Hi everybody, I just joined College Confidential because I’m starting to look at schools. Stanford has always been my dream school but I’m also considering colleges like USC. I am a Chinese-American sophomore girl, and I want to know my chances as of now for getting into these schools. My unweighted GPA is currently a 4.0 and I’m taking three IB classes and one honors class. I was a unit captain and member of my school’s Constitution Team this year, part of the National Honor Society, student body representative of my class last year, I have a job working for the city government as a Human Rights Commissioner, I am the founder and president of two well known service clubs at school, and I am currently the vice chair of our city’s March of Dimes youth council (next year I’ll be chair and on the executive committee). I have volunteered over a hundred hours at various nonprofits since freshman year and I’m a peer mediator and peer advocate at school. I’ve been recognized through a city award by a nonprofit last year, interviewed by the news, and written about by the school newspaper for my service. I have also been running cross country and playing lacrosse for the past five years. Most of the things I’ve done have been hobbies I started before I even thought about college, but now that I’m feeling the pressure to start thinking about it, I’m wondering if I could be considered by Stanford. Thank you all!
You’ve definitely got a good foundation when it comes to ECs. Your test scores are really what will decide where you get accepted, and whether or not you can keep your GPA up. Are you planning to go for a full IB diploma? That would certainly boost your chances.
Stanford admit here, and fellow cross country runner. Are you good enough at cross country or lacrosse to backdoor in through athletic admission? It would save a LOT of stress! Just kidding. 
You sound very involved and intellectually strong, but everything that matters happens next year when you’re a junior. In the meantime, one of the important things to think about is how all your facets fit together. For you, I’d advocate for your “story” when applying to college to be about your passion for government and human rights (constitution club, student government, a million service hours, March of Dimes, service clubs). As you enter junior year, look for opportunities to volunteer/get internships in humanitarian aid organizations and NGOs. Does your school have a Model UN team? It seems up your alley.
I think your Stanford chances are good, particularly if you apply EA (although as a Princeton deferree-rejectee, I will be the first to tell you that NOT getting in early puts you in a VERY bad position because you have to apply through tougher regular decision to your other schools and wait agonizingly for four months). Your ECs and, I imagine, your scores once you take standardized tests, will easily get you to committee round, and from there on out it’s essays. Stanford loves to see REAL people giving them REAL answers–if you’re funny, be funny; if you’re quirky, let it shine. For goodness sake, when they asked for my favorite website, I put “stanford.edu.” I thought it was funny, and apparently they did too. Be honest, and don’t use your essays to talk only about community service. I think making sure your essays sound like you is especially important for Stanford.
Because no matter how good you are, Stanford is still a toss-up, here are some other schools I think you should look into. I am a strong proponent of applying to all the Ivies, or many schools in general, because it increases your odds. These ones sound like good fits for you:
Yale
Harvard
Williams
Duke
Princeton
UPenn (Huntsman)
Georgetown (SFS)
Johns Hopkins (IR dept)
Cornell
WashU
Northwestern
UCB
Best of luck!
Wow, I wasn’t expecting such a detailed reply, so thank you! Unfortunately, I’m not talented or motivated enough to play sports in college, but I just got an internship to a nonprofit that I’ve been working with this summer. My school does have a model UN, and I actually really wanted to do it this year! Do you know if there are sibling legacies? My oldest brother goes to Berkeley, and my other brother is looking at Yale. Thanks again for all the advice!
I’m doing full IB next year- Hopefully I get through it!