CHANCES AGAIN! (there has been a slight change in stats) and should I do SCEA or Reg

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

<p>Not too academically strong, but chances anyways??? </p>

<p>Gender: Male
High School: Public
Cumulative GPA (9-12):
W 3.913 (I know, really low, but our valedictorian only has a 4.15)
we only offer five AP courses: Spanish, French, Biology, Calculus AB, Eng. Language, and Eng. Literature. Also, you cannot take AP classes (except Spanish) until you are a junior/senior
Class Rank: 8/365 (Top 2%)
Ethnicity: Mexican American</p>

<p>High School Courses with Letter Grades (even the unimportant ones):
9th Grade:
Geometry A
*IC3 (computer class) A
Physics B
AVID I A
*Driver’s Ed A
*PE 9 A
Honors English 9 B
French I A
*required by all freshmen </p>

<p>10th Grade:
Algebra II A
French II A
Chemistry B
AVID II A
PE 10 A
Honors English 10 B
World History A
Speech/Debate A </p>

<p>11th Grade
US History A
Art I A
Biology A
AVID III A
AP Biology B
AP Eng. Literature B
French III A </p>

<p>12th Grade:
Government/Eco.<br>
AVID IV
Mexican American Heritage
Senior Projects
AP Eng. Language
AP French </p>

<p>Community College Classes Taken:
Spring 2007
General Psychology (3 college units) A</p>

<p>Summer 2007:
Trigonometry (4 college units) A
Intro to Sociology (3 college units) A</p>

<p>Fall 2007:
Calculus (4 units) Hoping to get an A
American Minority Groups (3 college units) Pretty sure I could get an A</p>

<p>***My College GPA is a 4.0 so far. I will have about 18 college units once I am done with high school.</p>

<p>SAT: 1540/2400
(horrible scores, I know don’t remind me, I took these last year in Nov. for the first time so I should receive a higher grade this Oct. since I have taken more challenging classes since last year. I also plan on taking some practice tests as well.)</p>

<p>AP:
Spanish 4
Biology 3</p>

<p>Clubs/Extracurricular:
*AVID
-2005 Freshmen President
-2006 Executive Council
-2006 Delegate to Regional Leadership Conference
-2006 Student Spirit Award
-2007 President
-2007 Student Inspiration Award
-2007 Student of the Year
*M.E.Ch.A
-2006 Delegate to UC Davis Chicano Youth State Conference
-2007 Delegate to Cal Poly Chicano Youth State Conference
*Key Club
- Over 250 hours of community service in Key Club alone
*Students for Cultural Enrichment
-2007 President
*California Scholarship Federation
-Life Member
-2006 Vice-President
*Mu Alpha Theta
-2007 President
*Church Altar Server
-2005, 2006 Group Captain
-2005 Diocese of Fresno Serra Club Altar Server Award
*Church Lector
*A.C.C.E.P.T. (Academic, Community, and Cultural Enrichment Program for Triumph, it emphasizes going to college, doing community service and becoming culturally enriched)
-Founder
*Camp Royal (state wide rotary leadership camp)
-one of two of our high school delegates
*ASB 2007-2008
- Student Rep. to the School Board
*Hispanic Youth Symposium
-Youth Ventue Issues to Action Finalist
-Earned 1 college unit.</p>

<p>I REALLY ENJOY GETTING INVOLVED AND DOING COMMUNITY SERVICE, IT IS ONE OF MY PASSIONS</p>

<p>Employment:
Sept. 2006-June 2007 Tutor for Third Grader
June 2007-Aug. 2007 Tutor for Fourth Grader (this is my last week with him)
June 2007-Aug. 2007 Tutor for Fifth Grader (this is my last week with him as well)</p>

<p>I ALSO ENJOY ENCOURAGING KIDS TO GO TO COLLEGE, THEY ARE NEVER TO YOUNG TO LEARN ABOUT THE POWER OF EDUCATION, AND I LOVE WORKING WITH THEM</p>

<p>In conclusion…
I love Social Sciences therefore, I am planning to go into Political Science, and later becoming a well-known, respected and respectable, noble Politician (might sound hard to imagine) in the future. The main thing on my agenda will be Education, and try to get members of communities who usually do not attend a four year institution, into one. </p>

<p>I may not be academically strong compared to many of other Stanford applicants, but my passion is doing unconditional community service to others. I am inspired to serve, to inspire others, (I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone). </p>

<p>Stanford is my dream school, I have been dreaming of it since I can remember. I am planning to do SCEA since it is my first choice. (by the way, do u recommend i do SCEA or regular?) I would really be bummed out if I didn’t’ get accepted, and I know it might be a huge reach for me, but I would like some of your thoughts? What do u think???</p>

2

<p>Hmm. I think you would be a competitive candidate, but the SAT score is troubling, in my opinion. I'm really not too sure here. Can you apply SCEA with the October score? If so, you may as well apply early since Stanford is your dream school. If not, you may want to wait until the regular round so your new (and hopefully much improved) SAT score will be on there. Best of luck to you.</p>

3

<p>thank you, and by the way, I am dedicating a lot of time to studying for my SAT's, (i have the study guide book).</p>

<p>I know my SAT scores suck really really bad, but I am sure I can do wayyyy better. And plus, I was pretty dumb last year since the first time I took the, i didn't know they would penalize you for incorrect answers, so the last minute of each section, I filled in uneducated guess answers,</p>

<p>Yeah I can register SCEA, I have registered to take my SAT's for Oct. 6, that is a whole year later from the first time I took them when I did very poorly. Hopefully, I get decent scores. </p>

<p>What is a decent enough SAT score for me?</p>

4

<p>1540? ouch...</p>

<p>what have you been getting on practice tests? above 2000 hopefully?</p>

5

<p>Disclaimer: None of this is fact because admissions officers don't say so, but here's what Stanford kids can gather</p>

<p>SCEA is actually more competitive than RD, and doesn't really offer an advantage that ED does. I would personally recommend all but the most competitive candidates to apply RD. Also, Stanford is known to outright reject instead of deferring candidates during SCEA that they do not believe would be accepted RD.
My advice: apply RD.(that's what I'm doing). If you can get SAT to 2000, you'll be competitive at top schools - although Stanford is in a crazy league of selectivity all on its own - sometimes even crazier than Harvard/Yale/Princeton.</p>

6

<p>The Dean of Admissions said there's no statistical advantage to applying early, even though there is a higher percentage of admitted students from this pool. He said that this is because people who apply earlier just tend to be stronger applicants. However, I did not ask him if applying early puts one at a disadvantage; my personal opinion is that if you're going to get in, it doesn't matter when you apply. The Dean said that SCEA is for people for whom Stanford is their dream school.</p>

7

<p>so SCEA for me???? if so, under what conditions???</p>

8

<p>Apply SCEA if Stanford is where you really want to go, but make sure you get your SAT score up before then. You may want to try taking the ACT, too, but aim for 2000+/30+ respectively. I am sure people have gotten in with lower scores before, but those will give you a realistic shot at admission. You will also need to take some SAT subject tests, so study up for those too.</p>

9

<p>I don't think that SCEA will affect your chances nearly as much as better scores would. </p>

<p>Just try to take both SAT and ACT, see on which one you do better and send only that one. Applying RD will give you some time to work on your application. You have a very good chance to get rejected with 1540, and you will not even know if your score improved before submitting it if you go with SCEA.</p>

10

<p>
[quote]
The Dean said that SCEA is for people for whom Stanford is their dream school.

[/quote]

SCEA is for people who have the best application they can have by SCEA deadline. I don't think OP is in that position.</p>

11

<p>
[quote]
SCEA is for people who have the best application they can have by SCEA deadline. I don't think OP is in that position.

[/quote]

Indeed - I very much agree with this as well.</p>

12

<p>Reading your stats It seems like you've really got the passion and intellectual curiosity that so many students try to feign in their application. What exactly is AVID? Also, don't worry too much about SAT--since it was your first try, I'm sure you'll improve... like most other students( It's still important to practice though). Also, I'd recommend trying to increase your AP scores just a bit. Although I'm in no position to judge applicants, I think you've got a good chance. </p>

<p>As for SCEA versus Regular: I applied and got accepted as a regular, but it seems as if all my friends and other people I spoke to got accepted as SCEA applicants. Applying as SCEA may increase your chances, but you're still competing in an even more tough applicant pool. </p>

<p>Best of luck!</p>

13

<p>AVID is an acronym for Advancement Via Individual Determination. It is a class and club that is dedicated to get middle class students (especially Latino(a)s and African American students into a four year university. Basically, they encourage a higher level of education after highschool. </p>

<p>We constanly have binder checks, guest speakers, we do a lot of writing and reading, we have tutorial sessions periodically where we have to ask "level three" questions (more wordy and chinky questions which go beyond simple facts/books).</p>

<p>It is an awesome program, and just this year as President, we had the first ever college overnight trip from our highschool at UC Riverside and Pepperdine University. It was a lot of hard work to plan and organize for, but it was awesome; completely worth every day of planning.</p>

<p>BY THE WAY GUYS, HOW MUCH WOULD I HAVE TO IMPROVE MY SAT SCORES BY??? IF I DD IMPROVE THEM GREATLY, WOULD YOU RECCOMMEND I APPLY EARLY OR REG.?</p>

14

<p>oh that's pretty cool...</p>

<p>improve your SAT scores to 2000+ (maybe higher even) - that should make you competitive </p>

<p>and I suggest applying regular decision.</p>

15

<p>According to <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/home/statistics/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.stanford.edu/home/statistics/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>SAT score range for the middle 50% of accepted students:
Critical reading: 660-760
Math: 680-780
Writing: 660-760</p>

<p>You should definitely try to exceed 2000; of course, don't set an upper limit, and do the best you can.</p>

16

<p>Yeah that seems about right celest :) Stanford reported in the Common Data Set:</p>

<p>25th percentile 75th percentile </p>

<p>SAT Critical Reading 660 760
SAT Math 680 780
SAT Writing 660 760<br>
ACT Composite 28 33 </p>

<p>So the writing is actually slightly lower than that predicted by Princeton review...</p>

17

<p>Ha, yeah... If you refresh, you'll see that I edited my post after I found the Common Data Set data.</p>

18

<p>thanks everyone for your input, i really appreciate it, and definately realize that my SAT scores need drastic improvment in order for me to be considered a competitive applicant.</p>

<p>btw, celestial605, i sent you a private message, i was wondering if you would be able to help me??????</p>

19

<p>Regular, if you apply SCEA you'll most likely be rejected.</p>

20

<p>so if i were to raise my SAT score significantly and apply Redular Admissions, do i stand a chance up against other applicants?</p>