Unintended Omission

Colleges & Universities A-Z Yale University
1

Hey, guys. I’ve been creeping these forums for far too long, but i’ve learnt that you all seem to be very clear on what you’re doing, so maybe you can help me.
So, on my common app, I had filled all my awards and honours (nat’l writing competition, scioly awards, science fair, high GPA award, nat’l merit semi) so didn’t put National Honour Society Member, thinking “oh, I’ll put that in ECs,” but now I realize I hadn’t even considered mentioning it there because, at our school, it’s not much of an EC (I tutor as a job, and am simply using some of those hours for NHS, so I have the tutoring in my activities, but not as affiliated with NHS, persay)

Thing is, not only am I not the only applicant from my school, but I also come from a very competitive, very well-known region of the US, so the adcom reading my app will likely know that NHS is nearly a given for all of us …

So will they question why I’m “not a part of it” (to clarify, I am; I just didn’t put it on my app … )? Is it worth emailing admissions and adding this update to my application, or will that just be seen as hyper/obsessive?

I can’t believe I didn’t even consider it … I guess I just saw it as a given, not considering how odd it may look to not have it there, as a adcom can’t really assume anything about an applicant that’s not on the paper :confused: I’m relatively stressed right now … Yale is my dream school, and I would kill to have half the opportunities the students have (the professors, the labs, the libraries …in other words, I would kill to be a Yalie) … agh, how did I overlook this???

2

You can email admissions if you want to. Just ask them to please add National Honor Society to your list of activities when they are considering your application. Don’t make any explanation for the omission, but do say please and thank you.

3

NHS is next to irrelevant – especially since you say “it’s not much of an EC” – and its omission won’t factor at all in your acceptance or rejection. Period.

It’s a complete joke at many high schools. I wouldn’t waste another second worrying about it. I wasn’t a member (I think I was too busy to attend their info mtg). Never hurt me a single bit.

4

I actually agree that it won’t make a difference. My D2 didn’t bother to even apply, and had the best admission results in her grade. Yale isn’t looking for cookie cutter ticket punchers. It won’t tip the scales either way.

5

That. It is unlikely that anybody would question your omission. There are only so many blocks available on the Common App.

6

I was told that even if it’s a club or activity you are semi active in, unless you can justify it’s impact on you and your community it is almost always better to omit it. I think it’s pretty common knowledge that NHS is almost always pointless. At my old school, no one bothered to do anything other than have massive arguments over leadership positions, for the purpose of college apps. After establishing who got what title they literally did nothing.
Adcoms are not naive to this. Most of them are alumni or went to comparative institutions and a lot of them are relatively young and played this same game a few years back. I think you have nothing to worry about.