Hi all, this is my first thread, so hopefully I’m not messing this up.
I was just wondering what I could do to strengthen my ECs, and perhaps have them evaluated to know how “good” they are.
As an African American applicant, I often hear from people that I have a good shot at elite institutions, but I feel as though the people who feed me this aren’t aware of the competition. I’d appreciate any feedback. Just a note, I’m genuinely trying to make my school a better place, and I feel as though my teachers can speak to that in their rec letters. I was just wondering if my “chances” are as good as people make them out to be. I’m also curious as to if my ECs show a “spike” at all.
“Accolades”-
5th Place State- Future Problem Solvers (10)
Regional Champion- Future Problem Solvers (10)
Kukkiwon- Black Belt in Taekwondo (10)
Boys State Representative
CMU SAMS
Other Stuff-
Class President (12)
School Board Member (12)
Student Council Representative (11-12)
Work to address student concerns with administration
Represent minority interests within district
Yearbook Editor in Chief (12)
Varsity Alpine Ski (10-11)
*My academics are in the neighborhood of the average Harvard admit
My intended major is African American Studies, and I hope to go on to law school after, if that’s relevant
Thanks for your thoughts, and I appreciate your consideration.
Some of you may notice that I started a similar thread on the Yale page, but I didn’t receive any feedback, so that’s why I’m posting here as well.
Many student’s misunderstand the role extracurricular’s play when an Admissions Officer looks over an applicant’s file. Harvard (and YPSM) are not extracurricular camps, they are academic institutions – so Admissions Officers are MORE concerned with a student’s performance in the classroom. A good example of that comes directly from Harvard’s Golf Recruitment Page: http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/mgolf/faq
If those are the test scores and GPA needed for a recruited athlete, Admissions is NOT likely to lower their standards for a non-athlete, or a URM, no matter how wonderful their extracurricular activities.
Here’s the deal: Admissions looks at a student’s extracurricular activities to gauge their level of COMMITMENT they have made to something beyond the classroom. And they look for student’s who have spent years (not months) participating in an activity – and it doesn’t matter what activity you have participated in. The idea is that a student’s energy, drive, determination, and commitment is a transferable skill, something that could be transferred to another activity in college, or something later on in life.
A student’s SPECIFIC extracurricular activity is probably one of the last items considered when Admissions builds a freshman class, as they want to make sure they are NOT admitting 50 tuba players when only 4 are needed for an institution’s orchestra. Ditto with being class president, school board member, year book editor-in-chief etc. Without knowing how many other students are being considered for admission who have similar interests as you, it’s impossible to say how your EC’s look by comparison.
That said, what stands out to me is Varsity Alpine Skiing. I imagine the coaches of Harvard’s Alpine skiing team do not receive many slots from the Admissions Office. If you are capable of competing at a Division I level, and have the coaches support, I would think that EC would trump all else. Have you investigated that option? Have you contacted Harvard’s Ski team coaches and let them know of your interest in Harvard and the team (possibly as a walk-on)? Do you have a video link you can send them? See: http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/skiing/coaches/index