<p>I think Kathy has the right idea- if you apply, you have some chance, but if you don't, you have a 0% chance.</p>
<p>i was not targeting stanford. i asked about stanford because of my friends experience. i dont have a weak argument. there is no argument. i wondered aloud. i am hopeful ... i dont know what goes on in any of the adcom rooms. i shared a story asked a question. perhaps her essays got her in. i read them. they were good. some at our school said it was that she is from NY applying to stanford... we had several extremely strong students get rejected from yale and princeton- one cant help but reflect on this. but this is for discussion not "argument"
have a nice relaxing....evening.</p>
<p>Kathy,
You do make a good point. If someone really wants to attend a certain college, they should not give up just because their stats may seem a little low. My older son had good SAT I scores, but not so high SAT II's, one AP and some community college classes, a pretty short list of EC's. However, he was excited about Stanford, and he was a homeschooler, which adds to the diversity of the class, I suppose. He just graduated from Stanford this year. </p>
<p>Sometimes there is something they are looking for that a particular person has, whether it is wonderful essays or a love of Stanford that comes through, or even something like the person plays tuba, and the band really needs another tuba player. And, because there is no way for a student to know what a college might need to round out their class that particular year, it can't hurt to try. </p>
<p>Congratulations to your friend, by the way!</p>
<p>Kathy,</p>
<p>I think you may find the answer by reading the ED decision thread here. <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=123269%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=123269</a> Apparently, a lot of rejects from the east (page 3 of the thread for example) have much stronger numbers than your friend has. Your guidance office was correct that she was very unlikely to get in but was wrong to say she had "no chance". I also skimmed through the decision threads on HYP boards and in terms of caliber of admits/rejects, there's no discernible difference among the four schools.</p>
<p>At the Yale and Harvard thread you see higher scores rejected- Elsewhere the same. I do not want to grandstand this story it appears to be isolated but frankly and my friend who is grateful to be accepted agrees- it is rather shocking to see the high level rejects at Stanford and instead several that we know of from the NY area accepted with scores that would not admit to third tier. Again the point was if it could happen for her perhaps it could happen for someone during the RD rounds so take a chance - APPLY. Some of this is lottery we are convinced to even out the class. Who knows? We are both puzzled. Yes we know of a few isolated cases. But it could happen to others. She disregarded the warnings against applying from the guidance office and she got in!</p>
<p>It isn't lottery although it probably appears to be. If you get to know Stanford students, you will find a few common threads. Most students are friendly, hardworking, and passionate/dedicated to at least one main subject/activity. Most have interesting stories to tell. It seems that the admissions department must look for both strong students and genuinely interesting people. The surprising cases of admits are most likely students who spring to life on the page (good recs and essays most likely). The surprising cases of rejects are those who, well, don't. I have met very few students at Stanford who just study 24/7 and have no personality. Although some of it may be luck, I think there's more reason to the decisions than it seems. Perhaps if students could post their essays and teacher recs online that would give a far more complete picture of what Stanford is looking for.</p>
<p>Kathy I think you're underestimating your friend and not telling us (or not know ) some important fact that appears on her application.</p>
<p>Well she was right next to me when we posted and frankly she is still in shock and its the talk of her high school. So go figure! But she is thrilled and we are all thrilled for her!</p>