Has anyone gotten into Stanford with B’s on their transcript? What was your class rank?
Yes, along with many, many other applicants.
Along with over half the HS’s in the US, my HS does not rank.
@cuteraspberries I second skieurope’s response. My daughter had Bs and HS did not rank. She is a Freshman this year.
@cuteraspberries My kid got two Bs in math Honors courses (3.9 unweighted gpa), and although his HS does not rank, he was told by his school counselor that he was in top 5% out of 500+ kids. He got in REA as a non-STEM interest area.
People have gotten into Stanford with Bs and even Cs on their transcripts. Only about 5% of admitted students are below the top 10% of their class however: http://admission.stanford.edu/basics/selection/profile.html#freshmen
It’s possible and happens, but the chances of admission generally are worse the lower your GPA/rank.
All five S that got accepted to Stanford from our very highly ranked HS were all uw 4.0 S. Stanford can choose from a boatload of 4.0 S…it can happen but either you have a very big hook or your essay is out of this world.
For what it’s worth, my kid had several semesters of B+s in his math class with 3.9 unweighted average (he was in top 5% out of 500+ kids though), and he got in REA. Basically, gpa wise, I think my kid was in top 25 of his class, but he made NMF list made up of around 15 kids. Even many of his As were A-. I was worried that having noticeable number of A-s and 2 B+s would exclude him from getting admitted to top college but I turned out to be wrong. And my kid did not have any hook, and I don’t believe his essay was out of this world (if anything, anti-hook and from a high middle class suburb area), although the person who did review his essays told me that my kid’s essays really captured who he was.
I believe it’s very important that essays be corroborated by his activities and recommendation letters – that’s one thing this person said that stuck in my memory.
@websensation Thank you very much for your reply! I have one question. Do you think it is important to have As in the subject that I bring out in my essay? For example, I would like to write about what biological research means to me, though I have (2B+s, 1 B) some Bs in my math and science classes. I do attend a STEM magnet school, which makes it harder to get As, though I am still worried. Was your child in the same boat I am? Did he write essays about any particular subject/activity that he had A-/Bs in?
He did write indirectly about learning different languages in which he had As or A-s. His B+s were in math and science. Frankly, he was not a top student in any subject, although he was very strong in languages. Also, he was not too crazy about his HS academics; he just did enough to remain in top 5%. He liked other pursuits outside HS. He is a non- STEM person. For many classes, he was right in the middle of B+s and A-s but somehow pulled out A-s by doing well on the last assignments.