Ahhh...That's why it's called the Stanford cardinal, not cardinals.(Chances)

Colleges & Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

<p>Heh. I actually just found that out.</p>

<p>Hey. Hope you guys could give me some chances.</p>

<p>Senior attending semi-competitive HS in South-Central Jersey (sends one to Ivies, three-ish to top 40 schools)</p>

<p>Plan to major in Civil</p>

<p>ACT (good s**t): Composite 33 - 34 English, 33 Math, 31 Reading, 34 Science, 32 Writing
SAT II's: Physics 650
Math IIC 690
(Unrealistic because I realized I had to take them a week before the test date, don't think they accurately measure my skills and I mentioned this in Addt'l. Info)</p>

<p>GPA: Right around a 4 weighted, 3.7 unweighted.
Classes: Most rigorous curriculum: All honors and AP classes.
APs: Soph: AP Macroeconomics-4
Junior: AP Spanish Language-(Couldn't take test)
Senior: AP Physics (Well, it's not AP, but its the same coursework/load and I plan to take the test)
AP Calculus AB
AP USH
AP Microeconomics</p>

<p>EC's- National Honor Society
Spanish Honor Society
F.I.R.S.T. Robotics Team, member of founding team as senior
designer/engineer. We won the NJ regionals and won a Rookie
all-star award, after which we went to the world champs in Atlanta.
Morning TV show, I created a lot of attractive, professional grade Flash
Intros which really got everyone talking!
Habitat for Humanity
Perhaps one or two more as the year goes by.</p>

<p>Work experience(significant!)</p>

<p>Worked in a construction company all four years of high school. I started as skilled labor(electrics, plumbing, carpentry) and moved up to more professional jobs. I am now a project manager, sales consultant, in marketing, and I've created a website for our firm. It's a serious job in which I've used a lot of stuff I learned in school. I'm also given full-scale responsibilities, like some sales presentations and crew management, no easy stuff. I can run most machinery, including excavators and large tractors, and tools. I hope colleges look at this as a much more involved employment as opposed to something like working in a supermarket (nothing wrong with that, but my job's way more intensive!)</p>

<p>Special considerations, if any:</p>

<p>Come from a low-income family for where we live, I think. I'll do the EFC thing today with my folks, but I expect it to be at most $2,500. I work very hard to support it. I used to work around 30-35 hours a week before, now due to the housing slump, that has increased to near 35-40 hours, taking away some time I could've used to study, play lax, etc. I heard the Ivies+top schools have a hard time attracting lower income kids, so I'm hoping mentioning this will help me. I worte about it in the extra info section and mentioned a snippet in my essay.</p>

<p>Thanks for your input.</p>

2

<p>i don't know how they would measure your ECs - they seem awesome to me.
but I hope stanford buys your argument for those scores</p>

3

<p>I think your work experience is really the only thing you have going for you. It is very strong, but I'm not sure if it's strong enough to make up for the rest of the profile, which is just kind of "eh."</p>

4

<p>Aright. Is that what's holding me back? How are my ACT's?</p>

5

<p>I think the work experience on its own would be compelling, but is even more so in the context of it being used to help support your family. In my opinion, you'll probably get in, desopite the "eh" factor of the rest of your application - the work alone is a big hook in my opinion.</p>

6

<p>Your scores are fine, and especially impressive considering the fact that you're working so many hours a week to help out your family. I would say you have a great chance.</p>

7

<p>I hope the work helps. I have the same ACT and about the same hours of work per week, but it's such a big crapshoot that I'm expecting the worst.</p>

8

<p>Hey dude, we're in the same boat. We either float or sink. Wow, that was a retarded thing to say.</p>