<p>i'm currently a sophomore with a 4.0 in the top 5% of my class, and i participate in academic team, science club, and mu alpha theta. what could i do to better my chances of being admitted to stanford? (haven't taken the sat or act yet)</p>
<p>Your ECs might kill you for Stanford…</p>
<p>So, is it too late for me?</p>
<p>If you get better ECs for the next two years then you will still have a chance.</p>
<p>[Our</a> Selection Process : Stanford University](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/basics/selection/index.html]Our”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/basics/selection/index.html)</p>
<p>Read and digest.</p>
<p>At the very least you need community service and leadership.</p>
<p>seeing as i don’t do anything on the weekends other than gaming, doing a substantial amt. of community service should be easy. and thanks for the link</p>
<p>“seeing as i don’t do anything on the weekends other than gaming”</p>
<p>step one is this needs to stop lol.</p>
<p>hahaha, you’re right</p>
<p>what can i really do in the next 2.5 years to pretty much guarantee my acceptance? (i know you can’t guarantee acceptance with absolute certainty)</p>
<p>It is truly impossible to even come close to a guarantee with how selective Stanford is… Keep up the grades get involved in ECs you love, but don’t do anything for the sake of college admissions alone, because the simple truth is that you will probably not get in. This is not to discourage you, just know that they are beyond competitive.</p>
<p>Isn’t it a bit harsh to say “you will probably not get in”? Or is it just that much of a game of chance?</p>
<p>It is not that you are under-qualified, it is truly as you put it that much a game of chance. People assume that if you have great stats you can get into any top school, and that is often not the case. I have a friend who last year got rejected by University of Chicago and Swarthmore, but got into Brown. She was equally qualified for all three, wrote great essays for all three, but only got into the one, because it is often essentially a lottery for top schools. Also you are interested in one of the most selective schools in the country where almost every applicant is qualified.</p>
<p>You need to be interesting and stand out from all the other valedictorians who do the exact same things you do, and better</p>
<p>I computed using parchment what a person’s chances of getting into Stanford would be if he/she were an African American Athletic Recruit Valedictorian with perfect test scores and international level achievement in five ECs.</p>
<p>52%</p>
<p>Hmmm, I see. So, if I applied to a bunch of different top-tier schools, do you think I could get into at least one or two?</p>
<p>With your stats as they are…perhaps.</p>
<p>Assuming improved ECs and strong test scores possibly…</p>
<p>Though the flaw to just applying to a bunch of top schools is that you are applying based on name value and not fit and colleges tend to be able to tell. Not every top school in the country is similar, they are different in everything from size to which of their programs are strongest, they are not all automatically a good fit for you. An example is UPenn and Swarthmore (I tend to be using Swarthmore a lot in my examples, but then again I love them), geographically they are very close, many top applicants will visit both if they plan to visit one, but I am yet to meet somebody who liked them both. Despite both being some of the best schools in the country and having great programs in basically every major they are very different schools… This is the same when most top schools are compared.</p>
<p>52%, wow, that’s beyond low for an African American Athletic Recruit Valedictorian with perfect test scores and international level achievement in five ECs.</p>
<p>haha… just out of curiosity, what would be their chances for hyp?</p>