<p>Hi! I really want to go to Stanford University, or any other big top-notch school, and was wondering if I can get in based on my grades, scores, EC's, awards, etc.</p>
<p>Top 5% of class</p>
<p>Internships:
Stanford Stem Cells Cancer Research Internship
UCSF Summer Student Program
Mike Honda for Congress Internship</p>
<p>Freshman year:
3.666 GPA
Interact Club
Speech & Debate Club
Invisible Children Club
Varsity Tennis
Badminton</p>
<p>Sophomore year:
3.714 GPA
2 Honors classes
Interact Club
President Invisible Children
Student Government: Sophomore Class Historian
Varsity Tennis
Badminton
Advanced Choir
Rotary Speech Contest 1st place winner w/ $100
Representative of high school at Northern California Youth Leadership Seminar/EDGE</p>
<p>Junior year:
3.8 GPA
4 AP classes
Interact Club VP
Student Government: Junior Class Senator
Started the Shooting Stars Club (highlights special needs and autistic children and gives them the chance to perform in from of the whole school)
Ivy League Club Historian
Red Cross Club
Speak Easy Club
Varsity Tennis
Basketball Team
Advanced Choir
Rotary Speech Contest 1st place winner w/ $100
Started an organization called Education 2 Future (provides an education to children living in poverty)
YSA's Everyday Young Hero Award
Nordstrom Scholarship 2014 Finalist</p>
<p>@ooohcollege my SAT is 1580, but I am DEFINITE I can improve it. I am following noitaraperp’s guidelines, and am already seeing a difference. I will be taking ACT soon. </p>
<p>I agree with ooohcollege. You must improve your SAT score dramatically (2200++) and write a near perfect essay to compensate for the lower GPA. You should still apply, since it is your dream college, but definitely keep your options open! Maybe the ACT will be better for you! Good luck!! </p>
<p>I don’t see Stanford in your future, unless the score you cited is for just CR & Math (ie. out of 1600), not out of 2400. Your grades are good enough for the overwhelming majority of American colleges, but probably not for Stanford. I will disagree with those who say “work on” the test scores. If that is a 1580 out of 2400, it is not competitive for the most selective schools, and even a miraculous increase of 200-300 would not make it so. You have a good enough resume that I think you should look at test-optional colleges, primarily. I have commented on a lot of threads like this, saying that telling someone with your scores (or lower, in the cases of some students posting) to just keep trying for higher scores is like telling a guy who’s 5’6" to just keep practicing his free-throws on the hope of earning a basketball scholarship (much less an NBA contract), or a girl who’s 5’0" to keep dieting and exercising her way to a modeling career. You have so much going for you - concentrate on cultivating and deploying your assets. Work on the colleges you can get into, not the ones you can’t.</p>
<p>You mentioned “big, top-notch” colleges. When saying “big,” do you mean a large student body, or simply a “big name?” You could get into many public universities with your stats, but not the top tier, if you want a large school. Most of them require test scores, but yours fall within the median range for accepted students at many less-prestigious state flagships (ie. not most UCs, Michigan, UT-Austin, UWI-Madison, et al). Out-of-state costs can be high at many of them, but most are still less expensive than private colleges. Will you need a significant amount of financial aid? If you are merely looking for prestige, then there are some elite test-optional colleges, but they are also brutally selective. You should begin assembling information on what they require in lieu of test scores. The typical requirement might include an extra essay, and a graded paper. Wesleyan and Bowdoin are probably the most prestigious test-optional colleges, but there are lots of others. Check out the “fairtest.org” website. </p>
<p>@woogzmama These are the schools I am thinking about applying to:</p>
<p>UC Berkeley
UC Davis
Georgetown
University of San Francisco
Brown University
Cornell
UCSD</p>
<p>I do have this “Eligibility in Local Context (ELC)” which is a program that recognizes individual accomplishments in light of the opportunities offered by my high school that recognizes top 9 percent of students in my high school class which gives us a larger chance of getting admitted into a UC since it “flags” our application that we are an ELC student.</p>
<p>The ELC will get you into one of the UC campuses, but not necessarily Berkeley or UCLA. Your UC-weighted GPA is the most important component for admission, but your test scores fall well below the median range for the most selective UCs. You will almost certainly be admitted to Merced or Riverside, and you have a decent chance at UCSC, but the others will be reaches with those test scores. Don’t they usually admit you to the closest UC campus under “ELC,” or will they assign you to one? You would need a truly miraculous score increase to be competitive at Georgetown, Brown, or Cornell.</p>
<p>They assign you to the UC which has room (and actually it’s worded IF there is room). In the past they have assigned ELC kids to Merced and UC Riverside. </p>