<p>I received the same packet last friday. I thought I had somewhat of a good chance into getting into Stanford, but after I received the letter of acceptance and seeing the kids' stats on cc I just don't know how I got in. I'm still wondering. Maybe it was the essays, or the ECs, or both, or.......</p>
<p>Some of my Stats</p>
<p>SAT:M 690, CR 650, W 600
ACT:M 33, R 29, Sc 28, En 25, Comp (best) 28
I also have ECs I stuck with throughout high school: tennis, soccer, french club, science club, scholastic bowl/masterminds</p>
<p>No I wasn't recruited for sports, I was injured and wasn't able to play at all this season. Even before the injury I wasn;t good enough to be recruited.</p>
<p>I know my scores are low (probably lower 10th percentile, see above), but I was accepted on these characteristics</p>
<p>-part black, mixed
-middle income level
-questbridge finalist
-community college during past two summers and 11th grade
-sports 4 years, consistent
-GPA consistent, kept around 97 for 4 years, #1 rank for 4 years
-AP scores reflect score in class
-region, I don't know who else applied from western NY
-essay hook: questbridge-->morals, my struggle, app-->analyzing famous artwork step by step to show final meaning, smaller essays showed my different writing styles (serious, friendly, semi-serious)
-limited resources at school (small rural school 30 miles from big city), took most AP courses and toughest curriculum plus driving an hour for community college courses
-No big national science/math/scholastic awards or regional awards, just participation in quiz bowl, science olympiads, odyssey of the mind
-not much or any volunteering hours
-not any real leadership positions
-two languages (french/spanish)
-took all my SAT/ACT/SATII in 2005 (4 SAT, 3 ACT, 6 SATII)</p>
<p>Agrophobic and sunkist16 and other posters like him/her,</p>
<p>You might not understand but such applicants here accepted early were able to come across to stanford as the few students out of many with true passion.</p>
<p>Anyone who doubts the admissions decisions of one of the top 5 universities in the world with an adcom which has been conducting admissions for decades, needs a reality check.</p>
<p>Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale know what they are doing when they admit someone. Just because you barely know anything about the applicant in question, or because you are afraid that you will end up rejected, or simply just don't comprehend the decision, you, as 17 or 18 year olds, shouldn't say that the adcom doesn't know what they are doing.</p>
<p>"stanford adcom's rolled a dice with 20,000 sides and Csr's app was the one that came up"</p>
<p>HAHA, wow, just because you do not understand the adcom's decision, doesnt mean you can brush off the decision of a top 5 university as "chance". It's the same thing when clueless applicants try to find excuses to explain to themselves why this or so person was accepted, like "omg, he was a urm, that's why he was accepted" "omg, i have higher SAT scores than her, she must have had connections" etc.</p>
<p>There is actually a lot of chance involved in the selection process. I heard one MIT adcom said that if MIT were to select a class from the same applicant pool 2 different times, they would almost certainly select 2 different classes. That being said, I would like to refrain from speculating the nature of Csr's acceptance.</p>
<p>the person above has a good point. My school is extremely competitive so working your way up there is extremely difficult. I didn't have stats as good as the other 4 people in my school that applied. Yet, i'm the only one that got in. Three got rejected and the other got deferred.</p>
<p>So yea, when it comes down to it, essays are pretty much the heart of your application file among the thousands of people with perfect GPAs and SAT scores.</p>
<p>About wrathofgod's comment, that is why it's very helpful to apply to lots of the top schools rather than just a couple. You may not be selected at Harvard, even though your were qualified, but because you applied to a bunch you were accepted to Yale.</p>
<p>Im afraid you're being far too naive and optimistic about this college admissions 'process"(I think of it as more a game) if you think that the adcom can pinpoint exactly who/what they want with precise accurancy. I can almost guarantee you that had it not been for the urm factor that he/she probably would not have received the special treatment of early acceptance. You don't know me and all that Ive been through, so you can't say Im any less unique; in fact, I think Im one of the least stereotypical nerd/bookworm type that you can find here on CC. I personally don't think essays alone will be able to get you this special early acceptance treatment, but I think it will help you gain admission nonetheless</p>
<p>Im not going to list any of my accomplishments or stats or whatnot(mind you they went far beyond academics) because that would be childness. Frankly I don't care much for stats anyway because most of the people here have them; its the intangible factors that matters, but sometimes other people have hooks that just blow them away</p>
<p>Csr43, Congratulations! I'm sure you are far from "the least qualified admit". You are absolutely qualified and obviously, exactly who Stanford considers a "clear admit". As a Questbridge finalist, you set yourself up for this opportunity (and several others I'm sure.) That was a lengthy application completed at a time before most kids had even begun the application process. You are "prequalified" for many fine universities. Good job!</p>
<p>Totally without regard to Csr43, I would love to hear more about the stats and further description of "the least qualified admit" and the "clear admit" cateories in your or anybody else's opiniion. Also the concept of "prequalified."</p>
<p>I agree that essays play a large part. I worked on mine a long time and a couple actually made me cry because I was wroking so hard. Congrats CSR maybe I'll see you there.</p>
<p>Eulen, i'm not sure if your last question was addressed to me but I will clarify what I meant.
"prequalified" - by this I mean that by being a Questbridge Finalist, one is low-income and high-achieving, and writes good admission essays. Also, finalists may be (and often are) first generation and URM but these characteristics are not necessary. The low-income high achieving part is required. BTW, Questbridge is a Stanford affiliated organization and I'd be surprised if finalists who applied were not accepted at Stanford. But that's just my opinion.
a "clear admit" is an applicant who has such attractive qualifications that the adrep has no question about acceptance. Let's say for example that a candidate has the following profile:
Low-income, first gen, URM, SAT 2050, rank #1, public school, amazing recommendations, a couple of strong ECs, good essays.
That is what I consider a "clear admit" at many schools.</p>