You put it better than me. And, yes, this student has pretty good odds at W&M, Wake and UNC (three fine schools) so if those work I guess they are good to go. What I don’t suggest is shotgunning T20s with the idea that applying to more increases your chances. That is especially true for unhooked students. It is very tough to get a lot of rejections/WL at the end of admissions season - even if you have been admitted to a few schools that you really like.
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This has to be one of the top few things many people (including parents, including in fact myself) don’t really grasp the full importance of until they actually go through the process.
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Yup. I’m right there with you. For S24 it was extremely tough to get all rejections or WL at the end - even though he’d been accepted to a couple of schools he really liked, including UVA which was among his top 4-5 to begin with.
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You have fine stats. Anything else you are adding to that is fine too.
You’re what some adcoms would call, a “spikey” applicant (sometimes also referred to as a unicorn.) Some schools love them; others not so much. Harvard has always had the reputation that a spikey student stands a greater chance of getting in than someone who is " well-rounded. The problem with that now is Harvard is flooded with applicants who think and believe they are spikey in some way or another. Pretty hard stand out as unique when everyone’s unique.
Another thing to beware of is that there’s a fine line between being interesting and being a bore. If you’re really all that fascinating, find someone else who will say it succinctly so that you don’t have to go to great lengths to prove it yourself. It would be great if something along those lines could find its way into a LOR, for instance.
Personally, I can think of a dozen good, solid, LACs where a spikey kid with an interest in an obscure aspect of European history would be welcomed with open arms. But that would be hijacking the thread.
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First stop worrying. Second, in our experience, a candidate who pursues a strong interest in an interesting way is more likely to impress admissions than someone with near perfect stats (and yours are excellent anyway).
I wonder if it is possible to get a letter of recommendation related to your history activities, or even do a history supplement. My kid did that for music. You could ask Harvard admissions (but don’t talk to a student who answers the phone!).
I have similar interests and dragged my kids to old houses throughout their childhood. They were the only ones in their class who had heard of the Slater Mill (and certainly the only ones who had visited!). I interned with Historic New England in my 60’s and worked with an historic preservation team focused on steeples as a volunteer. Regardless of your future career, you can continue to pursue that interest.
One thing: the word “unique” is overused. In one way, we are all unique- there is only one of us! But in terms of being a “unique” applicant, that may not be possible. The term “extremely unique” makes no sense at all: either you are unique or not and there is no such thing as “slightly” or “extremely” unique 
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Yeah, my favorite substitute word in this context, which circuitrider also used above, is “interesting”.
Particularly with the highly selective colleges that get lots of applications, being truly “impressive” is not a very realistic goal for most kids, nor is being truly “unique”.
But truly interesting? It is totally possible! You need to be smart about how you write your applications, indeed trying too hard to be impressive, unique, or so on can inadvertently make you less interesting (again, see circuitrider’s post). Not to scare anyone, but I also think creating an impression of insincerity is a quick route to not being all that interesting to a reader.
But for that very reason, interesting is attainable because so many other applicants don’t really get there.
And then if you don’t quite have the numbers, or are not quite what they are looking for, or were what they were looking for but they think they have enough admits like you already, or so on, you might not get admitted anyway. But you gave yourself your best shot.
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To “Interesting” I would add “authentic” and “likable.”
In regard to “likable” I totally agree with @circuit rider to get someone else to “tell” while in your application/essays you can “show.” If someone else tells about your passion for history, intelligence, consideration of others, work ethic- whatever- so much better than if you try too hard to say it yourself in your application.
Ask the schools if a letter of recommendation can be submitted by someone outside your school due to a strong pursuit of an interest.
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Basically to add on to all of your wonderful comments,
First, I’ve been reflecting and I do agree about your comments about ‘uniqueness.’ I guess the word to say isn’t unique but ‘interesting.’ Whether or not ‘interesting’ gets you into a T10 is irrelevant, but I think that is what I would define myself as. The difference between an interesting person (like a magician, or something like that) and myself, I believe, is the fact that I translate my ‘interestingness’ into academic achievements (research, internships, etc.) I suppose they’re not the strongest achievements when compared to your average top 1% Harvard applicant, especially for STEM, but I do believe since I am applying for history, it sets me apart.
I know that major doesn’t matter, as many people have pointed out, but when you think about it - the difference between a STEM major and a humanities major does matter to some degree. The activities that a student does as a Biology applicant differs from that of a Jouranlism applicant, and the same goes for an applicant of history. I guess one of the reasons I am so worried, as compmom pointed out, is that I really have no one to compare myself to. The vast majority of people posting on forums are those who have STEM backgrounds (they’ve done a medical internship, yadayada, you know those types of people.) The closest I can find to someone like myself are either political science kids (law internships, that sort of thing) or genuinely interested history kids like myself.
I suppose the point to my massive paragraph which hasn’t really gotten anywhere is, does it really matter? I guess I feel like I’m still lost in whether or not being interesting matters to an admissions officer. When an officer picks up my paper and skims though my activities, will it matter that some things stand out to them? I’d imagine there are thousands of other applicants who also are in the same situation, where they have an unique activity that isn’t just a generic internship or president of a club, which I do have.
In my mind, I think it would help me since, if you’re a random admissions officer and you see a kid put ‘Weltseele’ as the first activity on his activity list, you’re going to be pretty intrigued. I also mention it on my personal essay so chances are they’re going to want to figure out what it is.
Once again sorry for the monster reply, I feel like Ive been rambling, and using an excessive amount of commas.
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Right, I think you make a very good point. Everyone thinks that by being unique they stand a better chance at Harvard. Truth! But once again, in my mind, I think its ‘how important is being unique.’ If you’re a unique person who can’t really contribute anything to the academics, campus culture, etc. why accept the person? In my eyes, though, I’m a candidate who can bring a unique discipline, French History, to the table. (Harvard does indeed have a professor who teaches French history, which I mentioned I was enthusiastic about on one of the supplemental.
So yeah, while most people are like a unicorn, I’m a unicorn with a giant laser sword. I think that counts for something, right? Or am I just delusional.
I have a couple ‘history’ LACs on my list that I didn’t mention as NUM pointed out, William and Mary is one. Washington and Lee is another. Emory is a third. In my eyes, though, any college I wouldn’t take over UNC is irrelevant. So, most of my schools are schools I believe are ‘better?’ (UNC is a great school but I’m not sure if better is the word here…)
Anyways, at the end of the day, I am applying for Law, so in reality another thing I’m looking at these colleges for is the strength of their law school. Georgetown was an immediate fit (and I also had dilemmas over ED Duke vs EA Georgetown which eventually got flipped around.)
It doesn’t matter what you, or any of us think. Put your best foot forward, make sure you have an affordable safety or two, and promise yourself to stop perseverating about this.
Years ago, a kid wrote an essay about juggling (if I’m remembering the essay correctly, he was a volunteer for a pediatric clown program and they taught him to juggle). Yes, he got in everywhere. So next year- OMG, every adcom at every T-25 was bombarded with essays about juggling.
But the point was not the juggling. The point was that this was a volunteer activity that took up huge chunks of this kid’s time and that he cared about, and he wanted the adcom’s to understand a bit about who he was. Someone who tried to make ill children on a hospital ward happy for five minutes by doing his juggling routine wearing a big red nose. That’s it.
So stop worrying. The important thing is having a safety you’d be happy to attend. And the rest is up to the adcom’s- and none of us can possibly know what they will think or how they will react to your application. Maybe you’ll be the first French History kid they’ll read about this year. Or maybe you’ll be the 200th and they are tired of SO MUCH FRENCH HISTORY. CC does not represent the entire applicant pool!!!
So stop worrying.
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Love it when an OP answers their own question. 
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After re-reading my essays, I don’t think I’m bashing it in the admissions officer’s head that I am ‘unique’ or whatever. In fact, I only use the word four times in all 3 of my personal essays, twice in the circumstances section and twice in the covid section.
I think my goal was just showing schools who I am as a person while conveying my quirks and attributes. For example, in the covid section, I touched up on why I did Francolina and why I like France so much. In the circumstances I feel like it’s just me showing off all of my achievements, which maybe I should fix.
This also scared me to some degree, but I wouldn’t say its an essay. Its just a couple flowy blocks of texts explaining what I did. I even clarified at the very beginning that I did it because I feel I am such a niche student that there’s basically no way in hell they could ever understand what weltseele is without me just putting the URL in the 100 character slot and calling it a day, or knowing who Nunzio Othello is
Yeah this is a pretty good way to put it. Now that I think about it I’m really not sure why I’m so worried. It’s not as if I can do anything about it. Lol
Forgot to respond to this.
The strength of any college’s law school is irrelevant when applying to their undergrad.
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I wouldn’t think major doesn’t matter. Colleges like an interesting mix of interests and backgrounds.
I hope you stop using the word “unique”! Aside from what I wrote before about usage, you can show you are by describing your background and interests, and don’t have to label yourself. Let the admissions folks do that.
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I agree with @compmom — if you can rewrite your responses to lose the word “unique”, I think you should do that.
And…is Weltselee a term that most historians will know or is it super specialized? Can you describe it in ten words or less?
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Just did that, actually. I scrapped unique and I’m just going to let the Admission’s Officers do it themselves.
It is impossible to describe it in 10 words or less. Even for historians its extremely specialized. In fact, if you look up Weltseele, the only things which come up are the website itself and definitions of what Weltseele is, I’d assume from people trying to figure out what the name means. Lol
Yeah I kinda have to explain it in detail for someone who’s not involved in history heavily. I guess for someone with a history background I could do it in like 20 words maybe? Maybe 10. That’s a stretch though.
Weltseele or “world-soul” was a term the philosopher Hegel used to describe Napoleon.
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