<p>... well, is it? I was looking at the acceptees to Stanford and there was practically no difference GPA-wise and SAT-scores-wise between the people who were rejected, deferred, and accepted. As a matter of fact, some people who were rejected had higher SAT scores than some people that were accepted.
And pretty much everybody who applied had amazing EC's.</p>
<p>This leads me to suspect that stanford places a very strong emphasis on one of two things (or maybe it's both):
(1) essays/personal statement
(2) teacher/counselor recommendations.</p>
<p>could there be anything else? could somebody verify this? thank you.</p>
<p>I don't know about 1 but I am pretty sure that Stanford does place pretty strong emphasis. I strongly suspect that one of the main reasons I got in was because of my recommendations. As for GPA's how much better can you get? I had a 4.0 uw and I think that many many other applicants did too. After a certain grad in the SAT th SAT becomes a rather weak indicator. IMHO</p>
<p>After academic qualifications, Stanford looks to things like Personal Strengths and Qualities, Student Self-Presentation, and Intellectual Vitality. A lot of that comes from the essays. But they aren't everything.</p>
<p>It seems to be the final deciding factor ... like as in chosing between two very high SAT/GPA scorers...
There were people with about a 2200 SAT that got in, and people with a 2400 that still got rejected.
I guess it's also the "fit" thing, too?</p>
<p>Oh yeah, and ... Is there anything that would make you stand out at Stanford? Does it like people that are good at art? Or music? ... is it slightly less competitive in art / music than the ivys are?
I know it's a sporty school... right?</p>
<p>It has great sports teams so I thik it would actually be harder for you to stand out unless you really are great.</p>
<p>so if your strong point is music it'd be easier to stand out at stanford rather than.. say... harvard because everybody that applies to harvard is a musical genius :-P ?
But if you apply to stanford you'd have to be a semi professional athelete in order to stand out?</p>
<p>Yeah (about the music thing).</p>
<p>Essentially everyone at Harvard is a musical genius (they do offer that five-year NEC deal, after all) and that's not the case at Stanford. While Stanford's music programs are good, they are also not consistently excellent (although some are, for sure). </p>
<p>If you are a superstar musician, it will help your app at Stanford more than it will at HY. </p>
<p>Athletics is irrelevant because at either H or S you would have to be recruited for it to make a difference on your application.</p>
<p>hahaa, thank you so much.</p>
<p>
There were people with about a 2200 SAT that got in, and people with a 2400 that still got rejected.
</p>
<p>When I went to Discover Stanford, an admissions officer said that typically about 60% of the perfect-SAT applicants are rejected. He said something like "We realize that your SAT score represents a few hours out of your entire academic career, and we treat it as such." I got in as a junior transfer from De Anza with an SAT score of 1970 (verbal: 600; writing: 650; math: 720). As their website emphasizes, they try to get to know you through your application however possible and decide whether your personality is right for Stanford. It happens that usually the best applicants have very high SAT scores.</p>