I’d love some advice, if anyone has some. My son is applying to Stanford, realizing it’s a huge reach for most people. We are thinking of applying REA with optional arts portfolio, hoping this option will increase his odds of at least getting a serious look at his application. The alternative is for him to apply during the regular cycle and retake his SAT. His score is good but on the low end of Stanford’s range (1470). He ran out of time on the math portion and could pull this up with a second try. He can’t do the October 7 test due to a prior commitment, and November 4 is too late for REA. His GPA is good (4.0, 4. 22 weighted) and he has strong extracurriculars. Any thoughts on which option would give him a better chance? Thanks very much!
Barring strong factors that you HAVEN’T listed (killer hooks, etc.), your son likely isn’t getting into Stanford. Even with a 1600 SAT it’s very hard to get into Stanford.
So, either there are other reasons why he has a shot at Stanford (with a 1470) that you haven’t mentioned, OR your son should focus on other schools, maybe try to get his SAT up, and perhaps use any ED shots at a different school.
You also haven’t detailed the prior commitment on Oct. 7, but if he’s aiming high on colleges, then it would have to be a pretty major commitment to take precedence over an SAT re-take, if you realistically think that would raise his score a lot.
That SAT is too low. What is the split math to RW? The 25th percentile is 1500 so you can’t go 1470 - which is great but this is Stanford.
What’s his rigor like to get a 4.22? Don’t know the weighting system but normally this wouldn’t demonstrate a lot of rigor.
If it’s important enough to him, I’d do what it takes to get the next SAT so you have two chances.
72% submit but that’s inclusive of athletes so I’d submit a score. But not that score. So I’d wait.
Good luck.
His split is 730 math / 740 RW, which is surprising because he’s more of a math kid. He just ran out of time on that part.
His weighted GPA is diluted by all his arts classes, which he loves, and which his school doesn’t offer as AP. He does have AP Lang/Comp, Hon. PTLW, AP Stats, and he is currently enrolled in AP Lit/Comp and AP Calc AB/BC. He wasn’t able to physically fit any other AP courses in his schedule, as his school is on a block schedule and structures most of them as double classes.
It sounds like he should wait and take the Nov. SAT, or perhaps we should look at the ACT. The October test is not an option, as we have a family funeral.
Sure the ACT. Just don’t get his hopes up. It is Stanford. But you can also try the ACT.
His math is well short of the 770 25th percentile.
He’s unlikely anyway. And if your school doesn’t show he’s taken the highest level of rigor well….
It’s great to dream and he should go all out.
But if he doesn’t get in - hopefully he lets it bounce off.
Has he visited ? What about it does he love ?
Yeah, we know it’s a long shot, but he wants to at least try. He’ll apply plenty of other places. His grandparents went to Stanford so he’s grown up with lots of stories.
That is understandable, but it’s important for him to figure out if Stanford is the right school for him. Plus, the acceptance rate at Stanford 50+ years ago was very different than it is today. In fact it was not the national and global name it is today. So is it right for him?
The risks are not so much not getting into Stanford (Stanford seems like a super-reach for him), but rather, that by
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Procrastinating (maybe) on significantly improving (maybe) his SAT/ACT, he hurts his application profile
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By “holding onto the dream”, re Stanford, he hurts himself vis-a-vis more realistic schools, by not putting as much effort into them, not EDing somewhere he actually has a fair chance of getting in to, etc.
Funny - neither of my kids applied to my alma mater - and they’ve had years of stories. 
Good luck to him. Please ensure his list is balanced. His profile doesn’t necessarily scream top school although it’s hard to tell with limited info.
Best of luck. I hope he finds a home he loves.
Stanford is notorious for rejecting rather than deferring REA candidates, where a student might get a second bite, especially if something changes after the initial app. For the best chance, your S needs to put his best foot forward, so that means getting his SAT over 1500 or ACT over a 33/34. Not applying REA to Stanford also let’s him apply EA to multiple privates unless they are also REA.
Stanford doesn’t give any advantage to REA so not sure it’s worth it to apply there early anyway. If he has other privates he wants to apply to EA I would just apply to Stanford RD. If he is absolutely set on applying to Stanford REA I would definitely apply test optional. If he ends up getting a better score and is deferred you can always send an update with the better score. a 1470 adds nothing to a Stanford application and would likely only hurt him. Also be aware that Stanford rejects most of their REA rather than deferring like a lot of schools, so be prepared. People at my school actually tend to fare much better in the RD round than the REA round at Stanford for some reason.
I’ll just throw in some data points. I know several student musicians in recent National Youth Orchestra (NYO/NYO2). Here’s something I heard from them. Within their group of friends (about 30-40 in classes of 2022 and 2023), several were accepted to Yale, Stanford, Princeton, T10 schools, and the vast majority were rejected. These kids (rejected) all have 1500+ SAT, many 1550+ even 1600, top rank GPA, top of their instrument (all-state first chair, state competition top winner, etc.) in their own state, the typical “try-hards”. The several who were accepted had even higher academic achievements at national level, and they had another EC with state-level achievements/recognitions. As a reference, Eileen Gu reportedly scored 1580 on SAT.
The kids who get into Stanford don’t run out of time on that part.
The good news is, he will get into an excellent university. It just won’t be Stanford.
In all fairness, sometimes the first time around kids can struggle with the timing - especially when taking the test on paper (if they’ve been practicing online). The bigger issue is that the student hasn’t prioritized re-taking the test. There was a sitting just this past August and another one upcoming. Regardless, even if his test score was in the 1500s he’d still be a long shot for Stanford, absent some hook.
I agree with most others: he is not a realistic candidate for Stanford with that score, REA doesn’t offer much if any advantage there, and most importantly he will lower his chances at other schools if he focuses on Stanford and doesn’t focus on retaking the SAT.
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