<p>Hi, I was just wondering if I could get a general opinion on whether or not I should apply to Stanford and other similar top schools- I don't have any major awards or extracurriculars or fantastic scores....
here goes:</p>
<p>SAT- 2240- CR 750, W 690, M 800- I'm almost positive I'm going to retake beginning of my senior year to bring up the writing section, but I'm not sure how much it will help
PSAT- 226
GPA- 3.91 UW, I've gotten 2 Bs in AP French and 1 B first semester AB Calc
I've taken 2 400 level courses at the U of A (A for ODE, not sure about complex analysis yet)
APs- AB Calc Frosh year, Euro and BC soph, 5s on all. Taking 3 more APs, and 3 Subject tests in a few weeks
USABO semifinalist- I don't know if that means much...
Will be NHS VP next year (nhs is only seniors at my school)</p>
<p>Frosh and Soph year wrote for the Tucson Citizen newspaper as a teen columnist (the newspaper closed, though)- summer of 8th grade I wrote for them as a movie reviewer
Volunteer at a children's musuem for 3-4 ish years, VP for their Youth Board, and Youth Board representative for the Board of Director's
Hospital Volunteer for 1 year
Doing a biology internship at U of A this summer</p>
<p>Piano for 9-10 years, Flute for 7 years (did regionals only once soph year, got 3rd chair, so not sure if its worth mentioning)</p>
<p>I'll take any criticism or whatever I just need help! Thanks in advance</p>
<p>As a general rule of thumb, anyone even remotely in the competitive range for a school should apply if he or she truly wants to attend. You are certainly in that pool of competitive applicants.</p>
<p>OK, I guess I’ll give it a shot. Do you think that essays might make up for a kind of lack in leadership ECs?</p>
<p>It’ll be a reach, but like silverturtle said, if you’re interested in the school and wouldn’t mind the application fee, make sure you do apply. Sometimes unexpected wonders happen :)! I would definitely give the SAT one more try, because the writing section is arguably the easiest to improve upon and besides, even your PSAT score is higher than your SAT. I think you have the potential to score higher.</p>
<p>The essay is important. It won’t sway the decision from a rejection to an acceptance, but it may make your application stand out among a group of similarly qualified applicants. Also, playing the piano for so many years and qualifying for the regionals are both indications of commitment - you don’t necessarily have to be good at everything, just good at some particular aspect.</p>
<p>thanks- all I really have is my commitment, I hadn’t given much thought to chasing down a bunch of awards and now its a little to late 
so its good to know that my commitment counts for something. I really dont have many ECs but I chose those ECs because i knew I wanted to do them for years
also i was wondering if it hurts that the ECs look like they’re all over the place… I truly am deeply invested in each and everyone of them, even if they aren’t concentrated in one field. I feel like its too early to decide what i want to major in, you know? i want to give everything a try first, but I wonder if that could look like “indecisiveness” to colleges…?</p>
<p>and thanks for all the honest advice- it helps more than you’d think :)</p>
<p>Does anybody else have advice/suggestions?</p>
<p>Uh, I would like to politely disagree with what Calico said. </p>
<p>Essays are important. And if they are good, with the right stats, they’ll sway you to an acceptance. There will be SO many other students with similar stats as you, the essays will be the deciding factor.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>