ECs good enough for URM? Aiming at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT and Penn

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey,
I'm a URM male (In fact my country has never sent anyone to Harvard) and I'm going to a American school in the fall as a sophomore. Assuming (and this is a big assumption) that my GPA is good enough and same with my SATs/ACT and Subject Tests/AP exams is my EC good enough or should I look to increase my involvement:</p>

<p>1) 800 hours as a Cadet Leader (Cadets is a Boys Scout thing thats huge where I am. Its connected to the Army so there is rank etc) and that included for a significant % of those hours being a leader of 30 guys.
2) NAtionally ranked at chess in Australia. Came 8th in 2003 I think...But 2003 was the last year I played competitively as I moved to boarding school so no more competitions
3) Piano for 7 years but then quit. Trying to start again, but I've like forgotten it all
4) School Soccer team for 4 years
5) Basketball team for 4 years
6) Debate team for 4 years
7) Mock Trial team for 1 year
8) Model UN
9) War veterans charity - 60 hours
10) Disabled Childrens Charity - 70 hours
11) Internship at Orthapedic Surgeon's Clinic - 40 hours
12) Red Cross - Not sure how many hours
13) OakTree Foundation (Another charity) - 10 hours per week</p>

<p>See my questions are I am not particularly good at any EC activity. I do lots of charities but so does everyone else. I am nowhere near good enough at sport to be in the college arena. I debate and do mock trial but so do heaps of people so basically when it comes to ECs I'm very weak. Any suggestions on helping someone who is just not good at anything EC related and needs to pick up a respectable angle for an application.</p>

2

<p>Pick one or two ECs and elaborate on how much you have learned from it and enjoy it. The chess sounds particularly good. Remember, the schools you're applying to schools that have applicants with similar ECs, and you must stand out.</p>

3

<p>wait...can international students also be urms?</p>

<p>I was always under the assumption that urm = native american, hispanic, african american in the US.</p>

4

<p>Where are you from?</p>

5

<p>I say focus on the Cadet + Chess + Your mysterious background! :)</p>

6

<p>internationals cannot be urms.</p>

7

<p>I thought URM's were people they just didn't have enough of, lol.
I was born in India, lived in PNG my whole life and have boarded in Australia for 4 years but am now going for sophomore in an American high school and go to PNG every holidays.</p>

8

<p>Also, I haven't played chess since 2003 thats why I'm not sure to include it/explain the lack of competitive chess and whether I can still use it as a major EC.</p>

9

<p>wots your uscf rating?
Well actually since you are an international, what is your FIDE rating?
I am not sure if internationals are urms. Plus you were born in India? Indians are not urms :(</p>

10

<p>I used to have a rating of 1493 at the age of 11. But then I didn't play competitively since. I am thinking of coming back now to chess.</p>