Am I Competitive for Stanford?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m currently a soon-to-be Senior and I was wondering if I have a serious shot at Stanford or if I should shift my focus on getting into other universities. I understand that there’s a fair bit of subjectivity in the college admissions process, and I know that there’s no way anyone can give me a sure answer on my chances without actually being admissions officers. I’ve posted my stats below (I’ve added a year of experience to some that I know I’ll be involved in next year):

GPA:
-Weighted academic GPA - 4.46
-Weighted total GPA - 4.42
-Weighted 10-12 GPA - 4.65
-Unweighted total GPA - 4.0

SAT:

-1420 (this was a first attempt, I’m confident that I can get 1520+ by November)

Class Rank: 1

AP Classes:

-Taken - Euro History(5), Bio(?), APUSH(?), Calc BC (?), Spanish(?), Lang(?)
-Will Take - Enviro Science, Psychology, Physics, Lit, Stats, Human Geo

ECs: (listed from what takes up the most to least of my time)

-Stu Gov’t(4 yrs), Spirit Comissioner(2 yrs) - for those not familiar with this title it’s comparable to the amount of work a class pres would do and I was appointed by my school’s activities director
-Computer Science Club(4 yrs), Co-pres (2yrs)
-NHS(4 yrs), co-pres (1 yr)
-Boy Scouts (8 years), Eagle Scout Award
-Tutor for my school (3 yrs)
-Key Club (2 yrs)

Volunteering:

-Tutoring for my school (~16 hrs/mo)
-Calling bingo and helping put on events at local retirement home (~100hrs total) - only did this my Jr yr, I was forced to stop when I got hired as a server by company
-Key Club (~5 hrs/mo)

Job:

-Server at local retirement home (1 yr) - took job to start saving up for textbooks and other expenses in college and for work experience for future jobs

If it helps I’d be applying as a microbiology major

2

If you REALLY want to go to Stanford, and if you have a good reason to do so besides the fact that it is a “brand name college”, you should apply…

That said, let me comment about your competitiveness/chances there. Your GPA and rank are outstanding. Your test score is a bit subpar, so I would aim for 1550+ to show Stanford your intellect. The thing is, different schools have different levels of difficulty, so a 4.0UW/5.0W student at one high school may score lower on the SAT than a 3.5UW/4.2W student does, simply because their school was easier and thus did not prepare them for the SAT. Stanford knows which schools are hard, and thus to show them that it wasn’t the easiness of your school that let you succeed, you should get at least 1550 on the SAT. Additionally, I suggest you take some subject tests to show colleges your skills in a particular area. For a microbiology major, you should take Math 2, Biology, and Chemistry and score 750+ on all of them.

Here is where you fall short. Your ECs are pretty generic and varied. They are generic in the sense that most applicants will have the exact same or similar ECs on their application, so these ECs will definitely not help you stand out among the rest of the 40,000 applicants. They are varied in the sense that none of them pertain to a single subject area. Ever heard of the phrase, “Jack of all trades, but master of none” ? Unfortunately, that is what your ECs show currently – that you’ve dabbled in quite a few clubs, but none of them truly show your passion. This however is not the end all be all since you still have this summer to ramp up your resume. What I recommend is that, since you are interested in microbiology in particular, you should try to land a research internship at a local university under a professor or grad student. When school starts, you may want to participate in your local science fair, or you may want to take the USABO (USA bio olympiad) or USACO (USA chem olympiad). If you do so, and win something in either of these competitions, your chances for getting into Stanford will increase immensely. Good luck! I would appreciate it if you could chance me back here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1995754-chance-me-low-gpa-rank-cornell-rice-wash-u-ucla-etc-p1.html