I’m applying to Harvard SCEA this fall. I have a 2300 SAT, 35 ACT, 4.0 GPA, 3 800’s on subject tests (Math II, Physics, and World History) and ~10 AP classes with four 5’s, one 4, and a 3 which is in the process of a multiple choice rescore. Compared to other Harvard applicants this is slightly above average, but the area in which I feel like I am lacking is my extracurricular involvement. While I have become involved in several clubs and activities in my junior and senior years, I have only been in a lot of them for around one or two years. The following is a list of my involvement.
*1 yr means that I joined senior year or did it over the last summer
National Honor Society (2 yrs)
Science National Honor Society (2 yrs)
Spanish National Honor Society (1 yr)
Beta Club (3 yrs)
Math Team President (1 yr)
Editor on a Political Satire Website (1 yr)
Relay for Life Event Organizer (1 yr)
Student Council Executive Board Community Service Director (2 yrs)
Chamber Orchestra Violist (3 yrs - I quit senior year to take a dual enrollment calculus II/III class at GA Tech)
Freshman Mentoring (1 yr)
Math and Physics Tutoring (2 yrs)
I’ve read several sources that say that colleges don’t necessarily prefer well-rounded students with many extracurricular activities but instead want pointy students who have been dedicated to the same extracurriculars for several years and are exceptional in the endeavors that they pursue. I hardly consider any of my accomplishments in these activities exceptional. Also noticeable is a lack of dedicated community service to any one organization (pointy); however, I performed hundreds of hours of service for various organizations through the honor societies I’m in (rounded).
How do you think this lack of “pointiness” will affect the perception of my application and ultimately, the admissions officers’ final decision, and what could I do in the immediate future to make it better?
Also, if the 3 on the AP exam I’m currently disputing remains a 3, how detrimental would this be to my application, and what could I do to curtail those effects?
Additional info: I’m a low-income African-American male immigrant to the US
Harvard, and other colleges, don’t look at extracurricular activities in a vacuum. Here’s a quote from William Fitzsimmons
So, Admissions will look at your EC’s to see how you’ve spent your time. Besides Chamber Orchestra, what did you do during your freshman year? How did you spend your time outside of the classroom? If you listed your top 5 activities in the order of importance to you, what would that be?
Many on CC think it’s pointi-ness, but adcoms can and do still look for balance and the level of challenges you took on. All you have mentioned seems to be in the high school. Take a look for what else you were involved in. it’s not just about school clubs ad the opportunities the hs presents.
And your stats may compare favorably with admitted students, but please realize there will be thousands and thousands of applicants with top stats. You want to assess what makes you a match, beyond stats.
@gibby@lookingforward I had a freelance online job in my freshman, sophomore, and junior years writing SEO articles and doing other SEO odds and ends but that eventually dried out… I was pretty unmotivated both academically and extracurricularly in my first few years of high school and didn’t do much else until I realized just how important extracurriculars were in my junior year. I guess my top 5 activities in order of importance are: Relay for Life, Freshman Mentoring, Math Team, Political Satire (non-school related - I worked on this site with my old history teacher and a few other students during the summer), and Student Council.
Also, beyond the stats, I feel like the only way for admissions officers to truly assess what makes me a match is to evaluate the intangibles - my intellectual and social development, my mentality, my motivations, etc. Personal essays, teacher recommendations, and interviews, I believe, are the only way to obtain this kind of information. While extracurricular involvement can say a lot about what a person is like, and in certain cases ring truer than words alone, the subjective evaluations can provide a much stronger resource.
You don’t increase your chances by hoping adcoms will look at you as friends and family do. ECs reflect your thinking and choices, the commitments you made, over time, the responsibilities you took on and, hopefully, some impact. Go look at what Harvard says they look for. Take the time to consider how you can show that and stand out among 40k applicants.
Your SCEA application is due in about 6 weeks. It is way too late to make yourself into someone whom you are not. It was way too late to do that four, five, six months ago.
Your only reasonable option – and it was always your only reasonable option – is to apply as yourself, not as some other person you think the Harvard admissions staff would like more. It’s not the case that everyone accepted at Harvard has some glittering (but focused!) portfolio of extracurricular activities. Many do, because that’s the kind of people they are – diving into things, getting things done, making them happen. And it’s true, Harvard values that quality, and wants a bunch of people like that . But it also values scholars, thinkers. Among my kids’ friends who were accepted at Harvard, several actually had pretty weak extracurriculars.
What made them attractive was that they were the sort of people whom friends and teachers thought stood out intellectually. Not necessarily in terms of grades – they had great grades, of course, but other, less interesting people did a little better – or test scores, but in terms of how quick, interesting, original they were.
No one is guaranteed a slot at Harvard . . . at least no one who isn’t an All-American football recruit, some sort of certified genius, or Malala Yousafzai. If you had perfect extracurriculars, your odds of getting in would be low. With what you have now, your odds may be a little lower, but they aren’t zero. Make your best case for who you are.
If you took a year off and were an exchange student or something for a year- or even an overseas volunteer perhaps leading something in your native country- you’d be significantly stronger. You’re still a strong candidate, though.