GPA question, sorry if its annoying

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
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<p>So guys, I'm sure you are all fed up with stupid high-schoolers posting in the Stanford board when they probably know nothing about the institution beyond its name. But I really want to go here. I have a freaking picture of the college that I look at whenever I feel like just giving up and succumbing to laziness. Plus, I have yet to meet one uncool person who goes/went to Stanford. Even CC lacks Stanford jackasses, which is rare.</p>

<p>ANYWAY. I am hoping my essays and ECs will convey my passion enough. A bunch of Stanford people told me "just write excellent essays". My test scores are pretty good (my PSATs soph year were 98 percentile).
But, I am sure the school wants more. Especially, from an Indian in Northern Virginia. </p>

<p>I take/will take the hardest courses offered every year, and my counselor can attest to this. But my grades are Bs usually. And Stanford seems to only accept 4.0 students. </p>

<p>So this is what I am trying to aim for.
My freshman year - 3.77 all honors
Sophomore - probably 3.5 barely, all honors/ap world history (A+)
junior - hopefully 3.7 w/ lots of aps
senior - hopefully 3.8 ? </p>

<p>if weighted, my ranking could be pretty high. but i have some very smart (at least grade-wise) kids in my school so i don't know....</p>

<p>How does it look for me? Did any of you guys get in with similar stats?</p>

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<p>
[quote]
And Stanford seems to only accept 4.0 students.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>not true at all rofl. at my school, probably about 5 people holding a rank of 1/500 applied along with some other kids with B's. (4.0 vs non..)</p>

<p>a kid with the B's was the one admitted.</p>

<p>maybe that'll make you feel better? haha.</p>

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<p>Stanford's site says that admits generally have between a 3.6 and a 4.0. You should be fine, as long as you work hard.</p>

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<p>My D had a couple Bs, but took the hardest courses offered. I think adcoms pay attention to the types of courses, and although grades are important, they are not controlling.</p>

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<p>If you are still in top 10% of your class, you'll probably be fine. Lower than that could be a problem.</p>

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<p>definitely in top 10%! my school is basically a mix of overachievers and potheads :)</p>

<p>thanks so much for your help, guys. i couldnt find average Stanford GPA anywhere. could someone link me to that?</p>

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<p>average GPA means very little, since grading is so different at different schools, plus many schools use weighted grades, and the scales vary.</p>

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<p>An interesting resource is MyChances.net. Applicants provide their stats and the schools they're interested in and the (free) site does some math and gives you a number, along with cautions about low sample size, not statistically selected, etc. But at Stanford</a> University Applicant Details and Admission Predictions | My Chances.net - Data-driven college admission prediction. you see a table of numbers for those applying, rejected, accepted, etc. You'll note that Stanford is one of those places where the numbers are a relatively small part of the equation. Lots of 4.0/2400's end up in the reject list because they weren't exactly what the school was looking for: presumably qualified but "interesting" people.</p>

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<p>LOL Yeah, I went to that site before and I did not get it AT ALL.
Plus a bunch of people probably lied. </p>

<p>I hope I'm "interesting" enough. Does anyone know what Stanford considers more important than GPA?
On College Board apparently Stanford thinks everything is "very important", although the applicant's interest is "not considered".</p>

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<p>oh and why is this dude's probability at Stanford 99.8% <a href="http://college.mychances.net/view/?id=6333&app=college"&gt;http://college.mychances.net/view/?id=6333&app=college&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>while this person is only 47.3%
<a href="http://college.mychances.net/view/?id=104&app=college%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://college.mychances.net/view/?id=104&app=college&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>both rejected though =/</p>

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<p>Very interesting. According to myChances, mine is only 19% at Stanford. meep!</p>

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<p>i hope you prove them wrong =]</p>

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<p>The college chances predictions have seemingly been largely based on gpa and SAT. For each school, they rate their own success in correctly predicting accept/reject and you can see that for a school like Stanford that relies heavily on other factors, their prediction accuracy has been relatively low. They've added a list of questions for new applicants that will presumably allow them to factor non-numerics into their predictions. </p>

<p>Their predictions are "interesting" in any case. If you look through the Stanford list you'll find a goddess with 2400/4.0, 5's in about a hundred AP's (click the user name to get more info) with a 92% (iirc). Right below her is a guy with a 4 in exactly one AP with 100%. Secret formula, like Coke.</p>

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<p>Interesting site. I put together my profile, and apparently I only have a 5% chance for Stanford. Ouch, haha. But I doubt that's very accurate, since I was deferred from EA; if I really had that low of a chance, I doubt they would have kept me around.</p>

<p>As far as the OP: I wouldn't worry too much about it. Of course, it would be much better if you had a 4.0, but not having one will not kill your chances. If you get some good SATs and ECs, you will still be plenty competitive. Just try and get that GPA as high as possible, it can only help. Good luck :)</p>

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<p>eh i still dont think im competitive at all...but ill still apply.
i got an email from stanford today! i mean it was totally automated, but still, it made me smile. Is that EPGY program worthwhile?</p>