Coca-cola scholar semifinalist- worth updating the admissions office?
Congratulations! I didn’t know enough about the program so I googled it
Every single applicant to Harvard – all 35,000+ students-- would probably qualify to apply for the contest. And, most accepted students to Harvard, who also applied to the contest, would seem to qualify as a finalist or winner. It’s not really an award that will tell Harvard much, other than what your transcript, GPA and test scores already tells them.
In addition, as there are over 2,000 semi-finalists nationwide (more seats than Harvard has in their freshman class), I doubt it will carry much weight in the Admissions process. But if your name is listed here, I’d go ahead and update through the portal. IMHO it’s not that significant an update for a FAX: http://www.coca-colascholarsfoundation.org/applicants/2015-coca-cola-scholar-semifinalists/#.VkvHQoSAnOw
Thanks @gibby . Great points, I appreciate the feedback!
@redrabbit23 Actually I’d update them. While despite the fact that yes 2,000 people are selected, 87,000 people apply, so it’s by no means a hand-out. Harvard admits a class size as large as the number of coke semifinalists, but not all coke semifinalists apply to Harvard. Beyond that, the numbers don’t diminish its prestige. Take for example, the National Merit Scholar competition. 1.5m take the test, and 15,000 become semifinalists (about 1%). 15,000 is a greater number than all of Harvard undergrad, but it’s still a really important recognition to list nonetheless. Coca cola focuses very little on GPA, and they don’t even ask for test scores if I recall correctly. If anything, it’s an excellent source of outside validation that confirms your commitment to your community. It’s a selective and prestigious award that could very well improve your application; at the very least, it can’t hurt.
And this is coming from someone who applied to Harvard SCEA and was rejected by coke this year!
Thanks for your input @giraffeinatree . I I’ll take that into consideration! Best of luck on your college apps!