Does being a non-public speaker/debater impact my application?

collegemom3717
Fri, 02 Oct 2020 16:07:32 +0000

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.