Hello, I have 7 activities listed in my Common App and 5 honors and I just realized I forgot to mention National Honor Society in my activities or honors (I have no more honors slots open). I also have Math Honor Society but didn’t elaborate on peer tutoring service (My description only talked about helping organize fundraising events and bringing school awareness to a math competition). Should I email the admissions and tell them about these things since I already submitted it and cannot edit? Will that hurt my chances? Will they become suspicious or something and begin investigating further into whether I actually did these things? How do I even approach them to make the revisions.
You’re being paranoid. 5 words to the right of some EC title won’t mean anything. You’ve applied EA to Harvard. There’s a million reasons to not get accepted. This won’t be one of them. Read this thread, especially post #9 – the exasperated reply to the obsessed OP
@T26E4 You dont think itll break my chances that I didnt include an entire activity (National Honor Society) or specify that I peer tutored?
You’re saying that a school (or specifically Harvard EA in your case), inclined not to accept you *would change its mind and accept you *because NHS and peer tutoring were listed?
This is a prime example of how HS students’ believe the myth of activities and ECs and their oversized importance to any college.
My answer to your question: no. never.
But since it’ll bug you (esp if you get deferred or rejected), simply shoot an email to Harvard and ask them to kindly insert the note into your file. good luck
@T26E4 Ok, thanks. I agree this whole education system has turned us into individuals only content w/ going to “top colleges”. I could care less but everyone at my school thinks I have a good chance of getting in which is ridiculous considering its 5% chance and Id feel bad knowing that possibly prevented me from getting in.
IMO peer tutoring is a very minor, commonly done activity – it will not help you to stand out from the crowd and will not sway your application one way or the other. I would not bother to contact your admission officer to make that small addition as admission officers are super busy this time of year. But in the end it is your application and if it will gnaw at you then go ahead and send the email.
Please note that both MHS and NHS are national clubs that most of students can join at ease. I believe the only “toughest” requirement for joining MHS is taking Precalc in the current year and that for joining NHS is having 3.5 GPA or some sort. Just writing down that you are part of those two just amounts to “bragging” that you are currently in precalc and have a GPA higher than 3.5, both of which are not impressive at all and are shown on high school transcripts anyway.
Also, as far as I know, your community service history is shown on service transcript if you are worried about your cumulative service hour log. Honestly, if you are really still paranoid, then think back on how many hours you earned from MHS and NHS. If you have not earned much hours from them, then telling them that you were part of NHS and MHS may rather work against you as you didn’t perform well during your time as a member.
@HardOREasy I already stated I was in MHS in my Common App but just didn’t fit the description of peer tutoring into the description box and was planning on putting it in Additional info but forgot. I emailed my regional admission representative (the interviewer) about it yesterday inquiring on what I should do and he told me “i’ll find out and get back to you”. Idk if im already screwed or what D;
lol, well, if you had chosen to do it, then it’s perfectly fine. In fact, that’s what undergrad officers are for. Also, ultimately it’s your college app, and I don’t have a right to force to you choose one way or the other. But I’m sure that won’t really go against you nor benefit you as much because your other works like GPA, honors background, SAT scores, etc. will stand out more than the MHS works, so you won’t really have to worry about it to the extent that you think you are screwed or something.
@HardOREasy I double checked with admissions office and they said I can upload it from the Admission status portal. but I was confused on how to approach this since that section was meant to be for “truly exceptional talent you wish to share”. I feel like if I upload a doc. or something on there saying I wanted to mention peer tutoring service in additional info but forgot they might assume I am considering it “truly exceptional talent”. Help. How should I approach this?
Simple as stated. If you believe that what you forgot to write pertaining to an MHS is a “truly exceptional talent you wish to share” with college admission officers, then you do it as directed. Think back: Is MHS really worth sharing?
Honestly, nothing will go against or affect your evaluation because…
- they deal with these additional info request every day, so they do not expect something exceptional or superb about additional information.
- they won’t remember or care later during evaluation that you asked about it (if you are really concerned about whether they will remember that you requested to add something not that talented).
- they do not put much thoughts into stuff unless it really stands out, and I doubt peer tutoring really stands out.
At our school, you have to have a 3.5 or greater GPA, do 100 hours of volunteer hours, show leadership, and have good character to be nominated for NHS.
It is those things that will be used to evalutate you by colleges , not the “title” of NHS (although it is very nice for you and your parents and community to see that title to honor all that hard work!)