Acceptance Chances for Early Admission

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>Stanford is my top choice. I am applying for early decision this fall (2006). According to everyone here, what are my chances of getting accepted?</p>

<p>Columbia (NY), UC Berkeley, and UCLA are my next top choices. I'll also be applying to MIT and Harvard.</p>

<p>GPA (weighted): 4.2 (from fresman to junior year)
School Rank: 7 out of 559
SAT: 2310 (maximum scores out of two tests)</p>

<p>APs:
World History - 4 (Sophomore)
Chemistry - 4 (Junior)
Biology - 5 (Junior)
U.S. History - 5 (Junior)
English Language - 5 (Junior)
Spanish Language - 4 (Junior)</p>

<p>APs I'm taking this year:
U.S. Government (2 separate classes)
AP Macroeconomics
AP Microeconomics
AP English Lit.
AP Computer Science
AP Physics EM
AP Physics M
AP Calculus BC
Tests Total: 8</p>

<p>I have been volunteering for organizations that work with Lou Gehrig's Disease. My grandfather died of it, so I am planning on writing my personal statement on my whole story with the disease, etc. I visit patients. I am an inern for one of the organizations. I raise money for walk-a-thons and advocacy. I have made websites and just advocate awareness in general.</p>

<p>I also tutor at the library as a volunteer. I am part of the Teen Advisory Group for the library as well.</p>

<p>I support at orphanage in India and visit kids there every other year.</p>

<p>I was an intern at Sandia National Labs, a Department of Energy-sponsored government laboratory.</p>

<p>I worked at a local environmental lab from May 2005 until June 2006.</p>

<p>I won the Math and Science Award from the Sandia Women's Committee (I was nominated by the school).</p>

<p>I won first place in the regional science fair for Environmental Science. This was coupled with the regional Stockholm Junior Water Prize and Best Science-Related project prize from the local water district.</p>

<p>I won an academic block from my school.</p>

<p>I have played the piano since I was 5. I have been a part of the National Guild of Pianists since 2002. I have also played in recitals, etc.</p>

<p>I am an avid singer of Indian music, with an emphasis in classical music. I have had a few group public performances.</p>

<p>Nationality: Asian-Pacific Islander/Indian (from India). I'm not sure how significant this will be in the application process.</p>

<p>If I remember anything else that I'm planning on putting on my application, I will be sure to add it.</p>

<p>Thanks to everyone for their time!</p>

<p>P. Y. L.</p>

2

<p>You actually sound like a very competitive candidate.</p>

<p>That being said, be sure in your applications to convey passion for the activities you do. Laundry listing the things you do or simply describing them will not be enough. Show how much it means to you to work for the Lou Gehrig's foundation, and what you have learned from visiting the orphanage in India. You can tell a story, or just write from the heart. Seriously. Stanford will know if you really care or not =] Just be yourself and show your personality - what you think, not what you do.</p>

3

<p>Thanks so much for your reply Celestial! I'll keep everything in mind. Whatever I put here is just a quick overview. I will definitely focus on my singing (perhaps send a CD) and my involvement with Lou Gehrig's Disease. Those are my two passions, for sure.</p>

<p>Other choices: Columbia, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Caltech, MIT, Harvard, Cornell, all other UC's. I live in California.</p>

<p>More information:
SAT II:
Math II 780
World History 750
Biology 710</p>

<p>Statistics and English at local community college.</p>

<p>Live in San Francisco suburbs. City is known as "rich people" place. I'm at 1.25 (round to 2) percent of my class.</p>

4

<p>Yeah, with the local bump i'd give you a decent chance for stanford, i.e. more likely than not that you'd get in SCEA.</p>

5

<p>You sound like a really cool person :) Come to Stanford! Good luck!</p>

6

<p>Thanks rosarei and stanford!</p>

<p>I guess it's all just dependent on the essays and recs now. Not much more I can change! :)</p>

<p>One more question:
Obviously, we get to hear a lot of rumors about where Stanford takes more students from. Would being local actually be an advantage or disadvantage? I've heard both, but perhaps students already at Stanford have a better idea of this issue?</p>

7

<p>Being from California is probably a small disadvantage.</p>

8

<p>I doubt it will really matter much. If you ask me you have a pretty decent shot in getting in. If you get good recs and write good essays that is.</p>

9

<p>The local bump really doesn't exist for Stanford. Stanford had a bad run with local private schools this year--they are known for picking out-of-state students. BandTenHut is right--being from California is a small disadvantage.
However, to the original poster: you have GREAT chances. Don't worry.</p>

10

<p>is it true that if you put "undecided" on your app you have a better chance of getting in? my friend says that if you write your essays on like your passion for medicine or law they raise their standards of admission for you because those fields are extremely competitive. Idk, i could be very wrong</p>

11

<p>I actually heard that you don't get accepted into any specific "major," per say. You actually accepted into the whole school. Whether to believe this or not, I do not know. I know someone who applied Biology at Berkeley and Engineering at Stanford, perhaps because s/he felt that it was easier to be accepted into Engineering at Stanford and easier to be accepted into Biology at Berkeley. <strong>shrug</strong></p>

12

<p>I'm at a public school. Hopefully that doesn't have to do with the Stanford-private school conflict? ;o)</p>

13

<p>LoL, I went to public school as well. No worries on that.</p>

<p>I'm not an admissions officer, but I think the part where you put your major/career interest on the app is just to learn more about you. Pyleela is correct that you are not accepted into a major or a "school" within Stanford; I don't believe departments have quotas they try to meet. People switch around a lot anyway, and Stanford is supportive of that. It would not be realistic to base admissions judgments on high school seniors' proposed career interests.</p>

14

<p>You should have a solid chance to get in. Send in your piano/singing auditions, it might help as well. (Or you could do a live audition, since you live so close...)</p>

15

<p>nobody would publish statistics on such a matter, but from off-hand experience pretty much all colleges use local status as a "tie-breaker" kind of thing to pick students out of the 80th-90th percentile of the applicant pool where everyone looks pretty similar. My evidence is limited to only a few schools, but I don't thing the 30 kids from Roxbury Latin in every Harvard Freshman class or the 50 main liners at Penn are all the cream of the crop; anecdotally, at Stanford the acceptance bump at Stanford is pretty big for Palo Alto High and Gunn, and generally the entire bay area gets a nudge.</p>

16

<p>See? That's the thing. Ivies and other top schools are very ambiguous in their criteria (technically, they have no specific limitations on who can apply or not). We, here in the SF Bay Area, think that East Coast and non-local/non-Californian students have a better advantage of being accepted; on the other hand, an East Coast college counselor said that Stanford loves (and I use this term lightly) local Bay Area kids and that the East Coast schools would love some of the local Bay Area kids. Wow, really long run-on. Hopefully that made sense. This is where college politics gets frustrating. All the ambiguities.</p>

17

<p>For me, this is where I would stop trying to analyze the game and just work my hardest. Trying to figure out how admissions work will give you some insight, but you've got great chances and I think you should relax on worrying about where you live and what little bumps you might get. Just focus on your studies, your activities, and being you =]</p>

18

<p>I'll be doing just that! Thanks for the advice everyone!</p>