<p>Until my sophomore or junior year, I wasn’t sure about the difference between penn state and upenn, whether Princeton was in NJ or New England, where Yale was, thought duke and Stanford might be Ivy League schools, had no idea where/what Dartmouth was, and the same for Georgetown, Berkeley, USC, northwestern, nyu. And I grew up here. So an international 14 year old thinking Stanford is an Ivy League is no great crime.</p>
<p>As for advice, get great grades, as close to perfect as possible, and do that in the hardest classes you can. (If you need to pick between a bad grade in a hard class and a good grade in an easy class, take the easy class but ideally you need a good grades in the hard class). Testing you need to be above 2300 on the sat or. 35 on the act and above 750 on sat II’s. Pushing close to 2400 is not worth it for a domestic applicant, but with the steep competition of international applicants, it might be worth it to go for perfection. Be nice to fellow students and teachers (recs and leadership positions), especially those who are in leadership positions and can “lend you a hand”. Do lots of activities at first so you will find ones you are good at, don’t restrict yourself now, quit later if you’re not good at it. That’s for clubs, continue any sports and music you have. Look for volunteering activities which aren’t mundane and are interesting for you.
Good luck</p>
<p>Hi, I am a senior in the Netherlands. When you say you are in third grade, I’m assuming you mean the third year of your VWO right? I suggest you choose some extra non-obligated courses at the end of this year. Your average for the coming years should be above an 8 average. I am also applying to some top-tier colleges in the US but not Stanford. If you have some specific questions you can PM me if you want. Oh and if you are only applying to some top-tier colleges like this, be sure to have some backups in Holland. We might not have the status of some of the American colleges but we do have some quality schools as well. (For example did you know that Delft’s Aerospace Engineering program is ranked, higher than Princeton’s)
PS. What kind of ‘profile’ (not sure this is the correct English term) are you going to choose at the end of this year?</p>
<p>I’m currently in the third year of Gymnasium-TTO and my profile choice probably will be Science & Technology (NT). I know that the Netherlands also has some very good universities and it would not be a complete disaster if I had to study here, but it would seem much more enjoyable to study in America because of the greater challenges and better experience. And of course, because Stanford is one of the best universities in the world. My marks can (easily) be above an 8 in my exam years and maybe even around 9!</p>
<p>If you’re pretty good at math, I would advise you to choose Math D. I would start getting ready for the Stanford application process by registering for the SAT’s etc. Start preparing early for the SAT’s; I have heard of people who have completed a bilingual VWO with ease but still had trouble with the SAT.</p>
<p>You should also note that Stanford (as far as I can tell) is not need-blind for international students. This means that they take into account how much financial aid you will need. And talk with your parents about it, because the application itself is not free (allow about 60€ application fee and around 100€ for the SAT1 and, if required, SAT2’s) </p>
<p>You would be able to increase your chances by applying to other universities. Universities such as MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale etc. have need-blind admissions for international students. You should certainly be able to handle this level. </p>
<p>If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.</p>
<p>Moderator’s note: All posts must be in English. I edited the above 2 posts to be in compliance with Terms of Service.</p>
<p>Sorry, I’ll post them in English next time!</p>
<p>If you’re thinking about being recruited for soccer you need to be damn good. A kid from my high school who plays soccer for Stanford left after freshman year of high school (I think) and went to Paris to play for PSG’s academy (started for the U-18s I think).</p>
<p>As a result, I’d imagine the quality that Stanford coaches are looking is guys who are starting for Eredivisie U-18 teams. </p>
<p>If you want a school that will have a similar international reputation to Stanford but is easier to get in to for internationals I would recommend looking at Berkeley. Financial aid might be an issue, however.</p>
<p>Does Stanford even recruit athletes? I think most ivies and MIT don’t recruit athletes.</p>
<p>
Yes, they do.</p>
<p>Stanford isn’t in the Ivy league. But all of them do recruit. Not MIT however.</p>
<p>MIT recruits, kid I know was recruited for soccer (and was val with 2400 SAT which didn’t hurt!)</p>
<p>You are asking how to get into one of the top 10 Universities (out of 3000) in the USA.<br>
Do you only want to go to Stanford or do you want to go into University in the USA?
If so, you should be looking into other very good options.
Only 8% of undergraduate students are international…so you are going to be competing for a very small number of slots…like 164.</p>
<p>@T26E4 - MIT recruits athletes, but their coaches have very little pull.</p>