<p>Hi. I'm actually a junior in high-school at the moment, but out of curiosity, I'd like to get an idea of my increased likely-hood of getting into Stanford based on two of my main E.C.s, that is, my professional e-sports organization/company, and my high-school robotics team.</p>
<p>I started a gaming organization/team during the beginning of my junior year and it has become pretty significant to the gaming scene of one of the most popular PC games. I managed to make it generate revenue and also get sponsored by professional companies. I manage around 65 players (the best of the best) and run multiple social networking tools, ie, twitter, fb, youtube, justintv (with significance -- ie, 250,000 viewers, etc.). It is still running and I am very actively involved in it. I plan on expanding the organization to a larger corporation in hopes that I can brand the name of what I'm running. (I'd like to keep that private for now). </p>
<p>My SAT's aren't here yet (i'm awaiting scores) but they will be mediocre most likely (2100-2200 range) and my GPA is okay, 3.85-3.9 unweighted (AP's, the usual). I volunteered over 250 hours at a local library and I also have a legacy at Harvard (brother attended harvard), although I don't think that will help much.</p>
<p>I have a few other important E.C.s, none worth mentioning about except for Robotics, in which I am the vice-president and will-be president. I've managed to raise over $5,000 and the team went to nationals (after reigning 1st in regional competition) for the first time since 2005. </p>
<p>I'm not trying to brag about what I have (and I know that I don't have much). I only do things that interest me (so I don't join joke clubs, ie: "ping pong"), so my resume will be a little smaller than the usual. But I believe that my activities are what make me a strong candidate (possibly?). I'm not sure though, perhaps you could give me some advice fellow CCers :).</p>
<p>Anyone? I know this post is quite different than many.</p>
<p>Joke clubs? While such clubs are not considered as highly as others there is nothing wrong with them. They indicate that you have a social life and can balance your work load.</p>
<p>-Proud member of my school’s ping pong club since it was founded last year.</p>
<p>your legacy at Harvard isn’t going to count at all for Stanford admissions.
admissions is quite honestly, like everybody has said before me, a crapshoot. just continue doing what you love and see where that takes you. your first EC is quite unique already.</p>
<p>But, in the general scheme of things, do I have a shot at top schools (top 10) thats more than a crapshoot cumulative?</p>
<p>You definitely have a good shot. Your best bet would be to show your passion for those two activities in your essays. Not just explaining what they are and saying “oh look how hard I worked on these,” but showing why you did it and why it’s important to you. I’d recommend making more than one mention of each in your essays–i.e. having one essay (say the intellectual vitality essay, but you have to decide which one) talking mainly about robotics, and then in the “why Stanford” essay, making mention of how Stanford’s robotics facilities are attractive. Another way to add cohesion to your application is to have the people in charge of those activities (like your robotics club) write a recommendation for you emphasizing your passion, drive, etc.</p>
<p>So it’s okay that you don’t have a laundry list of activities–you seem to love what you do, and that’s what gets you in.</p>
<p>Thank you for your informative response. I’m glad I don’t have to add a lot of “bulk” to my resume just to get into good schools like Stanford.</p>
<p>I think it’s the “bulk” that often dooms a lot of applicants. They seem like serial joiners and have difficulty explaining their passion. That’s not to say that you can’t be well-rounded, but it’s trickier, because it means you particularly have to show passion somewhere (and you can’t have it in all of them–you might like all your activities, but it’s clear that Stanford likes to see commitment and passion in a subset of your activities).</p>
<p>I don’t know much about your gaming activity, but it seems neat and unique. Definitely look into things like the biomimetics group or other robotics groups like</p>
<p><a href=“http://cs.stanford.edu/groups/manips/[/url]”>http://cs.stanford.edu/groups/manips/</a></p>
<p>and tie it into your interests and goals. It shows adcoms how Stanford has something to offer you that you can’t find elsewhere.</p>
<p>I’m more interested in business administration / leadership than anything. (I want to major in business at some point, or focus in leadership in the field of business). So robotics might not be the major of choice. I know Stanford doesn’t have an undergrad business program, but would their be any alternative programs that you would recommend?</p>
<p>Stanford expects you to change your interests, which is why you aren’t required to put down a major. They don’t need to know that robotics won’t be your major of choice (it actually isn’t a major; most do EE, CS, or CSE). It wouldn’t be a bad idea to spend most of your essays focusing on your gaming activity/leadership/business, but that’d be a lot of space spent discussing only one thing, leaving robotics looking like something you did but don’t care about. Also, a lot of students are interested more in business, so I’d recommend you tread carefully there. It might be a good idea to talk about the overlap between your interests in business and robotics/engineering.</p>
<p>In fact, there is a major that does just that (Stanford’s equivalent of an undergrad business major): management science and engineering. It’s ranked #1 among programs studying the overlap between business and engineering (like operations research, systems engineering, etc.):</p>
<p>[NRC</a> Rankings Overview: Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124751/]NRC”>http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124751/)</p>
<p>[Department</a> of Management Science and Engineering](<a href=“Management Science and Engineering”>Management Science and Engineering)</p>
<p>It also just got a new home in the brand-new Huang engineering building, and I’m sure Stanford would love to hear that its expensive newfangled building helped in your decision to apply to Stanford.</p>