<p>Hi everyone!</p>
<p>Congrats to those who got accepted to Stanford - you've all accomplished something amazing by putting forth a lot of hard work and effort! And to those who are on the wait-list or were denied - you've made amazing strides in applying and will succeed wherever you go! I just had a few questions for advice on getting accepted - what did you write about in your essays? What types of life experiences got you accepted? Any advice for soon-to-be seniors? Thanks!</p>
<p>-Pat</p>
<p>just work hard on the essays and you should have a good shot. the admissions officer that visited my school said all your scores, grades and ec's get you up to the door, but the essay is what puts you through.</p>
<p>i think the main thing to do in the essays is make sure you show your personality. i didn't think my essays were very well written, but i think i was able to show my personality really well.</p>
<p>intellectual curiosity....</p>
<p>yeah, definitely work on your essays...i spent 3 months revising and editing them.</p>
<p>I seriously think it's more about what you get from an experience than how "life changing" it seems on the surface. Mine was about screwing up on the piano a lot, for example.</p>
<p>Agree with the last post. None of my essays showed anything life-changing, but they did show my intellectual interests. Since Stanford requires several short answers, I wrote on a lighter topic on one of them, showing that I'm more than this crazy intellectual. Make sure to write them in advance, but don't feel like you need to revise them a million times. That raw essay is much better to get a sense of personality then an essay that has been combed over a lot.</p>
<p>in total agreement with the other posts. </p>
<p>basically: personal statement > grades + sat</p>
<p>sorry for being such a math nerd</p>
<p>Do you think they will flat out not read an application if the SAT scores are not up to par?</p>
<p>probably, if it is under 1650(new sat). </p>
<p>i think, they usually have ppl reveiw your file to see if your academically accceptable, to make sure like gpa is over a certain like 3.5, and etc...</p>
<p>i know that's how they work at mit, should be similar</p>
<p>It just seems like the SAT is worth a lot more than people say. Most of the people admitted have high SAT scores. And if it's only used to 'get in the door', I would think that a lot more people with scores of 2000-2100 would be accepted.</p>
<p>I agree with the comments already posted. I have read and heard a lot about how admissions officers are looking for common themes in an applicant's package, and consistency in what the applicant writes about and what the recommender says. I think this contributed heavily to my Ds acceptance. One of her recommenders was her math teacher, and in her essays about academic interests she wrote about math, and her fascination with the "stories that numbers can tell", it was a very engaging essay....I never knew statistics could be so fascinating. She also wrote about her experience as a camp counselor, looking at life through a child's eyes but relating it to her own emotions about "growing up". Extremely well written, and fun to read. As others have said, start early with the essays, refine them well, and get help from others in polishing them. Good luck. Stanford is an amazing place.</p>
<p>The students who are accepted tend to be very, very smart. Many of them have done very well in high school (almost 50% were in the top 2% of their graduating class). Student who are generally bright, work hard, and want to get in to a good college will tend to also have high SAT scores. It would be a bit like saying that Stanford must be looking for students whose parents really care about their education. You'll probably find a very high correlation there, but that doesn't mean there's causation.</p>