Chance Me International -> Stanford RD 2020

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

Stats:
ACT: 35/36
TOEFL: 118/120
GPA: 94/100 (Grade 12); 90/100 (Grade 11) - Ontario Curriculum
APs: 75; 44 (pretty spread-out covering both humanities and STEM)
AP National Scholar (Canada) - but basically everyone has it

Intended major: Middle Eastern Studies (knows conversational Arabic and read a lot of modern colonist ME history; following up on ME news)

Reverse Hooks:
International (Chinese citizenship); Asian male; Go to an expensive private school; Grade 11 marks are terrible (from my school’s context)

Extracurriculars:

  • (leader, 1y) a website for citizens and journalists to file access to information requests to governments and federal bodies. Now I’m working with a recognized NGO & a provincial government in Canada
  • (leader, 2y) a chrome plugin that informs readers about media bias/fake news from news articles they read. submitted to Chrome App Store
  • (co-leader, 2y) a research camp where AI experts and social scientists from all over north america meet each other to talk about safety implications of AI
  • (leader, 1y) school Middle Eastern club
  • (participant, 2y) school Morocco trip & self-organized Lebanon trip
  • (leader, 2y) school book club
  • (leader, 2y) first student ever to volunteer at IT frontdesk (school is pretty cutting edge at IT)
  • (participant, 4y) columnist @ a blog I created with two friends of mine in China about socio-political and economic issues

Awards:
(Nothing Stanford-worthy, really)

Essays: talked about my Lebanon trip and how I got myself into a graduate-only research seminar as a tourist; about combining technology and social sciences to create impactful changes far beyond a conventional reach of a high school students; about my interests to read and to learn and to explore the unknown

Rec letters: 7/10 - I had to ask a teacher whose class I slept through for rec letter; guidance told me they are good though, but idk really

Thanks for any feedback!

2

I think that your chances are in the low single digit percentages – no better than the percent of international students accepted at Stanford, and probably lower. Stanford is a very high reach.

Do you have Canadian citizenship or permanent residency? This will not matter for Stanford, but will matter for the many excellent universities in Canada.

3

Thank you! I feel pretty good about Canadian universities because my school’s track record is great and I have lots of support for Canadian universities. I just want to have a try at Stanford though - do you think my profile is simply not competitive or is because I am an international student?

4

“do you think my profile is simply not competitive…”

Stanford is a reach for all applicants (other than straight A students whose parents are Nobel prize winners or popular leaders of friendly nations). It is even harder for an international student to get in. It is very difficult to predict admissions to Stanford.

Given the quality of the many schools in Canada that you have as backup, and assuming that you have picked appropriately up there, I think that you can send in your applications and relax. You will end up somewhere good next year. It is more likely that you will need a winter coat than not, but you will do fine either way.