<p>ngolsh314, congrats. I don't think that they care that much about the courses you took at Penn State. They don't accept computer science AP, bio, lit APs etc for credit once you are in, so check their website to see if you want to continue on some of them. ACt of 35 is about 1570/1600 in SAT. You are basically the best student your school ever has, and you are from a place Stanford never knows about. Relax for the rest of your high school year and prepare to have enjoyable difficult time at Stanford. Again congratulations.</p>
<p>I got this letter too! and it thought it was a joke. I called ugrad admissions and was like, "What does this letter mean? Is it serious?" And the guy on the phone was like of course it's not a joke Dean Shaw would not do that to people. lol</p>
<p>@FB lalaland
@Tyler09
sorry, wasn't trying to be rude. i just hate it when the subject gets radically changed in the middle of threads. :)</p>
<p>@ewho
thanks, man. i'm going to continue my AP classes, just because i want to know the material. At this point, all it can do is make freshman physics that much easier. I know they don't care much from a credit standpoint about my courses, but i think the effort that i showed in seeking out and enrolling in them independently of my school is what counted.</p>
<p>@prettykitty103
congrats! i thought it was a joke at first too, haha :P</p>
<p>ngolsh314 and prettykitty103, when was your letter dated? i want to know if they wrote all these at the same time or as they take a look at the folders.
i just got "application complete" email just a few days ago. i didn't think they could have reviewed my file so quickly.</p>
<p>lol, as an international applicant to Stanford seeking fin aid, i somehow i doubt i will be receiving any admit letter till at least late March</p>
<p>ngolsh314: Congratulations! My son received the letter last year and it was a great thrill. He had a similar situation to yours in that he went to an inner ring public school where over 50% of the students live below the poverty level. He went far beyond the school's curriculum and took college courses in physics, math and economics. He also self studied Physics C AP-both tests.</p>
<p>He recieved no credit for the classes (he's now at Princeton), nor did he expect to, but he was placed in the highest levels of math and physics and he told me that all his advance work was a great help. I hope the same is true for you.</p>
<p>By the way, they don't change the wording from year to year.</p>
<p>@itsme123
Mine was dated feb. 2, same as yours. Mine was also signed, and also had "Come to Stanford" written at the bottom.</p>
<p>@Aurea
Thanks. His situation sounds similar to mine. They must look highly upon students in that situation, who take the initiative to continue their education themselves.</p>
<p>ngolsh, thanks for your link to Stanford Daily in your previous post. that explains. Stanford's effort to increase its yield just might work in case. I'm thrilled that i don't have to sweat out another couple of months of waiting game.
congrats to you as well.</p>
<p>@itsme123
you're welcome. it came up when i was looking into why i got the letter.</p>
<p>Is Stanford your first choice? Personally, mine is MIT. I applied early, but i got deferred. i find this confusing, because after getting deferred from MIT, i'm being begged to come to Stanford. Not that i'm not thrilled. :) I'm just confused, especially since the kids who got this early approval "were expected to be admitted to every competitive institution in the country", according to that Stanford Daily article.</p>
<p>^Just goes to show what a crapshoot college admissions are. I'm jealous of you nonetheless though, haha.</p>
<p>@FailureAtCollege
Haha thanks? Here's an interesting article about a conspiracy about this whole "likely letter" jazz, its quite convincing- but he does have flaws in his argument. It doesn't apply to me anyway, because the only really competitive schools i applied to were Stanford and MIT, maybe Carnegie Mellon counts too. Stanford is the only "big four" (Stanford Harvard Yale Princeton) school i applied to.</p>
<p>Just remember, this is only one person's opinion. I haven't verified the math either.
Steve</a> Sailer's iSteve Blog: College admission yields: Is the fix in?</p>
<p>congratulations! care to dazzle us with your stats? :)</p>
<p>who? me? or itsme123?</p>
<p>wow that rhymed.</p>
<p>ngolsh, you are up on this "likely" letter thingy. </p>
<p>Stanford is on top of my list. Princeton and Harvard could make me blink, if i'm that lucky.</p>
<p>Hey nglosh and itsme would you guys mind posting your stats?</p>
<p>Wow, I just noticed that "February" is spelt completely wrong, what the hockey?</p>
<p>"And gives us great pleasure" just sounds so wrong....;). haha.</p>
<p>Sorry guys, i'm not going to post stats. I don't like being reduced to numbers. I just wanted to find out more about the letter.</p>
<p>But you've basically been accepted, why does it matter now?!?!?!</p>
<p>What do you mean? why does what matter?</p>