<p>What was something extraordinary you did in high school? I know Harvard students are the creme de la creme, but I'm genuinely curious, what was your HS experience like? These stories are usually entertaining because of the amazing things people had to do to get in. For instance, the boy who held lectures in India, or the infamous conman Adam Wheeler who faked his way in.</p>
<p>I would also like to hear</p>
<p>Why don’t you spend some time here?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1305027-official-harvard-university-2016-rd-results.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1305027-official-harvard-university-2016-rd-results.html</a></p>
<p>or here?</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1253171-official-harvard-university-2016-early-action-decisions-thread.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1253171-official-harvard-university-2016-early-action-decisions-thread.html</a></p>
<p>@T26E4
Thanks for the link. However, this thread is more for personal experience and how/why they’re doing it.</p>
<p>Let me be blunt and honest here…as a parent with children accepted to this and other top schools…I can tell you that the top top students with significant “wow” credentials do not have time for college confidential…they are too busy doing what they “do”…they could care less about what other people did or thought about their “chances” when they were applying…</p>
<p>…the majority of the students who have the “story” or the “wow achievements” or the “hook” as you say don’t spend time on CC…sorry to break the news to you…</p>
<p>…you would have better luck googling one of your high school classmates names to find out they have accomplished major international milestones…and they did not even talk about it to their other classmates…</p>
<p>…the students who are truly “desired” by Harvard et al are “doers” NOT “braggers”…</p>
<p>…you’ll notice this pattern in high school, in college, and in the real world…they tend to be very humble and unassuming…</p>
<p>Gravitas2: Good point, but I am passionate and very dedicated to a unique interest of mine like the students you describe above, but still use CC and I will tell you why:
It’s because I love what I do so much that I’m only willing to go to college where I can continue to do it, and as I said I have a unique passion (2 main ones actually) so only few colleges are ok for me so I need to get into those few schools and thus I use chance me threads (and something else is that I am not interested in HPYSM because they don’t offer what I want and I am applying there only bc if I get in I will appeal to my top choices and say that I would rather go there than HPYSM, which is true)
^just a unique CC situation of mine compared to non-CC Harvard superstars
Haha :)</p>
<p>Hi TessVonBede,
I’m a rising junior and I have been checking out college confidential a lot since admission process is not too far. My high school experience so far has been rewarding. The thing I’m most proud of is my volunteer service. I came to U.S when I was 8 from India. I witnessed some horrific things done to women. When I came here, my mind would always go back to India and I would always think of those women in India suffering. So midway 6th grade I started making plans of going to India over the summer and volunteer at a women shelter where women who are abused and young girls live. The problem was the money to buy tickets. I set up a ebay business to get money to pay the ticket fair. I have been doing that every summer and I will head back to India on August 2. And that is what I’m most proud of… But honestly do u think this service is extraordinary?? No it’s not, after witnessing what many women in India go through, I just couldn’t leave them behind… Many students just do volunteer service so it looks good on the resume. If I did that I would never be able to look at myself in the mirror.I just thought it was important to share that volunteering goes deeper than a paper with Resume written on it. well I don’t have grades high enough to get into Harvard, 90 average, and I don’t have a whole bunch of volunteer service because the women shelter in India is constantly on my mind and I’m always looking for ways to raise more money for the shelter, I hope when I apply the admissions officer sees that I have much more to offer than grades.</p>
<p>@gagan22^^^
That’s the ingenuity and passion I’m talking about.
:)</p>
<p>^^I think you still don’t get it…the “creme de la creme” of students who got into multiple top schools and those who are still in high school who are about to apply this fall are too busy doing what they do best to be spending much time on CC…rather, they are pursuing their field of interest in earnest…in their sport…in their art…in their music…in their non-stop practice…in their “ventures”…in their writing…in their community service…in their research…so on and so on…</p>
<p>…the “creme de la creme” students seem to possess a genuine joie de vivre (not superficial) in what they are truly passionate about and “do”…and “live” a life that can best be depicted by Robert Frost’s poem called ‘The Road Not Taken’ (strongly recommend the poem if you haven’t read it) and the Nike commercial that succinctly emphasizes…“just do it”…</p>
<p>…the world and college admissions waits for no one…make your “own” path…</p>
<p>…I hope you understand.</p>
<p>Yea I used to not use CC but I’ve found it very helpful because it gives me info on a school that is one of the only ones that offers me the ability to participate in an EC that I am crazy about (it is a minority religious youth organization that is not so prevalent in America so I need to find the few campuses that have it and try ardently to get in there)</p>
<p>@gravitas2</p>
<p>thanks for making everybody here at CC feel bad :(</p>
<p>lets just focus on what the thread is about while keeping gravitas2’s comments in mind.</p>
<p>@theshins</p>
<p>If you want to feel bad about yourself just google “child prodigies.”</p>
<p>First, it isn’t prudent to refer to Harvard students as the “creme de la creme” for several reasons. Though most people at Harvard (and YPSM) distinguished themselves academically, extracurricularly, and personally in high school, a vast majority of admits to elite schools were neither “geniuses” nor “prodigies;” instead, they were what Harvard’s Dean of Admissions calls “good all-arounders” who did well in school, were passionate about one or two extracurriculars, were nice people, and (frankly) got a bit lucky. Arrogance (as evidenced by referring to one’s self or to a specific school’s student body as the “creme de la creme”) displayed in an application or interview almost immediately kills an applicant’s candidacy. This applies not only to college admission but also to obtaining jobs. Have a look at this article discussing what happened when a Harvard applicant referred to Harvard’s students as the “creme de la creme:”</p>
<p>[Admissions:</a> ‘Personal’ Rating Is Crucial | News | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1969/9/18/admissions-personal-rating-is-crucial-pin/]Admissions:”>Admissions: 'Personal' Rating Is Crucial | News | The Harvard Crimson) </p>
<p>Plus, many of the Harvard (and YPSM) students I know certainly do not believe that their school has a monopoly on excellence. That would be a rather provincial (and unintelligent) viewpoint. You’ll find smart, accomplished people in many different places. Perhaps an accomplished person was admitted to Harvard but chose Berkeley because he or she could not afford Harvard. Or perhaps a brilliant person’s essay was spurned by the Harvard admission committee. People at the “top schools” recognize how unpredictable the process is and, frankly, think that obsessing over one end-all, be-all “best school” is pointless. Even Harvard’s Dean of Admission says that you can’t really differentiate amongst the top 10 institutions in the US. </p>
<p>To actually answer your question, I’ll direct you to this article:
[Most</a> Impressive High School Graduates - Business Insider](<a href=“Most Impressive High School Graduates”>Most Impressive High School Graduates)</p>
<p>And I’ll add some personal info. In my Stanford class, we had the following: a person who raised $21 million for Katrina relief, a person who raised $11 million for social causes, a person who invented an “artificial brain” that detects cancer with 99% accuracy and gets more accurate with each sample it takes, a person who invented a chemical that turns cancer cells blue so that doctors can better remove tumors, a person whose plays were shown on Broadway, a hand-full of people who’ve given a Ted Talk, numerous Intel STS Finalists, the National QuizBowl Champion, the National Ballroom Dancing Champion, and several people who published in The Concord Review. </p>
<p>Please remember that a majority of Stanford (and HYPM) admits do not look like this.</p>
<p>I’m an actual Harvard student (Class of 2017, Crimson Yard - search it up), and I wholeheartedly agree with the Stanford student up above. There WILL be amazing people in institutions like these, but for the most part, students who come here are just regular people who stand out during their high school lives and are motivated to do great things in the future. </p>
<p>To answer your actual question, I ran four years of Cross Country, ran a few clubs, did orchestra for four years, and took all the AP classes that my public school offered. It’s nothing special; anybody could do these things, and it’s not as if I traveled to some foreign country to give lectures or volunteer. I did, however, immigrate from another country at the age of seven to the US and that might have influenced the decision quite a bit - but besides that, I was just an ambitious high school student who wanted to do something with his four years. Nothing too extraordinary. </p>
<p>Looking back at admissions, I think it’s more of the motivation that the admissions committee look for rather than prior accomplishment. They’ll obviously look for the academic ability (because, after, you’re going to college) and extracurricular accomplishments, but it’s only when genuine ambition and drive shows through that those academics and extracurricular accomplishments will actually mean anything. Live up to that standard and demonstrate that in your application, and you’ll have a better shot at the college you’re trying to get into. But more importantly, live up to that standard, and you’ll have an overarching ambition that will endure long after you’ve been accepted to college, in whatever college you end up attending.</p>
<p>Beyond that, I also applaud Gargan22 for that post - that’s the motivation that I was talking about. If that’s actually how things are working out in your life, I hope that you’ll be able to accomplish something great regardless of the admitted college.</p>
<p>While I get that you’re looking for reference, I hope between the decision threads and the two posters who have shared already, you find what you’re looking for without my addition. I’ve been reading this thread myself; I’m afraid it’s the sort of question, however, that I would be entirely uncomfortable answering either here or in real life. I do come here to talk about my past, because I hope I can help some people by doing so. This one’s too direct for me, though! I find that high school accomplishments are largely or entirely irrelevant once you get to college. My best friend knows I placed nationally at Latin a couple times. Nobody else does, I think, and I don’t know much about the pre-college resumes of any of my friends, either. Or rather, I know what they were involved with, in broad categories like journalism or dance or softball. I only know their level of success if (a) they’re one of the three or four internet-famous entering students per class [tiger daughter, spelling bee champion], (b) I know their family and hear terrible-wonderful stories about their Gandhi phase in high school from their mother [I enjoy this category so much], (c) it makes for a funny story.* Did my friend in journalism achieve any level of statewide or national recognition for that? I’m afraid I don’t know. I don’t think so, but it hasn’t come up. These activities of course demonstrate and have shaped who we are, for which they are included in our resumes, but tend not to be conversational unless funny.</p>
<p>*It’s hard to come up with a particularly short funny example. I think in one conversation, two of my friends were talking something called National History Day just after Elizabeth Banks said she was involved in her high school Latin club, and we ended up competing to see who had the nerdiest high school past. (“Oh yeah? MY poster on the grain riots of 1878 is still in my town of 10,000 people’s history museum, because we HAVE no other history,” “Oh yeah? One time I went to NORTH DAKOTA and had to HIDE in the BASEMENT from a TORNADO before competing in a NATIONAL LATIN QUIZBOWL TOURNAMENT.”) Not so funny re-written here, but that sort of thing you approach sideways.</p>
<p>secondwind95 and TessVonBede thank you for ur replies :)</p>
<p>
Talia Leman?</p>
<p>^Yes…Stanford Class of 2017</p>