Hi guys!
It is my absolute dream to go to Stanford! So here are my stats:
I’m a junior in HS.
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
Rank: 28/504 (top 6%)
SAT (new): 1520/1600 first time (plan to improve)
ACT: 32 (plan to improve)
AP Classes: World History(5), Human Geography(5), Computer Science(4), Physics B, Physics C, Biology, Psychology, U.S. History, Macroeconomics, Government, Art History, Seminar, Research, Calculus BC, Language and Composition, Literature and Composition, Environmental Science
Senior year classes: AP Physics C, AP Psychology, AP Macroeconomics, AP Gov, AP Art History, AP Research, AP Lit
Extracurriculars: I’ve been in HOSA(future health professions organization) for 4 years and I have been the VP and President and also have competed at the state (and maybe national) level. I founded the Habitat for Humanity chapter at my school and have volunteered for that. I have logged over 250 hours volunteering in hospitals in my community. A few of my friends and I have started a non-profit organization where we run book tours for charity and recycle soap. Other clubs I’m in are NHS and BPA(business). I’ve been playing piano for a few years and I love to paint. I also have a job.
Do you think Stanford is for me?
Unless you have strong hooks, Stanford will be a high reach. You need to bring something unique to the table.
If not Stanford, I think you’d have a fair shot of getting into any other Ivy League if it helps. Your Sat score and grades are impressive. If you are set on Stanford though, make sure to study hard for that SAT - the line between above average and below average is very thin.
You have almost no chance with your current stats and there is no prize for taking the most APs. Seven APs in your senior year is the best way to ensure you will not do well in most of them. Sorry to be a buzzkill, but students like you are a dime a dozen to all the tippy top colleges. You should seriously rethink your plan. Aim for AP’s that you can get top grades in. Conventional wisdom says that anywhere from 6-8 is a good number, perhaps a few more if your school offers many. NO ONE needs 17.
I will not indulge your dreams, because your chances are slim at all top schools, as they are for most people. I don’t see a single thing that makes you stand out from all the other applicants. Standing out is important when the acceptance rate is 4%. All Ivy League schools are reaches for everyone, as is any college with acceptance rates in the teens and lower. Don’t be one of those students posting in April 2018 that you didn’t get in anywhere. Apply to a range of colleges.
FWIW, focus on your SAT. That score is stronger than your ACT. There is no need to waste time taking both.
^^ Wow, that’s really harsh!
I know a State AP scholar who is at Harvard. (What state are you in?) His profile was not too different from OP’s except he had perfect SATs and SAT Subject tests to boot.
I’d say work on boosting your SAT score and use the summer to deepen your involvement in something you love. If Stanford doesn’t work out (your class rank is a bit low which may mean your recs won’t have teachers saying you’re the best student they’ve had in years), you will likely be admitted to one or more top 10-12 school, imo. Good luck!!
No, just being honest, @Multiverse7 . I won’t give false hope. Far better for this poster to understand that having good grades and a range of ECs is not enough to get into a school like Stanford. As the OP stands, with current test scores I do not think there is a viable chance. I have seen many posts like this, and a good balance of colleges is critical.
Just to provide an added dose of reality…last year our school Val was denied at all Ivy’s, JHU and Tufts. She had a 2370 SAT (about 1590 now). That’s a sample of one, but multiply that with the literally thousands of Vals and Sals who are denied every year at top 20 colleges. Stanford denies 96%, Cornell (considered an “easy” Ivy by some) rejects 86%. When you factor in all the hooked kids, athletes, legacies, etc…the odds are even worse. So while it’s nice for another poster to blithely say “maybe not Stanford, but no doubt some other top 20 school…” reality doesn’t bear that out.
This student is an excellent student, but not exceptional. The kids getting into Stanford are exceptional, or hooked and pretty darn great. He/she MAY get into Stanford, but the chances are extremely remote, unless the student is hooked. In which case, maybe there is a slightly better chance than 4%. I will finish off by saying that there are wonderful schools for this student, but they probably aren’t Stanford. It would be better to dream about them.
@lindagaf While you’re not totally wrong, I does feel unnecessarily blunt… It’s not uncommon to just say it a little more politely.
OP, I think Stanford is possible, but as for everyone, not probable. Your test scores are low for Stanford, although by no means bad or unchangeable. You should retake them, but study hard before you do. A 1550+ will help your odds. Also, that is a LOT of APs. I’m not sure if you go to one of those schools that really pressures students to take APs, but apparently you’re able to do pretty well in them given your UW GPA. Be careful, though, that it doesn’t look frivolous, and that you’re not setting yourself up to fail. It will be a much heavier workload than what you’ve had before if you do end up taking all of those.
On your ECs, they look pretty good, but I don’t really see that one thing that ties it all together. To get into a school like Stanford, you want a cohesive package, so that everything ties itself up nicely into exactly what you want them to see. I don’t really see that right now, which is of course, normal; you’re a high school junior.
So, will you get into Stanford? In short, probably not. I’ve known so many brilliant, brilliant people who they turn down; national science bowl winners, 4.0/2400 students, anything you can think of, they’ve seen it before and turned it down 9 times out of 10.
Could you plausibly get into another top 20 school? Yes. What you need most is to keep your grades up (Don’t go crazy with APs), to bump your test scores up by 30+ points, and to find some extracurricular things that you can take big leadership roles in. Hopefully from getting more involvement you can figure out exactly what you want to “sell” yourself as to these top places. Good luck.
Could you chance me back?
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1958057-chance-me-for-ucs-ivies-and-engineering-will-chance-back-p1.html
@lindagaf I agree with @plumbus that your post(s) are fraught with negativity and offer little constructive advice.
Yes, we all know how long the odds are but as long as OP is able to increase their test scores and work on improving the depth and leadership of their ECs, I am not summarily ruling out their ability to get into any top school the way you are (reread your post if you don’t think this is what you said). This is not giving “false hope”, this is trying to provide some guidance on what to do to increase their chances.
You seemed to have jumped on OPs number of APs as a major negative. It is not a negative,imho. We’ve all heard the refrain that there’s no prize for how many APS you take but actually there is. It’s called being a State AP scholar. Moreover, top schools ask that you take the most difficult schedule you can handle and in this case, OP seems to be able to handle far more than the average student (4.0 gpa unweighted gpa serves as testament to this). Their HS GC will know that they took the hardest course load of their class and perhaps in the history of the school. Most teachers will know about the student because they talk amongst themselves and their recs will probably reflect this reputation.
I totally agree that OP needs to have more to show beyond academics but as I stated in my post about the Harvard kid, they sometimes take pure “academic geniuses”. ( A word I heard from a Stanford AO in a conversation with them.)
Lastly, we know nothing about OP’s life story and other circumstances that may be relevant to their application, we also don’t know what the quality of their essays will be or what their recs may say about them. I’ve heard AO’s say they accepted a kid because from everything they read, they got the impression that the applicant was truly loved in the community and seemed to make everyone around them a better person.
So, I think a 4.0 kid with an unusually high number of APs and common but decent ECs but who still has the ability to improve their profile should not be dismissed or written off. If Stanford is their dream school, who am I to tell them not to spend $85 to see if their dreams come true? I certainly could not have taken 21 APs and maintained a 4.0.
And yes, I do know how hard it is to get into top schools. I was accepted to Harvard, Stanford, Yale etc. (I attend Stanford) and my siblings are also at HYPSM schools.
I agree 100% with @Lindagaf. Without a hook, you’re most likely NOT getting into Stanford. Your nonprofit is NOT a hook, and I don’t think you will stand out if you’re an ORM male who wants to major in Bio. Also, there’s something incredibly suspicious with OP’s thread. 21 APs and still 28th ranked in class??? How many APs are the 28 people before you taking? 50? …
Still, if you want to apply, go ahead. But @Lindagaf is giving you REAL ADVICE when she says to apply to more match schools…
@bubblepop12444 Where did OP say that they were “an ORM male who wants to major in bio”?
Also, OP asked specifically about Stanford and never said they weren’t applying to match and safety schools so I’m not sure they needed the REAL ADVICE you alluded to. But just in case… OP, please apply to match and safety schools.
With the lowest acceptance rate of any major university in the country, Stanford is a reach school for just about everyone. However, just look through old results threads and you’ll see that they do occasionally accept kids who don’t have over-the-top test scores and accomplishments. They value character and something called intellectual vitality and even determine a separate score for it when reviewing apps which no other school in the country does.
Lastly, I agree with you about the class rank issue and wondered how a 4.0 unweighted gpa with that many APs could only be 28th in the class. Perhaps, like my HS, OP’s HS weights Honors and APs the same and the other kids are taking the easier Honors classes and getting better grades. Idk.
How are you 28 in your class with that many APs? I would say that GPA and Test score is def. important. A 1520/32 isn’t bad. You could actually have a chance with that SAT score if you have a hook, whether it be geographical diversity/URM+Legacy/socioeconomically dis adv/recruited athlete/extremely talented/a national champion. I don’t know that much about you to judge, and Stanford def is more flexible with scores. But to be competitive, probably retake and aim for a higher score. You want to ensure your best shot. I would say, maintain your GPA this semester with straight As, bring up your test score to the average of your school’s competitiveness, pursue your passions, explore match schools, and hope for the best. Good luck.