Hey guys, I’d would like to thank you for coming to this thread. I’ve had this account for a while but never really have done anything with it. I’m currently in my Junior year of high school. I’m taking the courses I want to take at the highest rigor currently. Current GPA unweighted is a 3.9. My previous attempt on the ACT resulted in a 33, however, I will be taking it again at the end of my Junior year. My plans for the SAT and SAT II tests are to take it during the beginning of my Senior year. I’ve got around 4 AP classes so far under my belt (Took 1 last year, taking 3 right now, and another 3 Senior year). I scored a 5 on my 1st AP class I took Softmore year, working to get 5s on these 3 AP classes that I’m taking now. My school is quite large, over 2000 kids are attending (school doesn’t give out class rank until Senior year), and not that many are working for the same route I am. My intentions are to go to Medical School one day, and I do realize Harvard is a reach school. I do plan on applying to safety schools and maybe a few other reach schools. I’m a recognized leader at my school; extracurriculars include Diversity Council, National Honors Society, College Knowledge (A club to teach underclass men about applying to colleges), Medical Leaders of Tomorrow, Youth Orchestra, and also I do volunteer at the local hospital over the summer. My passion is something I have yet to find on this site. I’ve been into bodybuilding for more than 2 years, and I’ve come a long way from where I began. I used to have depression problems, low self-esteem, and I was becoming severely overweight leading up to when I began lifting. It has changed my life drastically and I wouldn’t know what I would do without it. Of course, I put family and grades before lifting in any circumstance. I’m just wondering how Harvard would look at bodybuilding? If you guys can give your thoughts and opinions, that would be nice. I do understand nobody but the committee can know if I am worthy of being accepted, but I am opening myself up for critics. Thank you so much for reading this thread and I hope you have yourself a wonderful day!
My apologies, I meant my unweighted GPA is a 3.9.
I know of someone here on CC who had a passion for bodybuilding. He was admitted to Harvard early action.
To the degree that it’s true, you might want to write essays about how bodybuilding has made you more self-confident, more self-disciplined, and how the attributes have seeped into the rest of your life, and, all-around, made you a better you.
Good luck to you.
Wow man, it’s like you’re telling the story of my life. First of all, I’m a student who’s just been accepted early action to the class of 2020.I’ve exactly the same experience, literally. I want to go to med school, I’ve joined fairly similar extracurricular activities,similar grades(didn’t take Ap’s tho because my school doesn’t offer them), and I have so much passion for working out that I actually wrote my whole supplemental essay about it! I believe that Harvard will definitely love to hear about your passion for bodybuilding if you show them the extent to which the experience has influenced you personally NOT physically. For example, I wrote about how I became a much more confident, disciplined, and organized person.But you have to be careful; you don’t wanna walk around “saying” that bodybuilding has made you a better person, rather you need to “show” the admission officers that you’ve gained more than your six packs out of your journey. You need to show them in vivid details,like going out with my friends to my favorite pizza restaurant and end up eating green salad taught me discipline.Moreover, you need to show them the quality that is definitely in you:commitment. I can’t stress how important this is! Commitment is what you’ll be betting on.You gotta make your admissions officer read your essay and be like “This guy ain’t just a kid who goes to the gym to get girls to like him, this guy goes to the gym because he’s got the DRIVE to do things if he so wants. I think that will make a great asset to our school.” That’s it! If you can do that, then you’ve got a foot on the right track. In a nutshell, by all means exploit your passion for bodybuilding, show the admissions office that you’re a disciplined,hard working person, that you’re willing to push beyond your limits, and that you’re willing to and capable of taking a decision to change your life and most importantly committing to your decision.
Best of luck and by all means please reach out if you have more questions.