<p>Here's my situation: I want to go to Duke or Penn ultimately but there's one problem, the one thing i have a passion for, I just lost my election</p>
<p>I've been heavily involved in Student Government and it takes up almost all of my time since freshman year. I've been President since Freshman year and am now going into my senior year and just lost my presidential election to the "popular kid" who doesn't really care about it, just wants to look cool.</p>
<p>So, is it going to affect me when college admins see that I'm not even an officer of the one thing that I'm extremely involved in? I have 2 minor positions in other clubs, but nothing huge, they're like honor societies (secretary and treasurer)</p>
<p>What’s going to affect you is your inability to make something of this opportunity! So, don’t complain, because that would really hurt you more.</p>
<p>Oh, and if you don’t think that being in politics is a popularity contest to some extent, you should pick another passion.</p>
<p>im not complaining about politics nor do i have any desire to pursue a career in it. it’s pretty much a prom committee and i’ve been raising thousands of dollars since freshman year and it’s every day of my life so it’s one of the only activities I do and now my position was taken away so I"m worried that adcoms will look down upon this as having no leadership…</p>
<p>This is probably going to be a major blow to your application to these highly selective colleges. Remember, Duke’s waitlist for this year was 2x the size of the freshman class, which is the largest on record for that college and for most others. They have more than enough high-quality applicants to fill their freshman class 3x over, complete with good stats and leadership. </p>
<p>If you’re set on these schools, your best bet is to take a gap year and either attend a community college or gain some work experience either at a full-time job or at a trade school. Not only will this imbue you with the necessary experiences in leadership and resourcefulness to appeal to the admissions committee at places like Penn and Duke, it’ll make attending much cheaper.</p>
<p>^ I think Bedouin is being over pessimistic. Yes not having class president will hurt your application but not doing ANYTHING to make up for it will hurt even more.</p>
<p>If you have a solid rest-of-application and some other ECs with great grades and test scores of course… then I don’t think this is a ‘major blow’ to your application at all.</p>
<p>Early decision can definitely help mitigate. It demonstrates interest, which is something that schools like Duke look for, and while it’s not the same as being a class officer or something of that nature it is definitely worth your while, even if you are not totally committed to Duke.</p>
<p>I mean, I’m going to be either President or VP of an honor society, and I’m Secretary of INTERACT and soccer team captain but this was like my major passion. My test scores aren’t the highest so I thought President of my class for 4 years would kind of make up for that…butttttt</p>
<p>Wait, you should have mentioned all that other stuff. Leadership doesn’t just mean class officer; if youare President/VP of an honor society, soccer team captain, and secretary of interactional club then those are equally valid leadership responsibilities that you can take into account in your applicatons.</p>
<p>If you’ve really spent as much time as you claimed on that committee, then try talking to your administration about letting you participate as an honorary member (my school’s done that numerous times). That ways, you can show that you’re still dedicated to the activity. I’m sure you can still find ways to participate, even if you weren’t officially elected – be resourceful.</p>
<p>Even if you don’t do anything, you can still dedicate your time elsewhere. Try pursuing some other EC’s/clubs. Really, it’s not a HUGE deal (even if you WERE re-elected). It’s not like schools like Penn or Duke have never seen a class president before. And you’ve already dedicated 3 years to it, which is a big plus, as most elected students don’t really care for their position.</p>
<p>Yeah you should be fine with leadership. Instead of worrying about this try to get your test scores higher, what range are they in right now? How about unweighted GPA?</p>
<p>In High School, leadership = popularity. They don’t care how much you want to do the job, they will vote for whoever they know better or whoever somebody they know tells them to vote for. </p>
<p>About the ED: large schools like Duke don’t care about demonstrated interest because of the large amounts of applicants and the overall popularity of the school. They don’t need to know that you want to go to their school because they already know people want to go there. ED does not mean a higher chance of acceptance, it means you will be competing with people who are going to be more qualified than the RD applicant pool. </p>
<p>ED is not going to give you an edge. You have the same chance in ED than you have in RD. The only reason you should choose ED is that you are 100% certain that if you were accepted to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Cornell, Columbia, Brown, and Duke, you would choose Duke, even if Duke’s financial aid package was worse than the rest.</p>
<p>Uh… This is incredibly unnecessary, not to mention that transfer admissions to top schools, who generally have high retention rates, are incredibly competitive. </p>
<p>OP, there are ways to convey leadership without a title. This is trickier in the world of student politics, where the hierarchy of leadership is a little more distinct, but if you can secure yourself another, less prominent position and make your impact behind the scenes, you should be fine (indeed, there may be a way to twist this into an essay, but you’ll have to make sure to focus on the nuances of your situation rather than a cliched “leadership is more than a name!”). You have raised thousands of dollars for your school; not having a name to attach does that does nothing to diminish your accomplishment.</p>
<p>For the relatively few colleges that factor leadership into admissions, what you accomplish is more important than what title you hold. If you, for instance, chair a successful fundraiser or other project and include that info on your application – possibly even in your essay – that would be more impressive than simply being one of the many students who are club officers and who do nothing with those positions.</p>
<p>Incidentally, however, popularity is part of even adult leadership activities. Few people, for instance will vote for someone or will help with the campaign of someone whom they dislike even if they support the politican’s ideas.</p>