<p>I have the misfortune of being unattractive. Although elections can be won with an amazing speech, my unattractiveness is fairly crippling, as I always seem to be running against someone attractive and popular.
Will having no leadership positions hold me back forever? Or at least, bar me from opportunities?
I have run for six elections. I have only won one, and that was because I was running unopposed, and it was for a fairly mild position.
I am not afraid to put myself out there. I do not get nervous when publicly speaking. Regardless, I still lose, due to factors that are out of my control. Almost invariably, I lose even though I generally have a better speech, and better qualifications.</p>
<p>Ex: my speech at the end of this thread
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1444259-what-do-you-think-makes-more-effective-campaign-speech.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1444259-what-do-you-think-makes-more-effective-campaign-speech.html</a>
My opponent's speech was almost precisely this: "Hey guys, I'm _____ and I'm running for Key Club Vice President! I'm cool and smart and pretty so you should totally vote for me! Plus my brother's Key Club President, so that's cool. Kay, thanks, bye!"</p>
<p>The general message I get is that colleges want to see leadership, but not necessarily elected positions. You can influence others and organize things without anyone voting for you. In high school, and probably a lot of real life, the speech is just a formality. People vote for who they were initially going to vote for. The end.</p>
<p>^Ditto. I don’t know how students from other schools vote for positions, but in mine, you get elected for being either:</p>
<p>a)popular, regardless of your credentials, or
b)the one that was just HILARIOUS because of that one brief line of comedy in your speech – and again, regardless of credentials</p>
<p>Now, I don’t know if colleges see that little problem, but they’re smart. Point is, a leader in ANY situation is good enough, IMO.</p>
<p>My take:</p>
<p>Leadership that you earn through work > Leadership that you get through a popular election</p>
<p>Colleges know that your ability to make things happen isn’t predicated on your classmate’s opinion of your humor.</p>
<p>What can I say? Work on your charisma. Or lead in other domains, like science and community service. Found your own organizations. Something.</p>
<p>It is indeed important.</p>
<p>Is it impossible to get into a good college without elected positions?
Or, considerably harder?</p>
<p>As long as you do something else in place, it isn’t.</p>
<p>I wish it wasn’t so necessary. Not everyone is a leader…and an election can only have one winner. It’s rarely the most qualified candidate who wins.
I have around 500+ hours of community service. But no significant leadership positions. As I’m in my junior year, I don’t expect that to change entirely too much.</p>
<p>I actually have a friend of mine who has quite a few scholarships and is going to UPenn next year to study Biomedical Engineering. She has no elected leadership positions at all. She lost four elections. Nonetheless, she’s been really successful in her school career. It’s not completely necessary. </p>
<p>You can play a leadership role without having a position. Like she was. </p>
<p>Regardless, you get the positions you get, and don’t get the ones you don’t.
Life simply isn’t fair. Elections are always a popularity contest. </p>
<p>By the way. Don’t just sign up for elections just because you want to get leadership positions. Become involved in things you like to do.</p>