am I reaching too high?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

<p>Stanford is my dream school, but applying to a school I won't get into for sure is a waste of time and money and energy. Can anyone tell me if I could possibly get into Stanford?</p>

<p>I'm still in the second semester of my junior year, an American citizen but currently attending the Bilingual Department in a school in Taiwan.</p>

<p>GPA: 4.28 (weighted)
top 5% of my year (around 50 some students total)</p>

<p>10 honors courses from 9th grade to 11th...
9th: English (H), Math (H), Chinese 5, Biology, PE, Cooking, Badminton
10th: English (H), Math (H), AP Bio, Chinese 6, Chemistry, US History, PE
11th: English (H), Math (H), Chinese 7 (H), AP Chem, World History (H), Physics, PE,
12th (thinking of taking): AP English, AP Calc, Chinese 8 (H), AP Physics C, AP Econ micro/macro, AP US Govt</p>

<p>PSAT score: 220 (taking the SAT this saturday)
SAT II Bio: 750
SAT II Chem: 780
SAT II Chinese: 800
SAT II Math2C: 740</p>

<p>AP Bio: 5
AP Chem: not yet out yet.. most likely a 5?</p>

<p>Academic Honors/Awards:
•2nd place, 2005~2006 school year 1st semester grade
•2nd place, 2005~2006 school year 2nd semester grade
•Model Student, 2005~2006 school year
•Award for Perfect Attendance, for junior high school years
•Award for Academic Excellence, for junior high school years
•1st place, Math Bee for 9th grade Math Honors
•2nd place, 2006~2007 school year 1st semester grade
•3rd place, 2006~2007 school year 2nd semester grade
•3rd place, 2007~2008 school year 1st semester grade
•Citizenship Award, 2008 Jan. 18</p>

<p>Extracurriculars (up to this year):
1. Student Council, 3 years [headed 6 committees, in the Honor Council]
2. InterAct service club, 3 years [headed 7 committees]
3. Swim Team, 3 years [captain]
4. Debate Club, 3 years
5. Girls' Bball Team, 2 years</p>

<p>Others:
•2007 NEHS School Anniversary MC
•2007~08 Prom Fundraising Committee Co-head
•2007 Halloween UNICEF Fundraiser: Costume Contest MC
•2007 Taipei Cicero English Debate Tournament
•2007 Exploravision Contest
•2007 HSINMUN Conference (delegation: Austria)
•2008 TAIMUN Conference (delegation: Cuba) ; Most Outstanding Delegate Award
•9th grade: 1st semester Class President
•10th grade: 1st semester Class Vice President
•11th grade: 2nd semester Class Vice President
•2008: Taiwan HOBY program</p>

<p>Summer/Winter Break Activities:
•2005~06 winter: Short Courses on Biotechnology at the National Tsing-Hua University
•2006 summer: tutoring English composition and speech to a 12 yr. old local Chinese student
•Saturday Science Camp at the National Tsing-Hua University
•2007 summer: counselor at a 3-day English Summer Camp at Da-ping Elementary School; Community service at Zhen-Ai Institute for the Mentally Challenged
•2007~08 winter: tutored English to an elementary school student</p>

2

<p>Your grades, courses and SAT and ECs look good. The reality is that competition is tough everywhere… and you seem to want to minimize the cost (time? money?) of applying to too many colleges. You will need to weigh exactly where that balance is going to be for you. Stanford is a reach for everyone. Apply if you feel very passionate about Stanford or if you believe it is worth the effort even knowing only 10% will be accepted. </p>

<p>Specifically, though, your biggest hurdle is that while you are a solid student, your application (so far) doesn’t “pop”. For example, your Academic Honors/Awards are all school related, not national. Your extracurriculars do not show any particular passion that stand out and more look like someone who is just constantly busy busy busy.</p>

<p>There might be something buried in your “Others” section that is worth highlighting, but you’ve thrown so much into that area that it is difficult to find it. An admissions officer looking at just this raw list wouldn’t really know who you are or what your passion is by reading the list. While I don’t advise becoming specialized at this young age, admissions officers often like to see some focus on one particular type of activity or passion and see how it has been followed through. </p>

<p>There is time for you to reorganize and reframe your activities and/or focus on one or two ideas over the summer and early fall in order for you to hone your application. Unfortunately, what I read is that “jack of all trades” is not the approach that seems to work, so you need to trim some of the less relevant activities and highlight some of the others. Steer away from generic awards like perfect attendence unless you have a killer essay that uses it to illustrate a larger point (ie: someone going through a life-threatening illness or lives in a warzone and still manages to have perfect attendance would potentially be able to craft a very interesting essay that shows great character strengths… for the rest of us more fortunates, getting recogniztion for merely “showing up” is not really something that will get the attention of most any admissions counselor.)</p>

<p>Hope that helps to get you started. It really is all about packaging. You have the great grades/scores… to get into a place like Stanford or any of the highly selective colleges, you will need to develop your hook - what makes you stand out in a crowd? This is important to consider and develop for any college you want to apply to - so I would keep Stanford in your list (or some other very highly selective college) so that you have in your sights a goal that inspires you to frame all of your materials in the application in the best light possible. </p>

<p>Annika</p>

3

<p>You definitely have a chance, and it is worth applying. I agree with the post above – in your essays, try to tie your extracurriculars together into a theme or passion. Stanford likes people who have top grades and who excel at something else. If they perceive you as just having bounced around lots of things to build a resume, they will look down on it. Look at it from the admissions office perspective, and make yourself sound like someone interesting who other students would like to meet.</p>

4

<p>thank you so much for your advice!</p>

<p>the thing about national awards & etc. is that there really aren’t many opportunities for those in Taiwan. but the admissions officers probably wouldn’t know that…</p>

<p>hm, so narrow down the list.. so is it better to remove some of the awards/ECs from my resume so that they look unified..?</p>

5

<p>You don’t need to look 100% unified in a singular passion, but you don’t want to throw in three kitchen sinks just because they are shiny, either. Its a balance… to show your overall roundedness as a student and person, but still have it focused enough to highlight a passion. I wish there was a magical formula, but the reality is that we are all guessing based on the bits and pieces of evidence that dribble in from those who have succeeded.</p>

6

<p>“shoot for the moon, if you miss you will still be amongst the stars”</p>

7

<p>^^lets hope the direction ur heading when missin the moon an amongst the stars-isnt the sun LMAO</p>

8

<p>Your stats are good enough to apply, so if it is your dream, go for it.</p>

<p>Stanford does not care about anything you did in Junior High. They used to disregard 9th grade too, but that might have changed since they started using common application.</p>