My Dad went to Stanford but I'm not a legacy. SCEA chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>What would my chances be of getting admitted into Stanford through SCEA? (Sorry about the double thread.)
Thanks</p>

<p>BACKGROUND + ACADEMIC</p>

<p>First-generation college student
Caucasian and in Los Angeles CA
French, Corsican, Persian ethnicities; fluent in French</p>

<p>Family income = $20,000/year. Single parent household (Mom is a widow)</p>

<p>GPA: 4.06 Weighted, 3.6 Unweighted; Top 10% of high school class
SAT: 2230 (750 M, 730 CR, 750 W)
SAT Subject Tests: 800 French, 750 Math 1, 730 US History. Expecting 800 Math2 in November.</p>

<p>Urban High School, 9% white. Very few Ivy applicants.
Most rigorous course load</p>

<p>GPA year-by-year:
9th - 3.8
10th - 3.0 (had no regular home)
11th - 4.6
12th - 5.0</p>

<p>Total AP courses to be completed by graduation: 9</p>

<p>AP Psychology: 5
AP French: 5
AP US History: 4
AP European History: 3 (Sophomore year)</p>

<p>Senior year schedule:
AP Physics
AP Calculus BC
AP Macroeconomics
AP Govt/Politics
AP English Literature.</p>

<p>Really outstanding counselor and teacher recommendations + amazing essays.</p>

<p>EXTRA CURRICULAR</p>

<p>Track (4 years) 1600m, 800m, long jump; "Most Improved", Varsity</p>

<p>Cross Country (3 years) "MVP", Varsity</p>

<p>French club (3 years) (President, Treasurer) Organized events; in charge of coordinating dates, finances, trips...</p>

<p>Service Club (2 years) "Respect Campaign Organizer", raised awareness for drunk driving, raised funds for leukemia, held raffles, assemblies, invited guest speakers. We raised over $15,000 for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.</p>

<p>Church youth leader (5 years) Organized camping events, movie nights, service opportunities...</p>

<p>Debate Team (2 years) Oratory speeches; head defense attorney for Mock Trial. </p>

<p>FBLA club (1 years) 3rd Place in State competitions</p>

<p>Internship at Zion's Bank (2 weeks) Shadowed one of the top credit administrators in the bank. I might not include this.</p>

<p>Jr Scholar's Academy (3 months) Was selected among 50 students in our school district for two courses from the Gilder Lehrman Institute: "A Historical Perspective on Lincoln" and "Founding Fathers, The Revolutionary Generation".</p>

<p>AWARDS / HONORS</p>

<p>Questbridge "CollegePrep Award" Recipient
Questbridge Finalist (anticipating this fall)
Cross Country: "MVP"
Track: "Most Improved"
3rd place in FBLA State competitions. Team event: "Business Decision Making"
High School Academic Letter I; and consistent Honor Roll.
AP Scholar with Honor
Nominated by high school teacher for "Keys to Success"</p>

<p>WORK</p>

<p>Educated an autistic boy for a family (1 year) I educated a 9 year old autistic child, Spencer during all of 10th grade on my own time twice a week. I taught him how to speak correctly, write, think and express himself. I write my essay about this.</p>

<p>Neighborhood project I started: Digitized thousands slides during summer of 2009: scanned over 1000 old picture slides for people in the community.</p>

<p>Designed, created, and maintain the e-commerce website located at earthcrossroads.com for someone else's company. (ongoing)</p>

<p>Drew vector computer graphics for a small Los Angeles real-estate company. (2 months)</p>

<p>MISC</p>

<p>I understand that stories don't get people into top Universities, and that stats do. I'm still going to explain the following to put things into context.</p>

<p>My father attended Stanford but took his life as a Senior, so I'm not a legacy. He was married to my mom, and a week later she found out that she was pregnant with me. She quickly enrolled in college but her father abandoned her financially. She was stuck in the US with no citizenship/job for years.</p>

<p>I write about my experiences tutoring an autistic child during Sophomore year. I also juxtapose this with how my father helped an autistic child when he was a teenager, but how I didn't know about this until afterwards. I compare the autistic child's obsession with a train set to my obsessions of helping him and set the entire essay during a period of my life when I had nowhere to sleep.</p>

<p>As you can see from my GPA trend, all of my bad grades were from Sophomore year, we didn't have a place to live and were living in family friends' houses, motels, and our car.</p>

<p>My entire Junior year is filled with straight As in 8 courses including 3 AP courses. We had moved to suburban Utah for this year.
My Senior year I am back in Los Angeles. I'm taking all APs and have straight As, like Junior year.</p>

<p>Also are my chances any better by applying SCEA? I'm debating Stanford SCEA vs Penn ED. If I go with ED Penn, I wouldn't want to miss out on a possible chance at Stanford if Penn takes me. But if I go SCEA, I wouldn't want to get rejected and miss out on Penn's easier chances through ED. Catch my drift? haha</p>

2

<p>I don’t understand your “Dad went to stanford but not legacy and first-gen” point.</p>

3

<p>Well I’m first generation because none of my parents graduated from college. I mentioned above that my dad died as a senior at Stanford… It’s in the Misc section but whatever that’s not the point of this thread lol…</p>

4

<p>I dont understand, why would a stanford senior kill himself?</p>

5

<p>^^^ Pardon me, but that is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen written on College Confidential. Or, maybe, anywhere.</p>

<p>OP: You have a very good shot. You have good grades and stats and a very compelling story. That said, my advice is always, Don’t have one first choice. Stanford would be great, but so would many others. Keep your options open.</p>

6

<p>That’s rude and inappropriate.</p>

7

<p>Thank you, moa. Much better stated than I did.</p>

8

<p>
[QUOTE=Bell Curves]

I dont understand, why would a stanford senior kill himself?

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<p>Are you ****ing kidding me? I only wrote about what happened to my dad because it will be a significant part of my essay and puts Stanford in context. I have a very compelling essay planned out and I have written parts of it, and I know that essays are a big part of admissions and affect chances. But why the hell would you ask a question like that?</p>

<p>Thanks to everyone else for the replies.</p>

<p>Also, my GPA is now 3.7, and my ranking is expected to be closer to top 5%. Just had a meeting with my counselor today.</p>

9

<p>“I understand that stories don’t get people into top niversities, and that stats do.”</p>

<p>In your case, the opposite will most likely prove true.</p>

10

<p>Agree with silverturtle. You have a VERY compelling story. The only thing though, is your GPA - 3.6 is super low for Stanford. But given your circumstances, I’d say you have a better chance than most.</p>

11

<p>thanks</p>

<p>btw I mentioned that my GPA is 3.7 now, just sayin’</p>