I’ve always been an introvert throughout my life. Public speaking, MUNs, and debates were never in my forte. That is the reason why I worked hard on my written communication skills and tried to perfect my writing abilities.
While scrolling through the “Chance” posts, I came across applicants who were tagged as competitive, and most of them were speakers and had participated in MUNs, conducted webinars, and gave speeches.
Will not being a speaker negatively affect my application in any way? (especially if I want to get admitted in a reach/target school like Barnard or Northeastern)
The application season will be a lot happier for you if you stop adding unnecessary things to worry about.
Posters on CC are a self-selecting group. Yes, lots of them are extroverted and many are interested in law and/or political science-type fields (debating and MUN being key ECs in those arenas). And lots of them have amazing research ECs. And artistic/musical ECs. etc. One of the big differences between US universities and most of those in other countries is that most US unis (especially the more selective ones) are trying to build a community. A campus of nothing but debaters would, like any one-note song, get old fast.
You can only run one race: your own. As posters on your other thread have told you, Barnard is a real reach for you, because you are an international applicant to a top-tier university who needs a lot of financial aid, and you are applying to schools that will consider how much it will cost them to have you as a student for 4 years in deciding whether to admit you.
The fact that you are not a debater is not going to be a deciding factor.
Also, “Chance” threads are a really, really bad way to calibrate your own chances. The vast majority of posters are people who are going through the process themselves- for the first time. Like you, they are trying to read the tea leaves.
I can’t speak for Northeastern, but across the Charles at Harvard and MIT, you can’t swing a stick without hitting an introvert. ?