<p>White Male
New York
Top 50 Public in the U.S.</p>
<p>SAT: 2360 (800 M, 760 CR, 800 W) one sitting</p>
<p>SAT II: 800 Physics, 790 Math Level 2, 800 U.S. History</p>
<p>AP: Physics B - 5 , Calc AB - 5 , Biology - 5, U.S. History - 5, Calc BC - 5, English Language - 5</p>
<p>Unweighted GPA - 97.6
(School does not rank, would be #1 probably)</p>
<p>Awards:
National Merit Semifinalist (will be)
A National Essay Contest - 2nd Place
County Math Tournament - 4th Place
County Mathletes - Gold Medal
County Math Fair - Silver Medal
National Spanish Exam - 7th Place in Chapter
New York Metro Area Applied Math Contest - 4th Place (Team won $7500)
Regional Science Fair - 1st Place
NCTE Writing Achievement Award Finalist
National Geographic Geo Bee - 2nd Place in State
Columbia Model Congress - Gavel Award</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
Volunteering in a local program that serves immigrants, science research, math team (officer), quizbowl (varsity captain), model congress, JV sports, guitar...</p>
<p>Summers:
Prestigious high school summer research fellowship - research in astrophysics (06)
Penn Summer Science Academy (05)</p>
<p>Well if I told you the name of the fellowship you could figure out who I am.</p>
<p>Lol.</p>
<p>Just to give you some details, it has an acceptance rate of 15%. I am working this summer on a theoretical astrophysics project with a faculty member.</p>
<p>If you're interested because you intend to do high school summer research in the future, send me a message. I'd be happy to reply.</p>
<p>RCMan, that's just not fair. Can I be you? No, seriously, can I?</p>
<p>But...yeah. We all know Stanford's admissions are tough, but for you, it looks like as long as the application doesn't go bad, your chances are better than usual.</p>
<p>do you happen to be a part of RSI? b/c Professor Di Stefano told us about a person researching astrophysics from RSI. and it's very prestigious as well.</p>
<p>You should major in physics. Your activities look oddly enough almost EXACTLY like mine only we didn't have quizbowl but did do debate and I played piano not guitar. I didn't really have many awards though, so that meant that my ECs were by far the weakest part of my application. Oh and I was a girl. I'm sure that didn't hurt. Make sure you have really strong recs and essays. Bad essays (or even just mediocre ones) could actually really hurt you. </p>
<p>What exactly are you researching? I'd love to learn a bit about theoretical astrophysics and especially what it's like to do research in theoretical physics.</p>
<p>Yeah. I'm sure my recs will be outstanding. I am confident about the essays because I can write pretty well and have some good ideas. But until I actually finish them, I couldn't say.</p>
<p>It is likely that I will be a physics major. I could also do math or engineering though.</p>
<p>I am researching neutron stars and the equations that govern matter at very, very high densities. So far I find it very interesting, but I had to a learn a lot of computer programming this summer in order to get started. It's been good experience in that regard too, since someone interested in the things that I am should be more literate in computer programming.</p>
<p>Sounds good! Make sure that your essays really show who you are. Trying to be honest about yourself will lend itself to some really interesting, unique essays. Everyone who I've talked to at Stanford had really interesting ideas for their essays. (At one of our dorm events we had a couple of people tell their life stories every week and we could ask questions. We always asked what they wrote their Stanford essays on.) </p>
<p>It amazes me how relevant good programming skills are to so many disciplines. A lot of physics research seems to be about programming, at least for undergrads. I think Stanford should add a programming requirement to the writing/speaking requirement. Or AT LEAST require it for all science majors and perhaps poli sci, etc. too.</p>
<p>Agree with above - sounds like you've got a strong profile, though to be fair, once you get up to the fine distinctions Stanford's making, it's not so much about the numbers and programs, it's about what kind of learner you come across as in your rec letters and essays.
There's a lot made of Stanford's emphasis on the essays; IMHO this is true (in that they're actually interested in what you have to write about), but only up to a point. It won't come down to your essays unless you've got the support (and I'm sure you'll have it, from the sound of it, but don't take it for granted...actually sit down with your teachers when you give them the rec letter and talk with them about what you're looking to get out of a Stanford education). Good luck!</p>