I am obsessed with going to stanford and i have been doing everything in my power too go down that path.My gpa(3.6 uw)(4.0weighted) is poor compared to the school average, but i am super confident that my sat score can be 1500+ this year. I am african american who is a good runner and would like to run for stanford team. What are ways i can make myself a better applicant??
If you want to run for Stanford, are you recruitable? If yes, then your gpa may be fine.
If your SAT is from the new SAT, please keep in mind that the new SATs have been very generous with the curve. So, your SAT will not be the only one that has been inflated. College Board has published a concordance table to compare new SATs to the old ones. There isn’t any data yet for how colleges are going to respond to these new scores, but if everyone’s have gone up then it will be harder to impress the Admissions officers.
“I am obsessed with going to Stanford” " I am african american who is a good runner and would like to run for stanford team."
Sorry but this does not bode well for you. You’re the type of dreamy-eyed person that guidance counselors talk about at conferences over coffee.
-
you seem to not understand that Stanford athletics are among the strongest programs in the nation – your earlier blithe comment about wanting to play soccer or run cross country for Stanford is not matched by any affirmative statement that you’re one of the top 100 HS soccer players or CC runners in the country at this moment. If that were so, you’d be heavily recruited already and clearly your region’s or indeed, your one of your state’s best in either sport. Since this has been in your posting history, we can only assume you’re not and thus, can’t really be considered a top recruit.
-
Stanford has the lowest admit rate in the country among 4 year colleges. Unless you ARE a recruitable athlete, there’s nothing else in your profile that makes you particularly memorable.
You need to get a reality check about your relative athletic skills. If you coaches haven’t already told you you’re among the best players in their program, then you’re NOT bound for college level play at all, much less a Div 1, top ranked program like Stanford. Please use the SuperMatch function on the left panel of this page and develop a list of viable target schools. Good luck
In terms of the running part, you could look at one of the track sites e.g. TFRRS, and see how your times compare to athletes at Stanford and other schools in the conferences (Pac 12 outdoor, MPSF indoor). A typical benchmark for recruiting is someone who can contend to score in the conference championships.
There are some people on the Stanford roster who are well off that level of performance, but they are generally walk ons who got into Stanford without team support.
What are your times in cross country (5k) or track times and what event? Some events are specialized like the hurdles and thus there is less competition. I am a runner and I will be attending Stanford in the fall but I highly suggest that you heed the advice of @T26E4. I had no shot of making that team. They even had a Stanford student in the 1500 Olympic Trials that was won by Olympic 1500 champion Matthew Centrowitz. That being said the fact that you are African American and will have 1500+ SAT then I do like your chances without the sports angle especially if you have a compelling story about your life. Let me know again about your times and I can give you some advice since I inquired about this myself.