<p>(HS class of 2014) Stanford is my first choice. I have always assumed that I should apply EA because if I get in, then I will undoubtedly attend. Also, I am a legacy and when I went with my mom to her 30th reunion at Stanford, all of her old friends who had children going to Stanford told me that since I'm a legacy, I should apply EA. I go to a large public high school in Colorado where I anticipate that perhaps 20-30 students will apply to Stanford also. In order to separate myself from all of the other students at my high school, would applying early action help since the majority of those 20-30 students will be applying RD? I'm worried because I know that the much stronger applicants apply EA to Stanford. </p>
<p>I know that I have the academics for Stanford. I don't exactly have a plethora of ECs. I have focused my time on only a couple things that I am very passionate about:
- Self studying Russian.
- Working at a preeminent natural gas corporation in Indonesia over sophomore summer and I will return my junior summer.
- I am launching a academic-collaboration website in 2013 (this stemmed from meeting people over in Indonesia who helped me realize this dream of mine).
- Varsity Football
- Varsity Track & Field
- Destination Imagination
- I have done a very limited amount of community service at my local humane society. I'll get more hours this year.</p>
<p>I am not a part of ANY school-sponsored clubs (besides my sports).</p>
<p>I'm just not sure if I'm strong enough of a student to be applying SCEA/EA. I AM a legacy though, so I've been told that I should apply early. Stanford has always been my undisputed #1 choice.</p>
<p>Class of 2013 here, applying to Stanford next week.</p>
<p>The thing with Stanford is, everything is up in the air with their admissions process. One hook or a perfect score on an ACT is not going to get you in. People with over a 4.0 and perfect test scores have been rejected, students with a 3.4 have been admitted at the same time. Nothing is for sure.</p>
<p>Don’t try to find things simply to pad your resume. You don’t search for something to make your resume amazing, you make something amazing because you are passionate and dedicated about it. You have a diverse resume as it stands, and as you said before you are passionate at what you do. as long as you keep your grades up you are on the right track to a strong application.</p>
<p>As for the school sponsored clubs, find something that interests you or that you are already passionate about and join it. If something interests you that doesn’t have a club, make it! I started my school’s robotics club. I am highly involved in student council, and it’s what i’m passionate about. Things that interest you and that you are passionate about turn into fantastically written essays.</p>
<p>Applying early ups your chances from 7% to about 13%, so it does help to apply early, but once again the students who apply early might be a different group than the students who apply regular. Nothing is sure.</p>
<p>Just don’t get too wrapped up in getting in. Have fun with high school and see what the admissions officers think come application time. If you want to, you can private message me if you need anything. I went through this phase too.</p>
<p>Does anyone know ~ how many of those admitted EA are recruited athletes?</p>
<p>Also - does anyone know on what basis Stanford defers kids? Is a deferral typically to see if a student can improve their grades and/or test scores, or to see if a “better” student applies RD?</p>
<p>^^^ Don’t count on that 7% vs 13% difference. For scea, Stamford receives approx. 6000 applications. They regularly admit about 750 of those 6000. For rd, approx. 30,000 applications are received and about 1700 out of those 30,000 are given admission. Usually, the scea pool is much stronger both academically and ec wise in addition to having recruited athletes.</p>
<p>That RD figure is a little out of date. Last year, Stanford received more than 36,700 applications in the RD round. Admission rate was about 6.6%, IIRC.</p>
<p>MomCares, I think that most of the deferrals (which aren’t very many to begin with) are for students for whom admissions would like to see additional favorable data. Each year there are apparently also a number of “courtesy deferrals” of legacy applicants, most of whom won’t wind up being admitted in the RD round either. There are always legacy applicants who overestimate the significance of legacy in the decision process. It’s not that big a factor at Stanford in the scheme of things.</p>
<p>I heard from my ACT prep teacher that Stanford is becoming just as bad as the UC schools in that they are accepting more California residents and minimizing even further the amount of out-of-state admitted students…
Is this true? I really hope that it isn’t that bad by the time I apply next year.</p>
<p>Murphy: incorrect. Stanford accepts about 35-39% California residents each year, on average. </p>
<p>StanfordMan1891: also incorrect. The UC schools have, in fact, been significantly increasing their out-of-state populations in recent years, since OOS students pay much higher tuition and this helps offset the severe budget cuts that the UCs have had to endure. As stated above, Stanford’s in-state population is relatively stable year to year (Stanford gets a gigantic number of apps from CA students so it’s easy for them to select the best ones in any given year) and the student body also contains people from every state in the US, plus many, many foreign countries.</p>