Hello! I am a soon to be senior and recently I’ve gotten more involved in trying to figure out where I want to go to college. I have researched a lot and Stanford is the university that has caught my eye. I am extremely interested in not only the physical location but also the holistic approach Stanford takes to try and create such a diverse community. I feel that the community that has been established is very appealing and would make for an amazing college experience.
However, upon watching many “how I got in” videos I quickly became extremely discouraged with my set of extracurriculars. I spend a lot of time with music (my main passion besides biology), but don’t hold many leadership roles. I was wondering if anyone would be able to give me advice (the good and the bad) on how my perspective application looks.
Stats:
SAT- 1530; 740 RW 790 Math
ACT- 34
GPA- 4.41 Weighted and 3.97 unweighted
SAT II- (I am taking them August but will provide preliminary practice test scores; I hope to raise them all by the time I take them)
Math II- 780, Bio 760, Chem 730
Rank- Top 1% 5/660
AP Classes- AP Human Geo (5), AP Physics 1 (3), AP World History (4), AP Pysch (5), AP Macro Econ (TBD), AP Span (TBD)
AP Tests w/o class- Stats (TBD), UPUSH (TBD), Eng Lang (TBD)
IB Classes- IB Spanish SL (TBD), IB ITGS SL (TBD)
Senior Course load- Orch, AP Chem, AP Physics 2, IB Bio HL, IB Eng IV HL, IB HOA HL, IB Math HL, IB ToK, AP Gov
Awards/Honors- Country Club Optimists District Essay Contest Winner, Texas Music Scholar Award (last 3 yrs), AP Scholar w/ honors, First Divisions at local and State Solo and Ensemble (last 3 yrs)
Extracurriculars/Volunteer:
Varsity Symphony Orchestra (I put most of my time and effort into this one. Along with practicing every day for the class, I also prepare for solo and ensemble, UIL competitions, the local All region orchestra, and string ensemble which is only before school and requires an audition. I am a first violin which is the upper violin section. However, I hold no formal leadership positions. 9th-12th grade)
Private Violin Lessons (Along with everything above, I have additional repertoire to practice for my weekly meeting with my violin teacher. I have been with her since 5th grade)
Secretary of NHS (10-12th grade; I meet the volunteer requirement with misc activities than the ones listed below such as playing Messiah at a church at Christmas time)
Spring and Summer musicals (I play the violin for the musicals and my school and district; I have held the loose position of “pit manager” where I helped set up and clean up stands and chairs. I was also in charge of poster design for this year’s spring musical before COVID. 9th-12th grade )
Musical Ensemble Club (I am co-principle (top players) violinist for this club; we rehearse once a week after school and do 2-4 concerts a year at 3-4 nursing homes; I designed and update the website; 10th-12th grade) i don’t know if it makes a difference but I did not use Weebly and instead created it from scratch using Dreamweaver
Marching Band (I play in my school marching band. I hold no leadership positions but it is very time-consuming requiring an immense amount of practice and rehearsal. There are many whole day competitions and we go to every football game)
Volunteer with Saint Vincent De Paul and a local food distribution organization (I put them together since they often overlap; I perform various secretarial duties such as minutes, writing letters, food drive prep, and participate in food drive when I can 10-12th. Roughly 90 hours, I am estimating since I haven’t kept track)
Volunteered at a hospital (I got 70 hours at a hospital; 10th grade)
Volunteer at local clinic (This is where I am volunteering this summer)
Future Doctors of America (11th-12th grade; no leadership positions 
but I am very interested in medicine)
Finally, I was planning on starting a club last year, but it fell through due to COVID. I hope to start it this upcoming year. It would be an organization where students interested in science can meet to discuss various controversial and groundbreaking science news. We would also perform various experiments to allow students to see multiple fields of science in a hands-on way. This would eventually lead to visits to local elementary and middle schools where we would give demonstrations to get students excited about science.
Summer:
I mostly do the volunteering mentioned above as well as work at my father’s office. I do test prep (lol). As for hobbies, I try to look at a new instrument every summer to see what is out there as well as spend a lot of time gardening and reading science literature for fun, not for a class(chemistry books, anatomy and physiology, etc.) I have been working on my extended Essay and IA’s for my HL classes
I don’t have any complete essays or letters of rec yet but have 3 people in mind (1 Stem, 1 Humanities, and 1 art (my private teacher).
Thank you for any advice you can give! I understand that a large portion of admissions is just how your reader resonates with your essays and maybe even partially just luck. I know that even though Stanford is the dream, I shouldn’t be crushed by a rejection letter as there are many more opportunities available. Thank you again!
If you have any questions or want me to elaborate on anything feel free to ask.