<p>Is the Harvard admissions process very different from the Stanford one? I asked a Stanford admissions officer if I still had a chance and she said of course! " You need to consider each year of high school as building block for next year. Now that you have finished 9th grade, what did you learn about your study habits? How can you improve? Continue to stay strong, work hard, talk to your teachers. If you improve with each year, you’ll see you’ll have plenty of options come senior year. Just keep pushing yourself to be stronger each year!"</p>