Chances of getting into Stanford, Uchicago, or UCLA?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

GPA- between a 3.9 and 4.0. I’m not sure what it is anymore. I have all A’s from 9th +10th grade but junior year I got 1 B. Senior year, I got 1 C in Calculus BC. All my classes were advanced / honors since 9th grade. I took a total of 10 AP classes theoughout high school.

My SAT score is a 1220. I did not submit scores to U Chicago.

No AP scores sent. No Subject test scores sent.

Extracurriculars: I run marathons and ultramathon 50 mile races. 10th-12th. 9th- i had 20+ hours a week of ballet and I had to quit for financial reasons.

Started my own business where i registered it as an LCC and teach low income children how to dance- upset that i could not afford to dance- offering ppl what no one offered me.

Creator and President of Poetic visual arts club- we make poetry + videos for fun. 98 kids signed up for club. Not the highlight of my application, but an extra conponenent.

Photography business attempt 10th-12th mostly summers, working a job 15 hours senior year, Pathfinders almost have my Master guide (high level- equivelent to a black belt as in highest ranking), Global Learners Club- communications director. Weekly writer for The Odyssey Grand Rapids- 50+ articles written since 10th grade.

Common AP essay: about a 50mile casual run- thought process, down to earth demeanor, the struggles of my life + realistic approaches (not a sob story)

Stanford essay intellectual vitality- wrote about autistic research i did at my highschool bc i wanted the autistic kids to have a better learning environment

Letter to roomate- philosophical +funny tones

Meaningful essay- my brother and writing (my brother has autism, so writing is meaningful bc it connects me to my brother and is an outlet for communication.

Uchciago weird essay- mantis shrimp. Talk about how we should dare not assume that the mantis shrimp can see more just bc it has 16 color receptors (qualia+ the small mantis shrimp brain)

Additional info:
UCLA asked me for supplemental essays (one about my background and 1 about my great achievements).

I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My high school is wealthy and Suburban. I am a female hispanic. I moved 20times in my life due to financial instability. I was homeless during high school + lived in random family homes die to poverty. One time lived in a scary motel. Mother not a part of life. Autistic brother i have to take care of.

My stanford interview was 12/10- alumni offered to pay my Stanford Tuition, said “Stanford would be making a mistake to not accept me” , that she “has interviewed so many kids throughout the years and never felt this passionate about someone belonging at stanford” and she cried.

3 letters of reccomendation- all speak of my genuine curiosity for learning, entrepreneurial spirit, enthusism to make the world a better place, goes beyond a “good student” and is “curious, outlier, enthusiastic” student who stays after and before class to discuss how books relate to her life and the world. Teachers wrote about how “if anyone deserves and belongs at Stanford- its you”

Idk what else to say. Everything feels so positive that i am getting into stanford BUT my SAT score of a 1220, coming from a biggish city worries me.

Thanks!

2

For Stanford, you have to have something that stands out in addition to A’s, top SAT and community leadership. It’s hard to say, but as an URM from the midwest, you have a shot. Good Luck.

3

Please, please, please log off CC. Go do something- anything that will require focus- and put your nervous energy in to that.

There is nothing that you can do, and truly there is nothing that anybody here can say that will actually help reduce your anxiety (not least b/c not one single person here knows more than you do at this point). NOBODY can tell you anything meaningful about your chances at this point: you- like thousands of other anxious students- just have to wait.

Fwiw, assuming that you have strong possible and probable (and affordable*) options that you have also applied to, it will be all right: strong students tend do well where ever they land.

So, go do something. Don’t torture yourself.

*do you have a way to pay for UCLA?

4

preppedparent, do you consider the 1220 to be a top SAT for Stanford? I felt like that was the killer.

5

collegemom3717, I know that I have to wait. The purpose of this question was simply to HELP me wait without being unrealistic about my expectations. Somedays I wake up like, “yes, I have a shot”, and other days I feel like, “haha- no way you wish”. But as a student who applied to boarding schools in 8th grade and has dreamed of the day when she could just do her thing in a college full of people who are also genuinely passionate about changing the world I can’t helped but wonder what others think and if I have a real shot at Stanford or I will end up at Florida State University. Also I am fully aware that state colleges are valid, but for my mission and purpose and plan for my life- I know that Stanford is the ideal, and best fit for me.

6

@sravrgs, nobody thinks that 1220 is a top- or even ok- SAT for Stanford: it is in the bottom quarter of admitted students. What I think that @preppedparent was saying is that even if an applicant has all the things s/he listed, Stanford will be looking for something that makes that applicant stand out.

Please, don’t try and read tea leaves. No good will come of it.

7

Sorry, @sravrgs - I posted before I saw your post #4.

The thing is, asking won’t help you wait. It’s like poking a sore tooth to see if it is still sore- it just confirms the pain. You need to go to the dentist, and the dentist in this case is decision season, which is coming up.

Stanford is a startlingly long shot for every.single.applicant. Besides recruited athletes, Intel & IMO winners, irl NOBODY has a “real shot” at Stanford. There is only some version of more or less likely. Which is why the first advice is not to set your heart on it so much that anything else is failure* and the second advice is to find a way to distract yourself.

*as in ‘do I get the ideal and best fit for me or do I go to Nowhere State’- if you don’t have happy choices in between that then your anxiety is warranted!

8

UCLA is a super (probably unrealistic) reach if you cannot afford out of state list price, since you will need a top end scholarship, not just admission.

9

A 1220 is horrible for Stanford. Simple put.

10

@sravrgs Everyone has some weak part of their app. Yours is your SAT, That said, private colleges take who they want. If everything else hits it out of the park, and they want you, even if its that you check a box like “HIspanic” and or “need students from mid-west,” you’re in. A low SAT won’t necessarily rule you out.

11

I’m wondering about your SAT, especially with a high GPA. Is it test anxiety or issues with math? You’re obviously a very worthy applicant, but will you be OK taking hard classes at Stanford? If you’re not accepted, there might be a silver lining in going to a school with less pressure and more free time to pursue your many interests. Also, you’re lucky to have UMich as your state flagship, hope you’ve applied and have been or will be accepted.

12

Let us know when you hear back! Rooting for you <3

13

You’re a textbook case of why UChicago went test optional. I’d be surprised if you didn’t get in. Stanford and UCLA rely on stats, and your SAT score may cause some hesitation. The rest of your application is quite compelling.

14

@sgopal2 Excellent point
@sravrgs Be sure to keep us posted!

15

“If everything else hits it out of the park, and they want you, even if its that you check a box like “HIspanic” and or “need students from mid-west,” you’re in.”

Agree that Hispanic a big hook for Stanford, but Michigan is not an underrepresented state like say North Dakota. If she had both, she’d be in, but I still think you’ll do well with one Chicago or Stanford. It is highly possible that you may not get in to UCLA (can’t use race in admissions) but one or both of the other two. Good luck as well!

16

Don’t worry about the SAT, all those schools accept students with lower scores for various reasons. No one can say whether you can get in to any but your story is more then compelling. Hopefully it gets across that way in your application. As too many posters can’t seem to understand here, its the student not the score that gets you into top schools.

17

UCs cannot take race into admissions although SES can be taken into account. But it’s going to be expensive at 65,000 for OOS and no financial aid is given.

Chicago and Stanford are holistic-think that OP has a better chance at getting into Chicago, especially if the essays are well written and catch the eye of an adcom.

On the other hand, a C in Calculus is not good for admissions to a Top-10 school and even though AP scores are not required, not sending scores can be a red flag to some schools, as they may indicate poor scores.

OP should go to a school where academic support to ensure success is provided instead of a pressure cooker school.

18

@yucca10 , My SAT is low from test anxiety. It is not the math, I mean I am in Calculus BC as a senior, and even though it is hard, the math is beyond the level of the SAT. Additionally, all the information on the SAT I had to master to get A’s in my math classes up to Algebra 2- our school isn’t known for grade inflation either. And for the reading part of the SAT, I simply did not read fast enough. However, I get A’s in all my English classes, and I can do the work. It is simply that I can not do it all in a 3-hour test.

19

@hamurtle I never once talked about race in my application to UC schools. I am confident in my UC essays. and if they asked me for supplemental information, which they don’t ask for from everyone, I know that I am at least in the running. WHy is everyone using my ethnicity as a Hispanic as my selling point? I never once thought it was even going to help me get into a school that does consider it. I didn’t write any essays about “being Hispanic”. I talked about my passions.

And, I know out of state tuition is expensive for UCLA, but once I establish residency the cost goes down + I have family support in Cali because I was born there.

And as for my C in Calc BC… colleges look for trends. This is an outlier. And for Stanford I told them I want to study Symbolic Systems, Philosophy and religeous studies, and economics… so its not like I am applying as a Physics major.

And for Uchicago, why would they be “suspicious” of my SAT scores? obviously anyone who doesn’t submit them doesn’t feel confident about them- that’s the whole point. They don’t need an SAT score to determine a students ability to be successful.

20

The most difficult exams that I can remember ever taking were at Stanford, although these were in graduate school. I can remember nearly straight A students walking out of a tough exam at Stanford looking like something that the cat dragged in.

C in calculus in high school plus a 1220 SAT are only two numbers, but they make me suspect that Stanford is a rather high reach. I was an undergrad at a different similarly ranked university, and only met one student who admitted to having lower than 1400 on the SAT. He never graduated.

Fortunately you have superb options in-state. Given how strong U.Michigan is, if I were in-state in Michigan there is no way that I would pay $65,000 per year to attend UCLA.