require money.

Besides, creating something from nothing is going to look a lot better on an application than following a course that is laid out by instructors and papered with cash.

[actionablefiber]

> I walked home from school. I can't recall my parents ever picking me up.

In the United States in the 2020s being able to walk yourself to and from school without A) having your life in grave danger from motor vehicle traffic and B) having someone call CPS or the police on your parents is an incredible luxury.

The neighborhood where I grew up was built in the early 90s and its elementary school and middle school are on the opposite side of an eight lane highway that has no crosswalks or sidewalks (on the school side) for at least a quarter mile. The town believes so strongly that no one should walk or bike to school that they zoned the school and built out the roads such that attempting to do so would sooner or later result in certain death.

[andrepd]

/r/fuckcars moment, but yes you're absolutely right. Transportation in the US seems to be getting worse as time passes, it's actually incredible.

[actionablefiber]

Yes, absolutely an /r/fuckcars moment, growing up in suburbia with no survivable means of transportation besides the car made me extremely receptive to the thesis of that subreddit.

[metalforever]

Yeah this was the issue. It’s probably a common one in rural areas like the one I am from. These areas also tend to lack public transit.

[WalterBright]

We're talking high school, not elementary school. College admissions don't look at elementary school activities.

High schoolers can walk around unattended. Even a quarter mile, both ways. It's not a big deal. In the summer I often try to get in 5 miles a day of running/walking.

> incredible luxury

Don't overstate your case.

The irony in this thread is all the complaining about "can't do things that will look good on a college application" just means that another student who does find a way around obstacles is going to be the one admitted. Surmounting obstacles makes one a standout candidate.

[kelnos]

You seem to have had a pretty privileged upbringing. I did too. School bus was always available during normal hours, and my mom was a stay-at-home mom, and was (nearly) always available to drive my sister and me places.

My schools were never within walking distance, and my parents wouldn't have been comfortable with the type of roads I'd have to traverse even if they were, even when I was in high school.

Your assumption that everyone -- or even most kids -- have a situation like you had is just flat-out wrong.

> Surmounting obstacles makes one a standout candidate.

This is just hogwash; being in a position to surmount obstacles is privilege too. And you seem to be ignoring the fact that some kids didn't have obstacles, and so it was easier for them to participate in all these other activities: they started out with a built-in advantage. Even if you do have obstacles, and are able to overcome them, you're still going to have a harder time than the kids without the obstacles. And not in ways that are obvious to admissions departments such that your experience would give you a leg up.

[WalterBright]

> privileged

Lower middle class. Pretty ordinary.

> in a position to surmount obstacles is privilege

I presume you live in America. That makes you just as privileged. Consider all the millions with nothing that are desperate to get into America. They see something you're missing?

> you're still going to have a harder time than the kids without the obstacles

Well, yes. Overcoming obstacles makes for a more compelling candidate.

> And not in ways that are obvious to admissions departments such that your experience would give you a leg up.

The opportunity to bring how you surmounted obstacles to the attention of the admissions people is through your application.

[actionablefiber]

> High schoolers can walk around unattended. Even a quarter mile, both ways. It's not a big deal. In the summer I often try to get in 5 miles a day of running/walking.

Extremely location dependent. Where I live today, in Virginia very close to DC, I commute by bike and do lots of biking/walking for fun and to run errands. What you are saying about walking around as a means of getting from place to place is just completely untrue in many parts of the United States.

I made a specific point about my ES/MS because of how egregious it was to have them at a half mile's walk away but with unacceptably dangerous terrain, in the very place I grew up. My HS was a couple miles away and, until ~2010 when they built a protected ~800ft long MUP, would have required walking/riding on the highway to reach without a car as well.

The point of that is that if you live in an area like this and your parents work, you are extremely handicapped in what you can do by yourself. You would need a third car to get yourself around and if you cannot manage that then you are completely subservient to your parents' availability and your local school bus schedules for all of your transportation needs. Which has repercussions on clubs, extracurriculars, your social life, really the full range of experiences you can have growing up.

When I was in K-12 my life consisted mainly of school, sleep, and playing video games in the basement. Now that I am in a city and can go wherever I want whenever I want I find I am extremely active and social and have many different hobbies.

[WalterBright]

I'm sure there are places where it is difficult to walk anywhere. Those are not the norm, however. I don't recall any places like that in Seattle.

Most parents with kids try to pick places to live that are reasonably kid friendly. Real estate people know that, and advertisements emphasize things like walkability and distance to schools.

[Karrot_Kream]

Seattle is definitely out of the norm. Even Northgate, which doesn't have sidewalks in places, has roundabouts on the collectors to discourage speeding. I grew up in a poverty-level suburb and you were walking miles away on cramped sidewalks even to get to a grocery store. When I grew up cars couldn't accelerate that quickly so it wasn't that scary, but these days cars can travel at > 60 mph on collector roads between lights.

[actionablefiber]

This is just not a take that squares with how it is to live anywhere in America outside of the denser urban cores and some shallow radius of the suburbs around them. Perhaps it was correct at some time in the past before the suburban expansion of the post-WWII era. Perhaps Seattle is different from the overwhelming majority of the United States and is uniquely walkable or upzoned. I would not know since I have not been there before.

In the United States today it is the norm for middle and upper middle class parents to raise their children in car-dependent suburbia. Particularly in the last half century, most new residential developments have been exactly this. The defining features of these places are sprawling circuitous developments of detached single-family homes, massive parking lots, impassable highways, and strip malls.

If you'd like an example, please come visit Loudoun and Fairfax counties. I grew up in that area. They are some of the wealthiest counties in the country, a common destination for families in the DMV, and you will see how much walkability and proximity to schools that money has bought them.

[atonse]

Yup same here. Public school was walking distance (20 min walk but not a big deal) so I didn’t rely on my parents. We also had a public metrobus route with discounted fare.