Weighted GPA Sophomore year: 4.3
Weighted GPA Junior(current) year: 4.7
Unweighted GPA cumulative: 4.0
PSAT: 1500 out of 1520
SAT: 1520 (plan to retake)
Current schedule: AP Chem, AP U.S. History, AP Stat, Pre-Calc Honors, AP Lit, Choir
AP’s I’ve taken so far: all 5s
Plan to take 4 AP classes and choir senior year
Extracurriculars:
Volunteer at local Kaiser Permanente hostiptal 270 hours, (3 hours per week, shift leader for a year) (9,10,11)
Mentoring 3 hours per week through school year (11)
Vice President of NASA club (a STEM club that organizes student-run experiments weekly) (11)
Vice President of Model United Nations (Several awards at regional level, 3 conferences per year) (9,10,11)
Pianist of 11 years (currently self driven, no competitions)
Guitarist of 3 years, self taught
Concerts held regularly with the choir (paid performances daily during winter season)
Composer of both instrumental and vocal songs privately
I wasn’t able to get National Merit or Congressional Medal because of my legal status, but with my volunteer hours and PSAT scores, had a high chance in both.
I know that I lack extracurriculars compared to the stellar applicants to Stanford, but one big thing is that I moved to the United States in the beginning of 9th grade from South Korea, and have no language barriers whatsoever as seen with my AP Lit enrollment. I intend to shape my essays around this theme, how everything in my life was flipped upside down in my early teens and how I still managed to take advantage of all opportunities in my community. I will be considered an international in college applications. I am an excellent writer when it comes to essays, and am confident about my recommendations (already have teachers I’ve asked & in mind). I am what one would call a jack of all trades, ranging from STEM related subjects and academics to debates about historical and current issues.
If you think I’m not yet fully qualified, what would you recommend regarding extracurriculars and activities seeing as how I still have nearly a year before college applications?
Those are amazing grades and SAT scores if English is your second language. I think you already know what the responses will be. Your extracurriculars are good but they don’t stand out from the crowd. IMO your best bet will be your essay writing about moving to the USA right at the beginning of high school facing the challenges of a different culture and language.
I’m just a student, but from what I’ve heard, there’s no need for you to retake the SAT. You can if you really want to, but there was a lengthy debate on the 2021 thread about the value of a 35 over a 33, or in your case, a 1570 and a 1510. You already have a score high enough, it doesn’t seem like there’s a need for you to retake. Adcoms will only spend a few seconds looking at the score, but will look at the essays much more closely. That said, you still have time, so you can if you want. Hope we both get into the class of 2022!
Try to develop a little higher spike, and consider doing some outside school scholarship activities. It may sound funny but you may be considered to be too “well-rounded”. Also, do not dwell too much on your hardships in having to adjust to US. Mention it but move on quickly.
@christine817 Agree and disagree with @websensation regarding essays. Agree in the sense that you do not want to create a sob story of “woe is me please admit me”, but disagree in that at the same time, if that is your story and the one that defines you best as a person, and one you can write eloquently, it should be told in the essays.
Proceed with caution so as to prevent the former from occurring, but make your voice heard.
I definitely agree with mjr2013 (not so much with websensation). I got into Stanford this year REA and my personal statement and a couple of my short responses focused heavily on overcoming hardships (living with a chronic illness, cystic fibrosis, and my dad dying). Do not write a sob story, but DEFINITELY share your story and how you overcame hardships. After all, they want to hear your story and what makes you you
@websensation What would you recommend as “outside school scholarship activities”? I’m currently in the application process for the stanford summer school (the one actually hosted by stanford that gives you college credit not a corporation-jointed money raker) with a focus in engineering and the STEM field. Would that be considered an activity of sigfiicance? If you have any recommendations for “outside school scholarship activities” I’d really appreciate the input.
@christine817 Any programs in the area of your interest where they select among high school applicants across USA. You have to start building a noticeable spike in the area of your interest to show “intellectual vitality” and spike.
@excitedforcollege In your case, hardships were exceptional and unique, but most immigrants face similar hardships of having to adjust to USA. Therefore, I am confident in saying that they do not want you to go into details of describing hardships of someone having to adjust to US life. I am speaking from a personal experience. My kid just said something along the line of “It was challenging to adjust to US but I never gave up challenging myself.” He then went on describing what he achieved. “Chronic illness, cystic fibrosis and your dad dying” are very unique hardships that should be addressed.
@christine817 I will be more detailed here to help you. My kid lived in Korea from 1 to 10, attended a regular Korean school and spoke fluent Korean (actually he spoke better Korean than native kids because he was sort of good in languages). We returned to USA when he was 10, so my kid faced an experience of having to adjust to US culture and education system. Initially, because his English was not good, he did not feel comfortable or confident in speaking up in classes or making friends, so he withdrew (he’s not a great extrovert anyway although sociable and does well in group projects), but he never gave up challenging himself to improve his English and taking Honors/AP courses in English, History, journalism and even became a National Merit Finalist. This to me is a great achievement, but he chose not to go into all details describing the hardships he faced in having to adjust to US culture and educational system. He just said something along the line of “Initially it was hard but I did not give up.” That was it. I myself emigrated from Korea to US when I was 10, so I can say what my son accomplished is not easy. Specifically, I am not proud of my kid in having been accepted to Stanford because let’s face it, it’s a crap shoot imo but I am way more proud of the fact that he managed to adjust to US culture and education system and succeeded while learning two additional languages. If not Stanford, he would have gone to UC Berkeley; if not UCB, he would have went to UCLA; if not UCLA, he would have gone to an Honors College at a state school with a full-ride. Yes, he still needs to work on his grammar here and there and edit his papers a little more assiduously than had he been using English for 17 years but only his parents know that he had to overcome certain difficulties. But such difficulties are nothing unique to all immigrants so we felt there was nothing to gain by delving into this issue because there was only a limited space to talk about other things he accomplished.
Your hard stats are better than my kid’s hard stats, but my kid demonstrated not through words but by his deeds that he kept on challenging himself in school and beyond in his Area of Interest and now speaks 4 languages at various levels (he’s a Humanities major). If I were you, I would not put my effort into trying to get higher scores etc and would try to get a research position with a professor and develop a close relationship with the professor for a recommendation letter. I hope you get into Stanford because my kid probably will be a Class of 2022 because he might be taking a gap year to try to become advanced in one of the 4 languages he speaks before entering Stanford.
Feel free to send private emails if you have specific questions. I will try to answer when I have time. Good luck.
I am a parent of female Stanford SCEA applicant this year. She did not get in. I still do not understand why she did not get in. As far as I know, she has everything and more than many of the successful applicants. Stanford is very popular in her high school and quite a few of the top students applied for SCEA. Only two students got in. A girl and a boy. The girl is quite qualified and am genuinely happy for her even though my daughters rejection deeply hurt. As many have pointed out, no one can predict how the admissions work. Enough of the prologue.
Here is what I think made the difference.
National awards matter. ISEF, USAMO etc..
Good Essays are essential. Be focused and be passionate.
My guess is that for Stanford, well rounded students are not as important as focused and passionate students. If you love Physics, your application should show a spike that is focused on Physics with good enough all around achievements..
You do not need perfect standardized scores. What you have are more than enough.
Strong recommendation letters help.
Your school context matters. I also believe that applicant pool context matters.
Work on your application much ahead of the time. The more time you spend the better your application is likely to be. Generally speaking the essays get better with revisions.
Note: Think carefully before applying SCEA for Stanford. It rejects almost all of the applicants that are not accepted. Stanford defers very few applicants compared to other Ivies.
Caveat: You have no reason to take anything I say as the ultimate truth. Remember, my own daughter has everything that you can think of and still did not get in. Our best guess is that she came across as too much well rounded… good in many things. BTW, She is asian and on the paper (incorrectly) she comes across as well off with well educated parents. But, She did not get any special help in any fashion. My speculation is that it may have hurt her. I do not know.
@christine817@fortiori All very good points made by the fortiori poster above. The only thing I can add is that your essays should influence the reader to “like” you rather than try to “impress” admissions reviewer with your accomplishments. In other words, since other non-essay parts of your application can do the work of impressing the admissions reviewer, your essays should paint a “likable” picture of YOU. Also, research about Stanford (history, culture, tradition and program) and weave in here and there some aspects of Stanford culture, program or tradition to show that you took some time to get to know Stanford. This IMO is very important and applicants often do not do this.
