<p>...but I was wondering if I stood a fighting chance at getting into Stanford. If that's an unattainable dream, which other schools should I consider? </p>
<p>Currently a junior at a large, public senior high school in Texas
Rank: 38 out of 1390
Top 3% of class
Weighted GPA: 4.19 (from what I last remember; we are not told our unweighted GPA)
IB student with rigorous courseload
SAT score: 1980 (plan on retaking)
CR: 670
Math: 600
Writing: 710
AP exams: World History (4); I plan on taking more exams this May and in senior year</p>
<p>ECs:
Member of NHS since sophomore year
A laureate of Le Grand Concours (a national French exam; scored in the top 5% of the nation)
French Club historian
Member of the school band (I play the oboe and do percussion work during marching season)
Second place level 3 prose at the Texas French Symposium (statewide French competition)
Second place overall level 3 at Fete Francais (a local French competition; there, I won numerous prizes in several categories such as read prose and sight reading)
Will have completed over 150 community, service, and action hours by the end of senior year</p>
<p>I may not be the strongest looking applicant, but who knows?
Many thanks!</p>
<p>A bump wouldn’t hurt, would it?</p>
<p>Yeah, for Stanford you’re going to need around 2200+ SAT.</p>
<p>1390 people in your grade? Wow…</p>
<p>you really aren’t…but acceptance is a good first step</p>
<p>…CAS is creative, active, service hours, not community, action, service. And this is an IB diploma requirement, it’s not an EC all it’s own I think.</p>
<p>And yeah, you are very plain and vanilla, unless you have god like essays, I am sorry. But there are plenty of other great schools, which would take you.</p>
<p>Plano East, eh? Haha.</p>
<p>Ah, Poseidenj, you are right about CAS. I should’ve caught that, haha. I didn’t know if CAS hours counted as an EC or not.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I do look quite bland on paper. Which other schools should I consider though? I figure that now is a good time to think about where I want to apply to.</p>
<p>Depends, what do you want to look for in a college? We could just take your stats, and plug them into school averages.</p>
<p>Go to whatever school you like the most, or whatever school offers you the most money.</p>
<p>You’re far from a bad candidate for 96% of the colleges in the U.S., but Stanford would be a big reach.</p>
<p>I agree. While your stats are good, people from my school get rejected from Stanford with 2300+ SAT scores and nearly perfect GPA (from a tough school too!).</p>
<p>stanford is for people that win national science fairs and go to the olympics. You are above average canidate for most colleges, but for stanford they would probably laugh at your application t be quite honests.</p>
<p>I don’t know–if you can afford the $75, apply to Stanford. It’s a reach, but, well, it’s Stanford. You are a very good student, actually–maybe not Ivy, but if you can get your SAT scores up/do good on the ACT maybe you are. Also, I’d take at least the French SAT II–it might make up for lower scores in other areas, and it looks like you’d do very well on it. </p>
<p>However, outside the Ivy League there are hundreds of good schools who would love you. May I recommend Colorado College? It gave me a pretty good scholarship. It has a wonky schedule (one class at a time, hours a day, for 3 and a half weeks, then a few days off before the next class) which may or may not appeal to you, but you could probably get in. Nothing’s a shoe-in, but…
Oh, I’m IB too, and CAS isn’t an EC, but what you do to fill CAS is. Good luck!</p>