<p>I am from Oregon
4.0 GPA
ranked 1/380
Valedictorian
(school is ranked in top 1000 by U.S. Newsweek)
31-35 projected ACT</p>
<p>8 Aps..pass all of them with 4 or more except U.S. history with a 3</p>
<p>zero ECs except NHS</p>
<p>150 Community service hours
Apprenticeship in engineering over the summer
hardest workload and graduating with traditional scholars</p>
<p>any chance of getting accepted to Stanford?.. btw i am a junior right now.. if you think my admission chances are low tell me what ECs i should join if it's not too late.</p>
<p>there isn't like a magic EC that if you join you will get in. Find 2 or 3 things you are INCREDIBLY passionate about and put in as much time as homework and then work on your essays. PRetty much what nngmm said.</p>
<p>You don't really have to be "incredibly" passionate about your ECs if you're already passionate about something else. Colleges just want to see that you don't spend 100% of your time huddled over textbooks...as long as you can prove that, no worries. I got accepted SCEA with a whopping two ECs--basketball and some tutoring. Show in your essays (not just with the topic, but also the tone, approach, style, etc) that you didn't waste four years of high school doing nothing but studying. Write one about how crazy you and your friends get on the weekends, and how there are some memories that every time you think of (or songs that every time you hear, etc) you get transported right back to that place and experience everything all over again. Stuff like that. </p>
<p>Sorry for going on about essays, but they really can be used as a substitute for ECs. Anyway, your stats are strong. That's all I or anyone else here can say. Best of luck, and remember that it really doesn't matter anyway--you'll be dead by 2100 whether you get into Stanford or end up a general manager at McDonalds. Just have some fun.</p>
<p>Oh, come on, skatearabia! Don't be misleading...You had a VERY impressive profile and a ton of personality - even just judging by your posts on this forum. And living abroad probably didn't hurt either.</p>
<p>I didn't mean to mislead...sorry if that was the case. :) I can't really separate myself from my own situation, and I don't know how weighty living abroad is, so I guess I'm not the best judge of stateside students.</p>
<p>Anyway, Sheed30 seems to have quite an impressive profile academic-wise (4.0, 8 APs, high ACT, etc etc)...I was just trying to say that he doesn't need to have won Siemens or chaired the Young Physicians club or qualified for USAMO to get accepted into Stanford. You're absolutely right, nngmm, a person has to be great at something to even have a chance at getting accepted...but that something doesn't have to be a formal EC. Maybe it's cooking or talking or changing lightbulbs--as long as he or she is passionate about it and can make it interesting in the essays, I think it's enough to balance out an application. Just my opinion though, as everything in these chances threads are.</p>
<p>I don't think nngmm/rbanerjee were saying that one has to do amazing things to get accepted to Stanford, just that they need to show that they're passionate about something.</p>
<p>I am not very impressed by the fact that your school is ranked by newsweek.
newsweek's rankings are very dubious because they base it only on how many APs the students take.
Therefore, I don't think that any school, MIT especially, really cares if your school is ranked by newsweek.
about your chances, I stand by what I said, you don't have to cure cancer but you should put in like 250+ service hours into cancer awareness, seminars etc. you know what I mean.
Your test scores are good so you should be ok there. good luck</p>
<p>yeah, the whole EC thing is bad, and not because you arent a part of any, but the fact that it seems that you have little to no leadership experience, and that is one of the biggest factors at schools like stanford. my friend got rejected from there with a 3.9, 34 ACT, 1570 SAT, and 4 years varsity swimming. another of my friends got accepted with a 3.5, lower SATs, awards in community service and photography, and president of the Gay&Lesbian Alliance, and an internship at a hospital (he wants to go into medicine)</p>
<p>I don't think leadership is as important as showing passion for something. One way to show that is leadership, but that's far from the only way. </p>
<p>The engineering apprenticeship sounds interesting. What do you plan to do with that this summer?</p>
<p>I got in with zero ECs basically. I did debate and MUN but was never really that good, played piano but never entered any competitions, etc., and did some research. That was it really.</p>
<p>One of my essays was actually on talking, oddly enough, as skatearabia mentioned in his "things to be good at list" earlier. You just have to show the admit amin that along with being an awesome student, you're also a vibrant, interesting person. ECs are important, but you can craft great essays even with what you have. Although I would recommend you get some more ECs that you're really passionate about, if you don't have the chance anymore, utilize the fact that you get to write four open-ended essays. Use those to show who you are and how you are. I can't emphasize enough how important essays are! Since Stanford doesn't take interviews, the essays are how they try to reach the voice the applicant.</p>