Will my eccentric EC's lower my chances of being admitted to Harvard?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

The reason I’m worried about my EC’s is because barely any of them take place in my high school. I’m a bit freaked out after scrolling through threads upon threads of MUN and SciOly and seeing how absolutely amazing students are in those pursuits. Also, most of the work I’m doing doesn’t have ‘awards’,so there’s no real way to tell if I’m “competent…” A bunch of the projects I’ve worked on are really odd, so there’s that. It would be great if any of you could review my EC’s and tell me if they would suffice for Harvard (I’m not sure how to phrase it), or if I should pursue more activities in my H.S.

Most of my activities are ones regarding a specific European country (not international applicant, just where both of my parents are from and I care deeply about), so for the sake of anonymity, I’ll just refer to it as France/French (NOT the actual country, just don’t want to reveal my identity). *

-French Women’s Coalition for Gender Equality and Parliamentary Reform

a. founder, president, global project coordinator
b. coordinator and founder of the French Women’s Rural Entrepreneurship Initiative (small business tech workshops I set up and organized throughout the country)
c. established NGO partnership w/ a UN lobby group
d. elected as youngest member of a congress association for women’s rights
e. invited to conference w/ the previous NGO to set up a policy and lobby framework for the UN and EU
f. managed campaign for a female politician in my country (nothing that big, she was from a rural area in the country)

-French Youth Liberals Union
a. founder, president, coordinator
b. chief author of a project I launched to rewrite the English learning curriculum used in the country so it would have a new focus in globalism and promotion of anti-discriminatory and international communication, which was adopted by a few programs
c. I had a research fellowship in the country, where I focused on gender equality and policy reforms; (got letter from prof)
d. in twist of events, the research I completed got turned into actual policies to promote the advancement of women’s rights, which were installed in a governmental project. (also got letter from the CEO (I’m not sure what the title should be, but the guy ran the whole thing and won some award from our president for, but technically it was not a corporation)
e. I created a mini conference: French Youth Convention for Leaders in Business, Science, Government, and the Humanities (it wasn’t that big but people showed up lol)

-Aurea Atramento Society of Competitive Poets
a. founder, pres
b. 1st in a couple of international and national poetry contests
c. the name sounded cool when I was in 9th grade; give me a break

-I started an organization that supplies literacy organizations for women in the Middle East; most of it is secret poetry societies (pretty cool stuff; I recommend looking it up if you love brave ladies)
a. I raised about 20k for it
b. I coordinated loads of charity poetry slams to raise money (it was really fun!!)

  • ok THIS is what I’m worried about. This was a HUGE project that took up most of my time. I had to fund raise and coordinate it myself. I went to another country in Europe where there is currently a lot of rioting, revolting, and governmental tension. I stayed with some host families that I had to contact myself through my blogging presence (which I’m not going to mention, lol). There was no special program or anything. I just flew out and slept on a sofa for weeks documenting the revolts through the medium of poetry (because sometimes you just have to ask yourself “why not”). The manuscript won a really minor award before I published it. The reason I’m worried about this, is because I don’t want Harvard to think that I’m too odd and, which will take away from my other accomplishments.

SOOO onto my actual involvement with my H.S:

-Scholastic Bowl (pres) no major awards
-Mathletes- (pres, treasurer) no major awards since our school only competes w/ other district school
-Tennis-nothing major
-Science club-pres, a medal but one that’s SUPER small
-Speech-extemp captain/mentor-no awards (at least ones that count)
-Lit mag-editor
-My school pretty poor so it doesn’t have debate, MUN, etc. even though I’ve offered to start it

^^^ MINIMAL. I have no large awards from any of these organizations, nor major involvement in the school. I love what I do, but it requires creativity, not intelligence or talent (which seems to be a prerequisite for Harvard). I’m not in band, and I have no idea how to play anything; and I can’t sing. I’m also terrible at art, and sports. I feel like my activities are good, just not excellent since I’m not exceptionally GOOD at anything (does that make sense?). Then there’s also the fact that my income is 15k, so I can’t pay my tuition and that makes the competition that much tougher.

2

Absolutely no need to be worried! In fact, your EC’s are spectacular! Colleges like Harvard want truly unique EC’s that show a passion (even better if it is academic like yours.) Your EC’s show your leadership ability, intelligence and character/compassion. Based on your EC’s alone, it looks like you will have a very strong chance to get into Harvard Early Action. But of course, grades and test scores are very important too! Good luck!

3

Although your EC’s seem fine, because they were not done at your high school, do your teachers and guidance counselor know about your involvement with them?

Often times, Admissions looks to your teacher in their letters of recommendation and guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report to confirm your involvement with day-to-day, year-to-year extra curricular activities. That’s how they are going to know if your EC’s are authentic or just simply made up. What rating is your GC going to give you on extracurricular activities on your Secondary School Report (SSR)? If you don’t know the answer, you best have a conversation with your GC. See page 2 of the SSR: http://ugadm.northwestern.edu/documents/UG_Admissions_SecondarySchoolReport.pdf.

If your teachers and GC have absolutely no idea of your involvement, you should consider getting an additional letter of recommendation from a mentor or supervisor who can attest to your EC commitment.

4

Thank you for the response gibby! I’ll definitely arrange a meeting with my counselor to discuss these activities. I’m also going to contact as many people as I can for letters/proof of involvement.

5

@jwong945 Wow, it’s like a heavy weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Thank you for replying!!!

6

Don’t overdo it. Submit one extra letter of recommendation, but anything more may start to overshadow your teacher recommendations. Harvard is an academic institution and not an extracurricular camp, so your teacher recs are more important.

7

Completely agree. Do not send more than one external letter. Also, for your main essay, you should consider weaving in your unique EC with your identity. Schools like Harvard don’t really “check” EC’s, and most people definitely embellish. I’m not saying people outright lie, but they definitely do stretch the truth and there really is no way that they can double check.

8

@gibby and @jwong945 Thank you for the help!

9

Xdaffodillx, i have one small piece of unsolicited advice: be a more judicious humble bragger! It’s too obvious. I recommend not expressing worry over the fact that your extraordinary ECs might not shine as brightly as your peers’ relatively pedestrian activities (ho hum MUN and scioly). Own the fact you think what you’re doing is way cool and unique, and ask us how we think you can best communicate these extraordinary ECs to adcoms. I find it burdensome to massage egos on CC.