Lack of leadership due to...lack of popularity?

[glassesarechic]

<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.

</p>

<p>That is absolutely not true. ED acceptance rates are higher precisely because schools know they are guaranteed you will attend.</p>

<p>SheenR, where are you getting this information? It sounds like the information for EA pools, not ED.</p>

[Nick567]

<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>You are so funny. Everything you say is either “Why bother with anything” or nonsense. In a time when colleges are hyper-sensitive to their rankings according to “Yield,” Early Decision is a godsend.</p>

[FBItomboy007]

<p>Rohit93, I completely understand what you are going through and am in the exact same position. I did not get voted head of my a cappella group, even though I have ran almost all of the rehearsals this year, and was voted off Honor Board. In addition, I am no longer head of my school’s robotics team, which I have been a member of since 7th grade, because two sophomores with less experience and dedication convinced every member of the team in their grade (the majority of the team) to vote for them!</p>

<p>Anyway, I’m not trying to complain either, but to show you that you are not alone in having your work being taken advantage of by the popular and to commiserate in the stress of college applications when you see all your leadership positions slipping away.</p>

[ava1992]

<p>Not being class president will NOT hurt your application. College admissions officers don’t look for what’s missing from your app; they look at what’s there. And from the looks of it, you have some pretty solid EC’s. Really do not sweat it–this is a total non-issue.</p>

[scrivener]

<p>try to get another (non-elected) post within the student council-- for example, I am my student council’s liaison to our local newspaper. But you are worrying about this way too much- there is nothing you can do about it now, so be proactive and try to accomplish something else.</p>

[thumper1]

<p>Not every applicant to a “top school” is the class president. If your application is otherwise a strong one, apply to Duke. You don’t need to go to a community college because you never had the title “pres” in front of your name.</p>

<p>Just make sure that you have a well rounded list of colleges on your application list…find some other schools that have some of what you like in Duke…just in case that doesn’t work out. There are hundreds of fine colleges where you would likely be a welcomed student.</p>

<p>Oh and Bedouin…some kids do not become “leaders” until they are IN college. I know…I have a kid who flew under the radar screen for four years in High School…was a top 5% of her class…great commitment to a particular EC…and she DID get accepted to college…where she became a REAL leader.</p>

<p>Oh…and the class president…well…she dropped out of college.</p>

[Redroses]

<p>The kind of leadership top colleges are seeking goes beyond a prom committee unfortunately. Raised funds impress when the cause is meaningful and helps society. They want to see presidents of national student organzations, kids who made a difference with funds they raised. So I guess the good news is it doesn’t matter.</p>

<p>Not everyone will have leadership, lots of thngs can make you stand out.</p>