HS Freshmen shooting for Stanford

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Hi everyone! My name is Matt and after doing a lot of research on colleges such as things to increase chances of admission, activities to be involved it, what to write on your applications/essays, etc. College Confidential was one of the forums that popped up a lot and I decided to sign up and join the community.

This could be kinda of introduction type thread while getting some advice from other people.

I go to a public high school with about 1600 students in a decently large suburban area in Kansas. Freshmen year is almost over and I’d like your guys’ opinion so far to place myself. I’m not quite sure where to start so I’ll start with my academic grades and courses.

I’m taking the most challenging course load right now, other than the fact that some of my peers are 1 year ahead of math or something similar to that. I’m taking the following classes.

Honors ELA (English Language Arts)
Honors Biology
Honors Geometry
AP Human Geography
Spanish 2.5
Symphonic Band - playing oboe (main instrument) during concert season/flute for marching season
PE (required class for freshmen, not relevant).

For my first semester, I’ve gotten all A’s. With a unweighted GPA of 4.0 and weighted of 4.54. The online gradebook also lets you see placement in your class GPA-wise. I’m 1/409 for my unweighted GPA because you can’t get higher than a 4.0. But I’m also aware there’s a couple dozen students also showing 1/409 because it’s a “tie.” As for my unweighted GPA, I have a 4.54 and it shows as 11/409 which is peculiar. This was our school’s first year of offering one single AP class to freshmen.

School ends next Friday and that also means final grades and finals. I have all A’s except for biology which I currently have a 84.9% in, yikes. I turned in a bunch of makeup work yesterday and hopefully should raise it some. I have had 4 different teachers for biology this year and it’s been a difficult year. Our original teacher was only here for 2 days when she was hospitalized, she died a few months ago, and we had 3 different subs for the rest of the school year. As a result, the class style was always changing and I never really conformed to it.

I don’t know if middle school grades are relevant but they’re all A’s except with a B in Algebra I in 8th grade- I really hated that class.

I am a variety of extracurricular and cocurricular clubs. At the beginning of freshmen year I joined about 8-9 clubs including GSA (gay-straight alliance), computer science club, KAY club (community service oriented) and a variety of other clubs. I slowly started weeding that clubs I didn’t want to be in. I’m also in symphonic marching band as I mentioned above and I also played oboe in pit orchestra for the Cinderella musical.

I eventually narrowed down my activities at school to two cocurricular CTSO’s - DECA and FBLA. DECA is the more well-known international competitive organization that focuses students on marketing, business, hospitality, and finance. Our school’s DECA chapter is the largest in the state and I’ve enjoyed it from the beginning. I attended a bunch of competitions and qualified for the international competition this year as a freshmen. We traveled to Orlando where the competition was and there were about 16,000 high school students that attended the competition, and DECA has about 200,000+ high school students internationally. I didn’t place in the competition but regardless, it was a great experience. We got a lot of time to do what we wanted, went to 4 of the Disney theme parks, go to network and talk with high schoolers all around the world.

The other is FBLA and is national organization in the US that is also very similar to DECA but focuses on a broader area instead of just business/marketing/hospitality/finance. I qualified for the national competition in 5 events but we didn’t end up going. Our school has a small FBLA chapter of only 11 people (all girls except me) versus the 200 people we have in DECA. Only 5 our people wanted to go to nationals. Then one person dropped out, making her partner ineligible as well. Then there would be only 3 people. I could have gone to nationals but I would have a hotel room to myself in Chicago, and $250/night for hotel for 6 days would not be feasible + air travel, food, competition registration.

I also ran for the officer position for DECA as a freshmen and I’m on the officer team for next year with 5 other seniors. Then once the seniors graduate, I’m fairly confident I can become the club’s president for the 2016-2017 school year and 2017-2018 as I’ll be the only one with experience. I also have plans to run for a state officer position as well as executive officer position on the national level next year.

After my 8th grade year, I took a little trip to Stanford University that was ran by People to People. I stayed at Stanford for 10 days for a technology based leadership summit. I got to meet a variety of representatives from companies like Adobe, Zynga, Facebook, went to their headquarters and what not. We lived on campus and basically did whatever we wanted in our free time. I met a lot of friends and some extremely interesting people. This was probably one of the most life-changing experiences in my life and single-handedly changed the way I looked at life. It challenged me to be more productive, work harder and to aspire for something bigger and better. I loved the experience and would gladly do it again.

A few months ago, I saw a gig on Fiverr that was being offered by a sophomore from Stanford and offered to teach how he got into Stanford. I basically told him everything that I wrote above condensed down into a 3 paragraph message. He told me that I was killing it with my GPA and extracurriculars but also gave me some advice as well. He said that I had an advantage because of my race (Asian) and that being a minority would increase my chances of getting in. He also recommended that I do more sports as I currently don’t do any.

Sorry for the wall of text. This was the most comprehensive thing I’ve written regarding my academic experience and I would love some feedback or comments from some of you guys. I really appreciate it and I plan to take your advice all the way through high school and college. Please feel free to ask me any questions if you would like more information.

I apologize for any grammatical errors. I just typed what came to my mind without filtering out anything.

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You won’t get an accurate prediction for any school right now. Your grades, GPA, and rank can fluctuate immensely in the next 2-3 years, and you don’t have any SAT/ACT scores to review.

Being the president of 50 different clubs will work against you when applying - the admissions officials will see that you’re just padding your application as much as possible, and you’ll look shallow. Focus on a few clubs that you’re passionate about.

Doing internships, volunteer work, and competitions/tournaments won’t hurt your chances.

Being an Asian is practically a disadvantage when applying to competitive schools, they’re not considered an “underrepresented minority”.

To get into Stanford, and any of the other uber-competitive schools, you’ll have to stand out from the others who may have the same/better credentials as you.

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teddiecruz, thanks for your reply. I’m aware that my GPA can fluctuate drastically but I’m aiming to keep them to a 4.0. I did take the SAT in 7th grade as part of the Duke TIP program, I didn’t get a very hot score (1600) but I wouldn’t consider myself an outstanding student back then either.

I don’t plan to be president of 50 different clubs, or even 5 clubs. I’ve weeded out a lot of clubs and focused on two main CTSO organizations - DECA/FBLA. I enjoy both of the clubs and just plan to have an officer position at the chapter/state/international level. So really, it’s just two clubs that I’m really passionate about right now.

I’m too young currently to do any serious internships. I do freelance web design and make some nice money off of it and may be able to find an unpaid internship in that industry around here even at my current age. As for volunteer work, I did 100+ hours in 8th grade with a variety of activities. I did about 70-80 hours freshmen year. I spent a few days over the summer doing wildlife restoration at Half Moon Bay in California, I volunteer within my local community with time permitting, and I also volunteer at a zoo/farm type environment weekly.

Thanks again for your comment, I really appreciate your feedback.

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My eyes are bad and for a moment I thought I was reading “real shooting at Stanford”. Glad to know it’s a chance thread.

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come back in three years

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I wasn’t necessarily asking for a chance me type comment, albeit there might have been a better place to put this post. I was just looking for general comments and advice that could assist me throughout the next 3 years.

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Major? Sorry I kind of dissed your wall of text so I don’t know. If its anything STEM then go with technical schools. They’re cheap and effective.

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I haven’t decided on a major yet, but I’m looking at something computer related and business. By computer related, I’m not talking about engineering, computer science, programming or anything, but stuff I can do on the computer such as graphic design, video editing, web design, internet marketing, etc.

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No point in a chance thread for a freshman (not “HS Freshmen” in the title of the thread). Keep up the good work and you’ll be fine.

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DECA fam!!! I was a place away from going to nationals…anyway first off, my marketing teacher would love you as she is in charge of people to people and DECA. But just keep doing what you’re doing. My friend got accepted to Stanford and you sound like him. Maybe try running for student government or something like that to really boost yourself

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Yes, DECA!

Can you tell me more about your friend? The kinds of activities he does, any awards, programs he’s been on, etc.

I met this guy at DECA state and he sat next to me while we were in the holding room preparing for our role plays. He struck up a conversation with me but it was pretty awkward as we didn’t know each other. I saw him again in Orlando and he won top 10 for some vague written event.

A few weeks later, my friend told me that she knew him and that he was accepted into Stanford. I wish I’d known that before as I would’ve asked him a boatload of questions about how he got in.

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I am not sure why the individual you consulted on the internet told you that being an Asian would be advantageous to your application. That is NOT true, in fact the opposite is true. Large numbers of Asians apply to elite universities and those applicants are often held to a very high standard with regards to grades and test scores, higher than other races.

To increase your chance of being accepted into Stanford, you really need to distinguish yourself as a creative person with high leadership potential. Universities like Stanford want to accept students who will graduate and become the next Sergey Brin, Anthony Kennedy, etc… A good way to do this is to avoid cookie-cutter extracurricular activities like DECA and do something truly remarkable, like leading a youth economics summit or something that sounds prestigious or unique.

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Thanks for your reply, there was a lot of information that could be potentially useful.

I understand that DECA may be a “cookie-cutter” type activity, but is it really necessary to avoid. Having written on an application that I won top 10 internationally would look pretty good in my opinion, or had a leadership position in DECA.

How would I go about leading something like a youth summit? I’ve heard of the failed simulation effect this sounds like something I could do as I wouldn’t know how you would just go lead a youth summit.