hey guys, I want to study humanities in college and I was wondering if you know of any competitions or programs that can help make me a more competitive applicant. It seems that there are so many for STEM but not for humanities. Do you know any?
also, I am open to anything like history blogs or anything to do of those sorts, it can be online!
Most prestigious humanities achievements for a High School student are probably a) getting a paper published in the Concord Review b) attending TASP
What about Model UN?
Debate?
If you’re interested in helping others out and/or doing volunteer work, then you should try Key Club. I’m in it, and it’s helped me earn a lot of volunteer hours, plus its really fun. I’m a STEM student, but the club is not STEM-oriented at all. It just gives students the opportunity to give back to the community and have diversity in their volunteering options.
I already do Model UN and debate but I don’t think that is enough to get me to a very competitive university. How can I expand on that?
Thank you for replying. Yeah I read into the Concord Review and I plan to see what I can do with that. About the TASP, I am not very familiar with it so I will have to read about it.
Thanks for replying. I will look into that
our school does not have a key club and I am an international student
you don’t need to be part of any club in order to do volunteer work if that is what your interested in
@momtogirls2 I do tons of volunteer work but what I am looking for is what I can do with my passion to improve my chances to get into a top 20 school.
"I am an international student "
That makes admissions to a US T20 significantly harder than it would be for a US applicant.
Most of the top US schools restrict the international student population to well under 15% of enrolled undergrads.
Before you worry about EC’s you first need to make sure that your grades and standardized test scores (and TOEFL) would instantly make you a standout when compared to the other students applying from your country.
@tdy123 I am not worried about my standardized test and school grades as they are pretty high already. I am not sure if I will take the TOEFL though, will look into that. Also I think I have the benefit of my country being severely underrepresented and the fact that no one from my school has ever been accepted to a top 20 university
"Also I think I have the benefit of my country being severely underrepresented and the fact that no one from my school has ever been accepted to a top 20 university "
That is absolutely not a benefit.
Most of the T20 do not publish extremely detailed international student statistics.
Harvard, however, does publishes detailed international student enrollment statistics at http://hio.harvard.edu/statistics so we can look at Harvard as a proxy for the others
Currently there are undergraduates from 103 countries enrolled at Harvard College. There are approximately 195 countries in the world. That means that the Harvard has not enrolled a single student in any of the last four years from almost half the countries in the world.
If being from an “underrepresented” high school in and “underrepresented” country mattered that much, they would have managed to accept someone from the multitude of high schools in those 90+ countries.
Competitions aren’t what they’re looking for. You need a better idea of what that is, what they do value.
@lookingforward so what do you recommend?
I always recommend reading as much as you can from a college target, to learn what they value and “look for.” Also, other info that “shows” this. That’s not forums or blogs from outsiders.
When you’re aiming high, you not only need better info and the right personal directions, you need the sort of energy and intellect that drives you to understand more. Don’t assume some program or contest win tips you in. Or that a count of vol hours, etc, does it. Certainly, not your own blog. The quality of your actions says a lot about the quality of your thinking.
What humanities major?
It’s also not online volunteering or doing things from a distance that don’t include benefit to your own community in some way. Or don’t advance your own interests/plans.