What are the chances of getting into Harvard for a 98% ICSE student, Head Boy, School Scholar of the Year, NTSE scholar, social worker, who has done numerous debates and quizzes with good essay and Letters of recommendation but is from a small town school that is one of the best ICSE schools in India in academics but offers very little, almost none extracurricular activities?
2% or lower. International admissions (particularly from India, Korea, China) is extremely competitive. Successful Indian applicants would have various ECs regardless of what was available to them at their school.
Would depend on the school to a large degree. Has anyone else from your school ever gone to Harvard College? I know in India they have a standardized test and I have met some people who got a gold medal, if I recall correctly. I forget the name of the award. A woman told me something like 1 in 10,000 people or only a handful won this. Do you know what I am talking about? This is the type of person from India you would find at Harvard. Nothing should stop you from applying but if there is a track record of students from your school, that’s a better starting point.
Your question should be rephrased: What are the chances for an international student from India?
That’s because International applicants do NOT have the same odds as US applicants. Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford and MIT (among other colleges) limit the number of international students to about 10% to 11% of an incoming freshman class – and most of those international students are from 6 countries: Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, China, Korean and Japan.
Go t to http://www.hio.harvard.edu/statistics. From the pull-down menus, select STUDENTS, HARVARD COLLEGE (the undergraduate school) and INDIA, you’ll see that there are 21 students from India enrolled at Harvard College who are freshman, sophomores, juniors or seniors. That means, on average, Harvard admits about five or six (5 or 6) students from India every year.
Harvard doesn’t publish the number of students applying from each country, but I imagine there are hundreds of students from India, maybe even up to a 1,000 students, competing for those 5 or 6 slots each year. You have to be the best of the best from your country to be admitted. Are you that student? I can’t tell from your post, and my guess is that no one here on CC will be able tell you your chances. Best of luck to you.
Considering the competition, it’s often not enough to say your school offers few ECs. Many kids, even if boarding, are able to find ways to stretch.
Thank you everyone for taking the time to answer my questions.
Addressing the extracurricular issue, I have been working in an influential organization that largely does work for the rural people in India. They’re doing exceedingly well in the northern part of India and I’ve been with them, teaching English to rural kids who are more than often senior to me, whenever I get leave from school. The Director of the organization was always really impressed and happy with my work and would even write to colleges I apply to, highly recommending me. I’ve also done grade 5 theory of music and plectrum guitar exams from Trinity College, London and intend to do two more grades in the coming year. I’ve also been doing many inter school debates and quizzes.
As far as the track record of my school is concerned, I am disappointed to say that I don’t know of anyone even applying to Harvard in the last five years, let alone be selected.
Hope that gives you a better idea.
Thanking you,
Hello everyone, I’m going to rephrase my question because there seems to be a misunderstanding here. I’m not saying that I intend to give it as an excuse that my school didn’t offer any ECs. All I’m saying is that a lot of people, for example, start clubs, become editors of school magazines etc. So I’m simply hoping it wouldn’t be held against me that my school has no provision for a club or even a school magazine at all.
Harvard and other selective schools that practice holistic admissions do take the context of your background and available opportunities and resources into consideration. At the heart of their inquiry is whether the applicant can make full use of the resources of their institution and just as importantly will the applicant contribute meaningfully back to the university (intellectually and socially).
I think too often applicants chase the idea that schools are just looking for tokens of activities, service and leadership and try to accumulate these tokens in the forms of EC lists and titles. So I wouldn’t worry about not being the “editor of the school magazine” nor should you try to start up your own literary magazine (or whatever club) unless you have a true interest in the area that can be backed up with tangible results. Let’s take your participation with the group that helps the rural people. It’s “good” to help teach English to some kids, but how much time and effort do you really spend, can you point to any impact you have personally made? It’s one thing to say you spend X hours every Friday tutoring English in ABC village for Y students, it’s quite another to say that you have taken one or more of those students under your wing, and through your help they have qualified for entrance and scholarship into DEF school.
All this having been said, you have to be realistic about the hurdles and competition you face. If your test scores hit the mark (1500+/33+), give it a shot but understand getting into Harvard is not something you can count on. Have more achievable goals in sight.
Best of luck.
Harvard is trophy hunting. They want to collect class presidents, inventors, authors, record holders etc. Doing tons of stuff and being a really excellent student isnt going to cut it.
^ Not trophy hunting.
OP, that effort among rural kids is an example of your own vision not being limited to what the school offers. Often it IS these humble efforts that show more than just going for every title.
Take a look at what H looks for. It’s not a formula, but the pieces can give an idea.
“teaching English to rural kids …”
Extracurricular activities are activities that you do outside of your classes. Teaching English to rural kids is an extracurricular activity. Activities that actually really help people are very good ones.
However, as others have said admissions for an international student is tough. Being from India probably makes it tougher because their are so many very strong students from there who want to attend top US universities. Your stats are very good. The best you can do it apply and see what happens.
Definitely have a plan B.