I am going to 9th grade in September. However, I am a little nervous about messing up my chances to go to Stanford. In 8th grade I suffered depression over my lost father and my grades plummeted. I practically had a report card full of C’s ( I was taking high school courses). The rare times I did study I had A’s on my test. What can I do to take the right path to Stanford?
Courses this year:
Geometry Honors
Spanish 2
And Biology
(All my other courses are mentally gifted classes.)
Ecs: -I want to play volleyball or tennis
-I am planning to start a Charity for the school district art programs.
-I am planning to start a blog about “interesting news, expressing that news does not need to be all about death”
-I might join the robotics team since they made it to the Worlds Championship. ( I love building stuff but feel like I won’t make the team)
-Played flute since 2nd grade
been in plays since 5th
-race: Mom: Taino(Native Puerto Ricans my family was some of the last few till my mom) and Puerto Rican Dad: black and German. I am really mixed~
First generation: Yes and no, my mom is still in college and never finished so idk…
Volunteer: My school requires 100 hours each year but I did none ever
Work: planning to work at chick fil a
My high school:
My high school is called Central High School( Philadelphia). It is one of the best magnet schools in the state. However, I heard teachers give 5hours of homework in each subject. Not that I am lazy but I heard that the teachers are heartless and don’t care. Not to mention I am competing with 500 other people.
Help? I would really appreciate it ^_^. ( Sorry to post this under Stanford, but it wouldn’t let let me post under College Admission. Idk I am new to this site)
Of course you can make posts under college admission forum.
There is no assured path to Stanford. The obvious path is to take the very hardest classes you can and score an extremely high gap, and extremely high SAT/ACT, and have interesting and meaningful activities that go well above the norm into the extraordinary zone and show leadership. Or be a recruited athlete. But even that does not guarantee admission there are simply not enough spots and I know of many students with those qualifications who do not get in. So all can do is be the best you can be and learn about the large variety of good colleges as you go, and don’t be surprised or caught without a plan if you don’t get admitted… Don’t plan to do things, just do them. Talk about what you have done, not what you mean to do.
How to raise your chances: Find that 100 million dollar stash under your bed and donate it all to Stanford.
Be insanely good at Volleyball or Tennis, good enough to be recruited.
Get adopted by Obama.
There is no surefire way to make it into Stanford. The 3 things I listed above will significantly raise your chances, while the things I list below will raise your chances by a small margin:
Take the most rigorous course load possible.
Get good grades in those classes
3, Score well on Standardized Testing such as SAT/ACT, AP, SAT II
Find something you like and pursue it
Just be yourself and have fun during high school
Just know that Stanford is super, super competitive and when you will be applying to Stanford, it will probably have something like a 4% acceptance rate, so don’t have your hearts set on Stanford as an overwhelming majority of applicants get rejected.
Here’s my tip: Write a very unique essay, borderline-crazy. There are too many qualified applicants, so unless you’re literally famous at a activity, there’s no guarantee.
@deeeznuts What defines a “borderline-crazy” essay? Does that mean something that’s just funny (hopefully the admissions officer isn’t in a bad mood) or something that is a bit more out there (like just saying something that they might not have expected an applicant to say)?
Edited to add: Never mind, you’re a freshman. Not sure if you’re talking about your middle school here but either way. GO DO SOMETHING FUN, instead of being anxious about a pie-in-the-sky college barely anyone gets into.
^I am going into freshmen year for 2015-2016. I wish I can have fun but I really want to get in for my mom 0n0. My mom got accepted to her dream school (Cornell) but gave It up for me. Interesting thing about my mom is she was a high school dropout and never did junior and senior year but then did second chance in 6 months 0.0. But yea I like to write about my mom but you know it’s not “unique”.
Mmm and btw my mom is really strict social life = 0( pl hates that I didn’t want to go to the elite boarding school we can’t afford now I have to go to the elite college we can’t afford. ~.~.
@19hollowayc, I am very concerned for you. You lost your father and have already had significant depression. You wish you could have fun but are killing yourself to overachieve for your super-strict mother, who gave up her dream school for you. That’s too much pressure and angst for anyone, much less a teenager.
I went to Stanford. And Harvard. And UChicago. I loved Stanford, but I also went through some significant depression there, mostly due to a combination of genetics and over-exhaustion. It was worse when I was at Harvard, and I underwent therapy, many years ago, and fortunately haven’t had it since. My kids are 10 and 8, and I tell them to go out and do what makes them happy and not worry about things like college.
There are more important things in life than where you get in to college, and doing things to gratify other people, even the ones you love, seldom leads to happiness. As @bodangles states, GO DO SOMETHING FUN. Ironically, it will probably help your chances for college. Stanford wants people who are lit up with passion about their lives, not people who are doing things in order to get in to college, or to please others. But Stanford should be the least of your concerns right now.
Please feel free to PM if you ever need someone with whom to talk.
The father isn’t dead…the mom won’t let the student see her.
You have started at least six or seven threads about your chances to get into Stanford, and be recruited as an athlete.
In my opinion, you need to take a deep breath, and lighten up a bit. You have no HS grades yet…and you won’t have even a PSAT score for another year. So academically, there is no way to answer your question. However, you did post that you did not get accepted to Choate because your grades were not high enough. That needs to change if you expect to get accepted to schools like Stanford, and all the Ivies.
In terms of Athletics, you got an answer on one of your threads. Are you nationally ranked in tennis? Now? Because the top recruits at Stanford in tennis were nationally ranked before HS.
At this point…work on getting great grades. Prep for the PSAT, especially the one you take in 11th grade. Prep for the SAT and/or ACT.
Once you have those numbers and a HS GPA, then inquire about college options.
And broaden your mind to options other than Stanford and the Ivies, and MIT, and NYU…lots of choices out there.
