Chances at Stanford (and others)?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey guys, summer break is almost over, and I can’t help but freak out about the upcoming college admission process.

I am a rising senior attending a science/math public magnet school in Maryland. Here are my stats, thank you so much for your help and time!

Weighted GPA: 4.3
Unweighted GPA: 3.9 (got one B in P.E. lol)
Rank: 6/400 (I’m fairly sure it will go up next year)

Note: SRT (Science Research Technology) is a 4-year class for the magnet program that I’m in where we conduct a capstone research our senior year with a mentor. I am going to be conducting research and making models for optical aperture synthesis this upcoming year. I took P.E. during summer.

Classes I took in school:

Freshman:
AP Environmental science
Honors Algebra II
Honors Biology
Honors English
Honors Government
Spanish I
SRT I/Health
Symphonic Band

Sophomore:
Honors Trigonometry
AP Statistics
AP World History
Honors Chemistry
Honors English
Spanish II
SRT II
Symphonic Band

Junior:
AP Physics 1
AP Calculus AB
AP United States History
AP English Lang and Comp
Spanish III
Technical Writing/Genetics
SRT III
A Cappella Choir

Senior:
AP Physics C
AP Calculus BC
AP Psychology
AP English Lit and Comp
CAD/Design Engineering
SRT IV
A Cappella Choir

AP Scores:
Environmental: 4
Statistics: 4
World History: 4
Calc AB: 5
Eng Comp and Lang: 5
Physics 1: 4
U.S. History: 3

SAT: 2010 (CR:590 M: 690 WR:640)
ACT: 32 (E: 27 M: 32 R: 34 S:33)
Math II subject test: 750
Physics subject test: 660

I know I don’t have the greatest test scores, but I’m planning on retaking SAT and ACT in the fall.

Varsity tennis: 9, 10, 11, 12 (captain)
Indoor track: 10, 12
1st degree black belt in taekwondo

National Honor Society: 10, 11, 12 (president)
Tri-M Honor Society: 10, 11, 12 (cabinet)
Green team: 9, 10, 11, 12 (president)
Math club: 10, 12
Leo club: 9, 10, 11
Student council: 9, 10, 11, 12 (representative)

School musical pit piano player: (9, 11)
Marching band: 9, 10 (flute section leader)
Symphonic band: 9, 10 (flute section leader)
Jazz band: 9, 10, 12 (piano section leader)
Chorus: 11, 12 (alto section leader)

I made All-County, All-State, and All-National for chorus. I’m not sending in an arts portfolio though.

National Merit Commended Student
AP Scholar with Distinction

I have a publication for doing a DNA research with Rutgers University.

I worked as a tennis instructor at a rec center in our town, and I’m currently working as a social media expert for a publishing company.

As for some personal info, I am an Asian female. I immigrated from Korea when I was in 5th grade, if that makes any difference. Both of my adoptive parents have undergraduate degrees.

For summer activities, I haven’t done any internships or camps. I’ve traveled to other countries and spent time with my family in Korea.

I’m going to major in engineering or finances. Not 100% sure yet.

Do you guys think I have any chance at Stanford? It’s my dream school and I would LOVE to go, but realistically, I don’t think I’m competitive enough.

I’m also thinking about U Penn, UC Berkeley, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and Georgia Tech. My safety school is University of Maryland, which I’ll know I’ll get into. What do you guys think my chances are at each of these schools?

I know I don’t have an amazing resume like other people posting for chances at Stanford… But I want to try before I give up. Please give me your honest input and recommendations! Thank you so much :slight_smile:

2

Do you have a chance? Absolutely. It’s certainly worth applying. But it’s obviously very tough.

You are a great well-rounded applicant. Besides your lowish scores, I think the most likely problem you will have is the combination of demographics and the fact that you don’t have any one thing that really stands out. It sounds like you are a fine tennis player but probably not in the class of an athletic recruit, a decent musician but not submitting an arts supplement, a good but not out-of-this-world STEM candidate, and a solid overall HS participant in other ECs.

Improving your test scores won’t hurt, but beyond that you need to present a clear picture of who you are and why you deserve a spot at Stanford over tons of other qualified applicants. What do you bring that’s special?

Be positive. Don’t think of yourself as someone who doesn’t have an amazing resume like other people. Think of yourself as someone extraordinary, and convey what is extraordinary in your application. Stanford wants extraordinary people who will do extraordinary things, and they will overlook weaknesses in one area to get them. They don’t particularly want well-rounded applicants who aren’t extraordinary.

3

UPenn: 10%
UC Berkeley: 15%
Cornell: 10%
JHU: 15%
Georgia Tech: 60%
Stanford: 1%

You sound like a good student. I know the numbers I’ve given above are harsh, but you’ve listed some pretty tough schools - it’s good that you are shooting for them. Know that they are difficult schools for everyone, no matter what their background is.

Your GPA is competitive for all the schools you are applying to. Your SAT score, however, will likely be the bottleneck. Typical competitive applicants to your top choice of Stanford have SAT scores above 2200. Your SAT score is not by any means low, in fact its in-line for typical applicants to schools like Berkeley, hence, your odds are near the average admit rate for students to those schools.

4

Berkeley is a state funded school which means your costs would be $55k per year. But barring that, your scores are good, but not competitive enough for OOS admission. Your ECs are okay.

Stanford would be a reach. Please apply to some safeties in your home state.

5

okay… Bridgewood is being extremely unreasonable… Stanfords admit rate is 5.1% and OP is definitely more competitive. Two people at my hs got into berkeley and they both had test scores like yours. I would just say to write really amazing essays because that’s what it’s going to come down to

6

Apart from your test scores, you are definitely one of the better applicants to these colleges. However, these low test scores will hurt you a lot. Try to get a 33+ on your ACT and a 750+ on your subject test scores. Then you might stand a good chance of getting in.

7

Thank you everyone for your helpful comments! I will definitely apply, but I’ll think of more safety schools.

8

@sweeetea, here are the SAT statistics for students at Stanford University:

SAT (25th - 75th Percentile) CR: 680 - 780 MATH: 700 - 790 WR: 690 - 780 Total: 2070 - 2350 (2400)

OP, although clearly a good student, is unfortunately below the 25th percentile for her test scores at Stanford. This means her chances will be below average. By no means does this mean she can’t get in - I have peers and colleagues that have been admitted to Stanford with SAT scores even lower than OP’s, but they are very much the exception, and the odds were against them.

https://colleges.niche.com/stanford-university/statistics/

9

@Bridgewood Test scores are not the only part of the application. There are thousands of applications with higher sat scores but more generic extracurriculars. I’m not saying OP has an amazing shot, but 1% chance? That’s unreasonable

10

Would getting in be any easier if I decided to apply as an engineering major since I am female? Let me know what you guys think.

11

No.

12

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I have a publication for doing a DNA research with Rutgers University.

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Do you have a link you could share?

13

@sweeetea The 5.1% acceptance rate is very misleading. That accounts for legacy and athletic recruits. I’d say the average joe would have somewhere around a 2-3% chance of getting in.
Also, top scorers getting rejected doesn’t mean lower scores get in. It means more qualified top scorers get in. The people who got in Stanford with low scores probably had hooks (URM, Legacy, Athlete) that the OP doesn’t have, or they probably had something out of this world about their application (being homeless, international/national recognition in an activity, something like that).

14

@rden2614:


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The 5.1% acceptance rate is very misleading. That accounts for legacy and athletic recruits.

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That also accounts for horrible students applying as a sort of ‘YOLO’ and mediocre students applying as a ‘I’d regret it if I didn’t at least try one top school’.