<p>There are so many threads on CC about "Has anyone gotten into Harvard (or other ivy league schools) with bad SAT scores?" and the answers are always the same and quite obvious; of course, plenty of people get in with ~2000 scores. </p>
<p>How about this though: Did anyone get into Harvard with bad EC's? I'm talking no club presidency (or leadership), no awards (I guess maybe in-school honors?), no research, no USAMO qualification or equivalent. maybe just a member of yearbook club or NHS, and nothing much more than that. </p>
<p>Seriously. Is there anyone here who just hangs out with friends and parties all week
(and other things you don't consider EC's) that gets into Harvard? Unique, passionate or at least "average" EC's... it seems like I'm the only one who doesn't have them out of all applicants. </p>
<p>What I've understood is that you can get into Harvard with bad SAT/grades + good EC's, but you'll never make it with bad EC's + no major awards/recognition. (I'm not saying this is unfair, don't misinterpret.)</p>
<p>Well as you know Harvard Admission descions are impossible to coordinate, and do all things. There are no such thing as bad EC’s, unless they literaly are bad as in; dangerous, non-helpful, no team work, or any of that sort. You were a member of a few clubs, thats no “BAD”. Thats considered “OK”. Now the question remains what have you done for those clubs?</p>
<p>Well, even so, without national/international qualification like the USAMO and other olympiads, it’s hard to get in on pure academics (I mean SAT score and gpa). once your academics goes into regional/state/national/international level it kinda becomes your EC anyway.</p>
<p>I would guess that it’s very rare considering how competitive admissions are today. Maybe the occasional applicant with a very unique background or unusually strong connections</p>
<p>I would hope that it’s impossible to get into Harvard just by existing in high school and getting good grades/scores (even if they’re perfect), given that the applicant is totally unhooked (average essay, comes from decent area, high income, non-URM/legacy/celebrity). </p>
<p>Getting in that way would defeat the general consensus that adcoms use GPA/scores to see if applicants are in the ball-park of admissions. It would also run contrary to Dean Fitzsimmons’ assertion that the most important parts of the applications are tied to personal qualities.</p>
<p>I agree with the above posters; I don’t think you have a very good chance of admission. The people that read your application will most likely assume that you lack initiative and curiosity and don’t have much drive.</p>
<p>true true. the question isn’t really about me. I know I’m not getting in.</p>
<p>Just curious about whether others have gotten in or not because one of my friends have been making quite annoying assertions likely… I win the bet.</p>
<p>I imagine there are those with truly remarkable academic credentials and mediocre (school-level) ECs who get in. Of course, those with truly remarkable academic credentials are likely to be winners of academic competitions, so…</p>
<p>Perhaps exceedingly academically-qualified URMs or legacies, people with some other sort of boost.</p>
<p>What about the opposite way around? Can you get into harvard with less than average stats (for an unhooked Indian living in over-represented state) but really good EC’s? And by really good I mean like state officer positions and Gold Award and building a school in India and being a congressional intern and winning lots of state awards in band/DECA?</p>
<p>I see everyones ECs and I feel like crap. I’m not nationally recognized or anything, but I do tons of performing arts activities at school and Scouting (Eagle).
Yet I feel like it isn’t good enough. Oh well.</p>
<p>I mentioned at the beginning of the thread that those questions have been asked so many times, and it seems that more people get in with less than average stats + good EC’s then good stats + less than average EC’s.</p>
<p>@misterg
recruited athletes focus their time on sports, which is a MAJOR EC’s, though it’s more quality than quantity I guess. </p>
<p>@Ivystriver2
well that looks pretty good to me! I might be a bit biased cuz my EC’s are pretty bad though :)</p>