<p>I'm a rising junior, and I have top standardized test scores (2330 SAT, 36 ACT), and I did lab research @ university last summer and will continue again this year (won a silver medal at I-SWEEEP [international science fair] w/ research project as well).
However, I don't have any real leadership positions. The only things I have are being a section leader for school orchestra (not the top chamber orchestra in my school) and tutoring/mentoring peers and Chinese children in a village (which probably doesn't even belong in the leadership category anyways).
My question is, how much do leadership positions weigh compared to other factors such as test grades, GPA, and other ECs? I've been a member of 4-5 clubs for my high school years, but don't have leadership in any of them. I would specifically like to know if not having leadership automatically puts you at a large disadvantage for top schools like Ivies and top LACs (Williams, Amherst, etc). As you can see, I would assume that many applicants have much more progress in ECs than I do, so I am also wondering if what I've done with research would a) help a bit with no leadership or b) be not enough to offset the lack of leadership.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot guys! I appreciate all advice :)</p>
<p>Stats look great! I think it depends on the university and what they are looking for. You seem rounded except for sports.
If you’re international, then you are in a different category than the u.s. kids.</p>
<p>thanks so much for the response and feedback! I did JV sports my freshman year but I’m more of a recreational sports person. I did club swimming for 6 years too, but stopped by freshman year. by the way this wasn’t meant to be a chance thread – just want to know about general leadership consideration in college admissions.</p>
<p>Also, I’m from the US if anyone else was wondering. </p>
<p>By any chance, does anyone know if out of top schools, which place more of a stress on leadership over stats and vice versa? Although I think it’s unlikely that some schools would specifically stress leadership, I am just wondering (ex. i’ve heard colleges like MIT favor stats over leadership and other things, but i could be wrong).</p>
<p>Not sure what you want to read here. Lack of leadership obviously puts you at some disadvantage in the sense that most applicants will probably have leadership positions in clubs and such. But, most applicants have lab research and medals in international science fairs. Also, most applicants have leadership positions that are pretty superficial and meaningless, and application readers do pick up on that.</p>
<p>No one can really know the weight of each of these factors. Leadership isn’t listed on the common data set where they show relative importance of admission factors.</p>
<p>MIT does seem to be more inclined to breeding technical expertise than leadership. A quote from someone who worked in MIT admissions: </p>
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<p>Other than MAYBE Caltech and MIT, I can’t imagine any top 20 school would give less relative weight to leadership.</p>