<p>My "dream" college has always been Stanford, and it has been a college I would really like to go to (and Berkeley as well, though more towards Stanford). My main problem is that my GPA from first semester sophomore year was very bad, and I was wondering how much this would hurt me. Here are my "stats":</p>
<p>10th grade 1st semester: 2.8/3.33 (extremely hard schedule, took some of the hardest courses in the school)
10th grade 2nd semester: 3.85/4.29
11th grade 1st semester: 4.0/4.5
11th grade 2nd semester (this is just a projection): 4.0/4.5 <-- from how things are looking</p>
<p>SAT: 2240</p>
<p>In 10th grade I took 3 honors courses. In 11th grade I am taking 3 AP courses. In senior year I will probably take ~4 AP courses, however these aren't going to be extremely hard ones (the hard ones I'm pretty much done with).</p>
<p>Also in the summer of 11th to 12th grade I took Calculus A as a "prep" course at a nearby college. </p>
<p>In terms of extra curriculars:</p>
<ul>
<li>Over 100+ hours in community service for an organization
This included food drives, book drives, blood drives, and so on.</li>
<li>An editor of a magazine for an organization</li>
<li>Various other awards but nothing "extraordinary" I think</li>
<li>My main extra curricular is definitely sports. I am a varsity cross country/track member. For cross country, I made state in California (the most competitive state). In terms of track, I hope to make state if not this year, hopefully next year (track in California is extremely competitive. If you make state, you are probably top 50 in that event in the nation). I think my times are fast enough to at least "walk on" to the Stanford team; Stanford is extremely good at track/cross country and is one of the best in the nation.</li>
</ul>
<p>Based off of this, what could be my chances of getting into Stanford (or even Berkeley)? My GPA is the main weakness, I understand it's not very strong after a bad 1st semester sophomore year. If I make state in track as a senior, it won't really do much to my acceptance chances will it, since by then all the letters of acceptance will have been sent out? Are there any tips, etc. that could help me.. such as writing an amazing essay? Also, my school is ranked top 100 in the nation. Thanks.</p>
<p>I agree with the previous poster. Your best bet will probably be as a recruited athlete since there are myriads of students who have never gotten a "B" in high school who all want to get into Stanford or Berkeley.</p>
<p>I hate to say this, but you have no chance at all to get an acceptance from Stanford, or Berkeley as well. (esp. if you're oos.) To get recruited for Stanford, you need to be state-level athlete since Stanford is D-1 and Stanford's athletic teams are really for serious athletes.</p>
<p>I am really looking to break 5 minutes in the mile this season. Basically, if you make California state in track for a distance event (like 800/1600/3200), you are basically top 50 in the nation. I am just BARELY around the national elite high school cut off for the mile, I'm less than a second off (from last year), and about 2 seconds off for the 3200. I do meet the California "elite cutoff" requirements though. I'm pretty sure I could "walk on" to the team at Stanford (and Berkeley since Stanford is better than Berkeley), I guess it will depend how I run this season to see whether I get recruited.</p>
<p>Also forgot to post this, overall, my unweighted GPA is 3.66 and weighted is 4.155 (and I go to a very competitive school, it was ranked top 100 in the nation).</p>
<p>In terms of recruitment, could I just email the coach saying that I am interested in running at the school? I just want to make sure there's no fine print in terms of an athlete contacting a coach. Thanks.</p>
<p>I'm not sure of Standford's application process but I think you could get a great essay out of your grade improvement if there was an incident that spurred it.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I hate to say this, but you have no chance at all to get an acceptance from Stanford, or Berkeley as well.
[/quote]
don't listen to that person. they are being way too harsh. even if you weren't recruited, you still would have a pretty decent shot at getting in.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm not sure of Standford's application process but I think you could get a great essay out of your grade improvement if there was an incident that spurred it.
[/quote]
i wouldn't write an essay about it if your GC is also going to write about too; you don't want your essays to turn it out a bunch of excuses.</p>
<p>
[quote]
In terms of recruitment, could I just email the coach saying that I am interested in running at the school? I just want to make sure there's no fine print in terms of an athlete contacting a coach. Thanks.
[/quote]
go to the athletics page and you should see something about recruiting in the links... make sure to also check out some of the athletes profiles just to see how competitive you actually are.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies. In terms of running at Stanford, I am pretty sure I can get onto the team with my times (as a walk on). The question is more a whether I can get recruited on. This year, I know Stanford has recruited a LOT of elite athletes. In terms of girls, they have some very fast girls who were on the national level (as in top 5/top 10 in their event). Next year, one of the fastest girls in the nation will probably be going to Stanford (well she could actually go pretty much anywhere she wanted, and most people are predicting Stanford), so it definitely is a competitive team. However, they do seem to be trying to recruit more track/cross country athletes as was shown by the huge recruitment this year.</p>
<p>However, I don't want to leave it all up to how I perform in athletics. For all I know, I could get injured this season or just have a bad season. </p>
<p>I forgot to mention in the opening post that I've been an officer of a club for 2 years and it will be a third year next year. I was also part of a business club where I made it to Internationals.</p>
<p>So at this point, could essays be the difference between a rejection and an admission?</p>
<p>Stanford has been extremely hard this year. The Valedictorian of my class who has perfect SATs, very good extracurriculars, good leadership, tons of volunteer hours (like maybe six, seven hundred), and a few sports here and there got deferred and everyone in my school including the counselors were shocked.</p>
<p>And you definitely should talk to Stanford's running coaches.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice/feedback. If not Stanford, do I at least have a decent shot at Berkeley? I've also heard that Stanford really weighs heavily on the essay, definitely something to take into consideration?</p>
<p>Essays are always something to consider. I wouldn't be surprised if that were very important in Stanford's process, considering that they make you do 14 of them. >.> All of the admissions people I've talked to do say that the essay is a huge portion, but unfortunately, a "good" essay is so subjective that there's no way of predicting what effect yours will have.</p>
<p>Hello, I am new to this forum, but I noticed that you too want to attend Staford. I was hoping that some experienced members could inform me of my chances:</p>
<p>-I am a current sophomore at the Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA) with a perfect 4.0
-I am an active member on their math team
-I founded a Jazz club
-I am a three year varsity baseball player
-My SAT math (without studying) was a 720
-I have and will be taking mentorships at Northwestern University
-I am attending SUMaC (Stanford's Summer Math camp)</p>
<p>I am wondering what my chances are of getting into Stanford (or any top school)</p>
<p>Start your own thread, imsastudent (that's the general rule on this forum; no hijacking). That being said, you have an okay shot probably, and (I hope I'm not sounding like a douche by saying this) neither Stanford nor most people on the forum care that you didn't study for a standardized test.</p>
<p>As a Stanford student, here's my humble opinion:</p>
<p>Stanford-reach.</p>
<p>But if it makes you feel better, Stanford would be a reach even if your GPA was perfect. You have an upward trend, however what's going to get you in (or not in) is how interesting you are (considering the fact that both your SAT and GPA are passable). You have a chance, but not a great one at all (very few people do). If you're are rejected, it will not <em>solely</em> be because of your GPA, this much I'm sure of.</p>
<p>Your best chance would be to be recruited.
You should make it into Berkeley, but you never know. With some colleges you never know if you're what they are looking for. Race and region depends a lot, but as you're in California that helps a lot (I'm not) because almost half of the students are from California. A person at my brothers college had perfect SAT, #1 in class, tons of community service, and all that, and got denied from Stanford. They want someone who stands out, tons of people apply with perfect scores, so the essay is very important. Their website also states that they would rather have a person excel in one or two activities/sports than participate in twenty. Your scores/grades are right in there, the rest you can not really tell until you get your letter.</p>
<p>I applied this year. 2050 SAT (780 math), 32 ACT (36 math). 4.2 GPA, Varsity baseball, School bowling team (won a regional Pepsi Youth Tournament), play violin in orchestra, taught myself electric guitar. I am going into it expecting to get denied, but I know I have a chance to make it.</p>
<p>Definitely contact the coach. Your times are fairly good, though since you're from CA, I suppose your state/school is a bit more competitive than mine (our school does have Chris Derrick though, perhaps you've heard of him...).
I think your biggest weakness is your sophomore grades, but since you can't do much with them, definitely try to own next year.</p>