Chance for Stanford and MIT transfer

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Preface: Stanford’s class profile says 50% of transfers have an equal or (significantly) less SAT score than me.

Quants:

High school:
3.5 UW
4.4 W
Senior Year:
3.8UW
5.3W

AP Scores:
Calc AB 5
Physics C 5
APES 5
Euro 3
AP Scholar with Honors

SAT
Reading 680
Math 700
Total 1380
Will retake

College: Business Admin student
3.25 GPA 1st semester
3.7 GPA second semester

ECs:

Only freshman on Entrepreneurship Student Ambassador Program - Vice President
Won Hack-a-Thon against over 100 people
Doing consulting work for $100MM company - likely raising their bottom line by $1-3MM
Started a hedge fund that raised $125k
Started a real estate photography company in high school that got ranked as “one of the best” in a 1M person city in a year
Volunteering directing and running camera for live music experiences for 1000s of people
Member of Investing Club and Sports Analytics Club
Assistant Equipment Manager for NBA team for three years in high school
Several Machine Learning projects on GitHub and Reddit that received several thousand views

Currently getting Certificates from Stanford and UVA classes in machine learning and business statistics. Taking at least an MIT course in ML and probably a harvard one in Data Science this summer. Will receive certificates in all of these

Letters of recommendations:
1 from Math teacher 1 from Sociology teacher and 1 from employer/friend

I did all the hw for the entire semester on the first day of the semester for the math teacher,
Have met and talked to sociology teacher many times- have a good relationship and she’s even asked me to get a beer with her
Employer/friend has been written about by CNN, has done a ted talk, and writes for medium and huff post. He runs a start up that’s got preseed funding and will be moving into Series A soon- has offered me a job and he loves me

2

Your college GPA is likely low enough that both are unrealistic reaches.

Note that many of the few transfers admitted to Stanford are non traditional students, for whom lower high school SAT scores are now essentially irrelevant compared to recent college and other (e.g. work, military service, etc.) achievements.

3

@ucbalumnus So if work experience is a big factor in stanford transfer admissions, are my ECs below standard for admission? Frankly, my work experience would be rather "non-traditional."If my GPA is a large deterrent, will waiting another semester at my current university (NC State) make a difference assuming I can get another 3.75+ GPA like this semester? And will taking more stanford, MIT, and harvard courses as I currently am help my case?

Also, MIT’s website says “There’s no minimum required GPA, however, competitive applicants typically have a 3.5 GPA or above”

4

You may want to read about the kinds of transfer students that Stanford admits (in very small numbers):

https://news.stanford.edu/2017/11/01/small-mighty-cohort-transfer-students-joins-stanford-community/
https://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/september/class-new-students-091514.html

5

Nothing wrong with the dream of attending elite colleges. Keep in mind the odds are against you though. You can still find happiness in life with degree from NC State.