Chance Me: Stanford Version

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.