<p>Yess I know its sounds a little hard to believe! But the logic of it is that if you’re really passionate about doing something then you’ll spend a lot on time on it and improve until you achieve quite a high level of excellence 
Of course you need to have great scores and grades but I see it more as a kind of ‘‘prerequisite’’. As one admission officer once told me, 25 000 of the 30 000 students who apply each year meet these academic standards. So in the end personnality makes the difference!</p>
<p>That’s great advice, thanks so much! :]
But… just a quick question… What if you want to go into medicine, and you display capability for that academically, but your extracurricular activities are mostly involved in activism and world affairs, with just a few science-related ones? Would you have to prove in other ways that you can handle sciences in undergraduate?</p>
<p>Thanks Perle, I think a lot of people on here needed that! So does this mean that it is not necessary to take the so-called “rigorous” courses such as the sciences and maths? </p>
<p>Btw, I’m from Canada too! Salut!</p>
<p>Leftyy: I am definitely not an expert but I belive that doing what you love does not necessarily mean doing something related to your intended field of study. Most applicants will have changed their minds concerning their major/professional school plans by the time they will have to make these decisions and colleges know that :). So as long as you do things that you love and that your whole application is coherent, I believe it doesnt really matter which field you want to go into later in life. You’ll most likely be okay with only a few science-related EC’s, especially if you do well in your science classes :)</p>
<p>Candywrapper: I did the IB math standard level exam and didnt take any chemistry or physics class in grade 11 or 12, so I assume taking advanced sciences/math classes is not so important if you do not plan to study in that field. However, I was a full IB student and took higher level philosophy, french and english. So I would say you have to take advanced classes whenever possible, but it doesn’t matter which classes (sciences vs humanities) they are :)</p>
<p>This is such really, really excellent advice. My daughter was so thrilled and surprised by her acceptance to Harvard. She had just worked really hard at achieving goals in areas that were very important to her and did EC’s that she loved. She dropped a couple activities that she didn’t wholeheartedly enjoy and that was probably one of the best things she did so she could concentrate on doing a thoughtful job on her applications and continue to grow in areas for which she had a passion. You will be required to do a lot of things in high school, but where you have a choice, go for something you love so you will have no regrets!</p>
<p>Perle, thank you so much for your advice. Even though I still have a little over a year to go until I send in my application, the pressure is already building. I’m terribly worried about all the tests and what not, but it really helps to know that your passions is what always shines through. Just like yourself, I am very passionate about international affairs/government etcetera… and I just really hope that I can show that in my app. Model UN seems so interesting, however our school does not have a Model UN team (actually, no HS in our district has one XD) so I’ve been toying around with the idea of starting a Model UN team at our school, yet I have no idea where to begin. I vaguely know how the club even works, so that’s another burden. Any advice?</p>
<p>Thanks JMMom32 I am so glad your daughter never lost sight of her passions despite the whole college admission pressure!</p>
<p>Irishtraveler, my school did not have a Model UN team either! In fact the whole MUN thing is basically unheard of where I live (quebec, canada). One of my friend and I took some advices from 4 students who had gone to Harvard’s MUN on the preivous year. We made people who wanted to make the team write a paper similar to those which are written at a MUN conference and had these 4 students and some teachers review them. Then we just registered to a few MUN conferences online and had weekly meetings with the crew to see how everyone was doing with their assigned country and committee and preparing for the conference. There are certainly schools where this is taken way more seriously but really I feel its up to you to decide! Some people on CC can probably help you with it more than me though :)</p>
<p>Perle, this advice is completely invaluable! It’s reassuring to hear this. Thank you :)</p>
<p>Congrats on your acceptance!!!</p>