<p>Hey guys, I'm looking into applying for Stanford RD. I am Canadian but for most of my highschool years i lived in california (came back to canada for junior year pretty much). I cannot emphasize how much getting into Stanford would mean to me. Academic prestige is NOT what matters most to me. For an undergrad, I believe it is most important to go beyond my immediate paradigm and expand my perspective. Therefore, a diverse school like stanford known for its enthusiasm and intellectual vitality would be a great match for what I'm looking for.</p>
<p>Ima be colloquial a bit hope you guys don't mind. I understand fully how competitive the selection process is, I also understand that I am by no means a super strong applicant. I'm Asian, I'm a second gen university student, and of all the instruments i considered i chose to play the violin. Not saying that i don't enjoy playing the violin, I love it, but if i had known how generic it is among asians i woulda played the drums or something (which i also love, but don't play the Viola though hahaa if you get this joke your cool). But, personality wise I'm not your typical asian nerd, my parents don't really care, they just tell me not to fail LOL everything i have done in life i've done on behalf of my own interests. I am super outgoing, and I'm a part of all the hip hop culture good stuff that kevjumba's dad preaches against. Not the blingbling and booty nonesense, real music and rhymes about life, stuff i do for fun with a few of my bros who are less concerned with going to a top school.</p>
<p>Now, My life isnt completely characterized by 4.0's and academic awards. Lets say that until quite recently, I've been drifting about, not really sure why I should work hard. Not cuz I dun like school, I just lacked inspiration. Parents talk about university and a good future, but I just thought "So? I can get into my provincial flagship without breaking a sweat" (which is true, Im not bragging here and its nothing to brag about, you can get in as long as you give a dam, the classes in the regular Canadian curriculum are ridiculously easy). But rest assured that my newfound reason to hustle is genuine, and a lot more meaningful than just the empty "good future". (Yes i will be elaborating on this in my essay). </p>
<p>And as for my school, its ranked around 60 in the province, which is good, but only because of our IB program, aside from the IB kids, a lot of kids are in gangs and even more don't care about school, to stand out, all you have to do is hand in your homework. But the IB kids are pretty legit, every year we have 1 or 2 kids that go to Yale/Harvard/Princeton and a few more to Cornell and Berkeley. </p>
<p>Hope that gives a rough jist of my backgroud, by all means i would love to provide more info to aid your judgement. </p>
<p>The Stats: </p>
<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2290 reading 780 math 760 writing 750 (i got perfect essay though lolol grammar fail)
ACT:not from the south haha
SAT II:will take: Math II, Bio M, Lit, Chinese
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): i have no clue, but il give the IB predicted mark 42~43/45
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):top ten percent? again estimate, probz higher
AP (place score in parenthesis):we dun have aps
IB (place score in parenthesis):42-43/45
Senior Year Course Load:
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Canada Wide National Science Fair Finalist, a bunch of Provincial and district science fair awards and scholarships, all from one year. (first time doing science fair this year, shoulda started earlier haha)
Subjective:</p>
<p>Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
-Started an Aid club called Project PUSH to help the rebuilding effort in Uganda after learning about the crisis, amazing how many people don't know about the nation. I'm Founder and President
-Started a History Club with history teacher, again, founder and head coordinator
-Debate club (for fun, nothing major in terms of awards and leadership)
-Been in several Top level orchestras since gr 8, by top i mean you have to audition, and they take 1 in 20? (Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra, Redlands Symphony Orchestra<-this was in cali) Im Grade ten RCM in violin with honors, and I'm the concertmaster for my schools senior orchestra
-IB directors, we organize conferences and events for IB newbies, selective process 1 in 10 taken)
-Track and Field, nothing major again
(some insight needed here, i have depth for most of my ECs but i don't have that many, whats the consensus on which is more important here?)</p>
<p>Job/Work Experience:Summer work in a dental office, Desk Job</p>
<p>Volunteer/Community service: Hospital, homeless shelter, 500-700 hours?</p>
<p>Summer Activities: Intern at a Stanford research initiative in china done in cooperation with the chinese academy of sciences. It's called Rural Education Action Project, basically random intervention and research for more effective social development and aid efforts. I'm doing it right now, mostly desk work, but come december I'll go on a field research project into the mountainous and poor regions of china with the REAP team and we'll be conducting some of the research i helped design. The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies is heavily involved, and i will likely get a very good recommendation from the project head who's a prof at Stanford.
heres the website: Rural Education Action Project (REAP)
(A key question here, would this be something significant and really helpful for my app to be a likely admit? as in something that pushes my app over the edge? or is this really amateur?)</p>
<p>Teacher Recommendation: will be quite good, my Bio teacher is like my bro LOL I've done a lot with my history teacher</p>
<p>there it is, I think I might be missing a few things for my ECs but the main ones are there. I wanna really emphasize to you the passion and enthusiasm i bring .</p>
<p>If you've read this far you are so awesome : D thank you for taking time out of your day</p>