Are my Extracurricular Activities enough for acceptance to Harvard as an Indian applicant?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

I’m from India. I live is a small town and I would have called it a village if it wasn’t referred to as a ‘town’ around here. I am a top student in class and I’m involved in various extra-curricular activities listed here-

  1. Creative Writing - Shortlisted in some international competitions, National Award Winner (From Govt. of India) and published in international and national journals, magazines. Lots of local, district, state awards and felicitations.
  2. Debate - I have many, many prizes in debate because I participated in a LOT of them, probably more than required. But the problem is, most are at State, District or Local level. Nothing prestigious. Oh, I have won a MUN or two… I couldn’t pay for travel, so I didn’t participate widely in national competitions.
  3. A failed scientific project - I pestered the only lab we had in our ‘town’ for a research opportunity. Nobody had ever approached them with such a request and they were surprised - that probably was my entry ticket as my state and its people are too backward. Thankfully, I began working on a promising independent project, but due to lack of ‘equipment’ and the govt’s reduction of grant money, I had to leave it all behind. The project was successful in test phase but I didn’t get to do it on a larger scale with control group. So no science fair badges for me… :frowning:
  4. Social Service - I have done social service for two years for 3-4 months a years for 5-6 hours a day while working for the school cabinet. I have worked as a teacher and social activist.

For class 11, my grades might get a little lower as I’m working on a big thing.

I have yet to give SAT or AP, but we’ll see that.
So, just one question. Are my extracurriculars enough or do I need something more? I know they aren’t extraordinary, but then again, please define extraordinary.

I read somewhere that super-specialists are selected by selective colleges to make a well rounded class.
Can you tell me how I can ‘become’ a super-specialist? What am I lacking, where am I lacking and how I can work towards becoming one?
Which area should I focus more on?

Thanks in advance.

2

You can’t. If you don’t have that status now, it’s too late. Anything that you start will be very transparent to the admissions officers that you are doing it solely for college application. Your EC’s are fine to apply to Harvard, but as you are well aware, admission is very competitive, especially for international applicants. Good luck.

3

Wow - I live in India and I know how hard it is to do the ECs you have done! Congrats on working to get those in place! To be a super-specialist you needed to have extraordinary focus on something for a long time (think Olympic athlete type qualifications). I have a couple of thoughts. First, without SAT/ACT scores you really can’t figure out what schools you have a shot at. Second, you need to look beyond Harvard to the many, many, many fantastic colleges and universities that would be available to a great international candidate. Who knows, at some places you might even get merit aid. You sound like a go-getter. Someone who has tried to put in place ECs that are unheard of in India. I think that would be a great focus for an essay. Good luck!

4

Based on what you wrote above even if you were to score a perfect 2400 on the SAT, Harvard will be a reach. It’s a reach for everyone.

Your ECs look good but there will thousands of kids better than you. Expand your list of potential schools. Good luck.