<p>StrangeLight is right - extracurriculars actually hurt more than help, not in the sense that they care but in the sense that spending too much time on them can cause your grades to drop. A LOT of my friends’ grades slipped the semester they joined a fraternity/sorority.</p>
<p>The only things that are important in grad school admission:</p>
<p>-Grades
-GRE
-Letters of recommendation
-Research experience
-Statement of purpose</p>
<p>And that’s it. Belonging to honor societies in your field (NOT social Greek organizations) may help…slightly.</p>
<p>Also, I am also disturbed by the whole rich-white-preppy thing, but some of the locations on your list are laughable. Cleveland? Baltimore? Two of the least white and least preppy-rich places I can think of. Atlanta, New Orleans, Boston, Houston, Pittsburgh, D.C., and Minneapolis are also decidedly not white and not rich and not preppy. There are some neighborhoods of those cities that are (like Cambridge for nearby Boston, Georgetown in D.C., or the Buckhead area in Atlanta) but…it’s so funny because I know that the city proper in Atlanta, D.C., Cleveland, and Baltimore are made up predominantly of people of color. The only place you have on your list that is even close to that description is South Bend.</p>
<p>You don’t have any intrinsic motivation to just do well in school?</p>