Why hasn’t anyone started one yet? Any transfer applicants know when decisions are released?
Tomorrow May 8th :).
Huh, for some reason I thought decisions were coming in on the 15th but I just got my rejection email. I felt like I had a pretty good application except for my high school performance. I’m 2 years into college with a 3.9, 2150 on SATs (not amazing but not terrible), racial minority, woman in computer science, very good writer, plenty of interesting XCs, just no national awards or anything. But whatever, guess I’m getting a job next year! Life works out either way 
Well… I got in. Miraculous, honestly, I still wonder if they made a mistake.
Jealous! Can you tell us some details about your app?
MAJOR: Pure math
MAJOR GPA: 4.0
GPA: honestly not sure because I went to two CCs but in the 3.95+ range
CLASSES: All the standard UC transfer material plus some upper division major material
EC: Been working since 16, a little student government and volunteering - imo weak
PS: Hard to beat, I have a totally honest and intense hard luck / transformation / academic passion story about reconnecting with my father
ACCEPTED: UCLA, Cal, UCSD, UCD, Stanford
REJECTED: Harvard, Cornell, U Chicago, Yale
@UniversalSnip
OMG, congratulations! I see that you’re more active in Yale/Harvard/Cal threads, but Stanford is awesome! I prefer Stanford to any of the ivies, honestly. Could you post more details of the number admits this year, well once you know?
And if you don’t mind, would you mind posting your stats in the typical results format, the one with strength weaknesses, reflection/why you think you’re accepted, maybe your course load other than your major etc. I don’t know, those kind of things are what I find most helpful, really. Especially for transfer, where results are a bit tough to guess. And btw, are you a non-trad?
Again,congrats! I’m happy for you!
There wasn’t really an active Stanford thread. I should have just started one! I think if I got into all those schools (…) it’d be 50/50 on whether I’d pick harvard or stanford. I’ve only visited the west coast schools but those are definitely my top two. Curious myself as to how many people got in.
I didn’t really see a template that fit exactly what you mentioned, but I can address those things. Also, yes, I am non-traditional.
STRENGTHS: My letters of recommendation are extremely strong. I went out of my way to establish connections with my professors, and if I felt there was a sense of mutual respect, I asked for one. If you are an exceptional candidate, I think letters from old hands are generally more likely to be better or more positive than those of newbie teachers, but I actively avoided taking into account perceived writer prestige in deciding what letters to send where. I know a famous person; despite being urged to I didn’t even consider asking her for a letter, because it wouldn’t be relevant to me as a student.
As mentioned above my personal statement was pretty compelling.
I got very lucky that Stanford’s questions let me show off my idiosyncrasies and the fact that I’m just constantly intellectually hungry and learning about different things. I also showed that I’m a regular human being by using humor and poking fun at myself when appropriate.
My academics are strong. I have three upper division courses worth of material - not easy to set up for a community college student - and straight As. I’ve kept my class load heavy. My units haven’t reflected this in the last two semesters but my independent study has gone at a pretty brutal pace and I think my letters of rec helped get that fact across.
WEAKNESSES: My extracurriculars are TERRIBLE. The relevant ones are solid, but there just aren’t many of them, and I don’t have anything standout. It seems like some applicants have built space shuttles and started google by the time they apply. This must have been mitigated by the fact that I was working continuously from the time I got out of high school at 16 to the beginning of last semester. I applied for a scholarship recently (rejected), and for whatever reason they sent me my review notes. One of the judges politely scoffed at the fact I’d listed blood donation as an EC. That’s my fifth best one…
On my essays for other schools, I think I could have showed more that while I am, if we’re being honest, obsessed with math, I also have a lot of other interests. Looking them over, I’m not sure how much that came across.
COURSE LOAD: Well, I’m not sure what you mean by this. If you look at something called the IGETC it gives california CC students a complete roadmap to filling the general ed requirements for UCs. I filled that out while also piling on any additional challenging math material I could get access to (so I avoided relatively easy courses like discreet and finite), and in addition if a course seemed interesting I added it. So I have a lot of random stuff like formal logic in philosophy and courses in history of religion.
@UniversalSnip OMG CONGRATS!! It’s probably lucky you went to CC because Stanford focuses heavily on veterans and CC transfers.
As for me, they sent me the b*tchiest rejection letter – something like you’ve applied 3x already, don’t try again because we’ll throw your application out.
Headed to Dartmouth or possibly Yale.
@UniversalSnip exactly, I wondered why the Stanford thread is pretty quiet this year.
Anyway, what I meant was what kind of courses you took outside your major, such as humanities courses, foreign lang. or social sciences? Oh and did you take the SAT and SAT IIs recently or in HS? I’m also a non-trad, didn’t touch any of those in high school.
I’m also always curious on how the accepted applicants ‘tackled’ their essays, especially for the commonapp one (why transfer) and the roommate note. For the former, it’s tricky for both 4-year college students and CC students. Students from a 4-year probably should have extremely solid and unique reasons on why their current school doesn’t meet their academic needs, especially if it’s already a top school. How transferring to Stanford actually will?
And for CC students, I’m just wondering, since we’re bound to transfer to a 4-year to obtain a bachelor’s, and we’re not exactly ‘transferring’, more like continuing our studies, did you approach it as more of a why Stanford essay, rather than ‘my community college doesn’t have this…’ or ‘it lacks of this…’ etc.?
The roommate note also seems fun to write. I have ideas…but 250 word limit is a bit cruel, imo xD
Sorry if I ask a lot! All the best!
@universalsnip, this is amazing. As I tell my daughter they’re always looking for someone who’s going to create the new instagram. There must be something about you they see as veryyyyyyy promising! I’m stoked for you!!
@UniversalSnip Congrats!
Wow, reading what you shared with us, I was amazed that my application is 99% similar to yours. I go to a CC in California, take a variety of IGETC courses, from religion to calculus based physics. I also love learning about different things and I think this shows in my personal statement. My EC was also terrible, only one or two are solid. The only differences are I’m an international student and I was rejected =)
Anyway, as someone said before, they must have seen some very promising things in your application. Congrats again and good luck on your journey ahead!
@OverHYPed Wait, there’s a limit to the number of times you can apply? And they were beotchy enough to tell you not to apply again in their letter? Gosh, that’s just mean. I mean, they already rejected you 3x, the least they could do was be a bit nicer about it. What did the letter say, exactly? (You can PM me if you don’t want to share on this post)
@coolbeans123 Yeah I’ll PM it to you. Stanford admissions is b*itchy.
@OverHYPed
could you also please PM it to me?
@theanaconda PM sent.
@OverHYPed can you also pm me it haha. im curious though because a lot have said the rejection letter for first year students is horrible, but when I got mine…it didn’t seem THAT bad so idk I’ve always wondered why people found it so bad
PM Sent.
@OverHYPed sorry to bother you, but do you think you could send it to me as well? My friend is applying for the 3rd time next year. I’m curious to see what/why Stanford would say something that is so mean. Thanks a lot, and don’t worry about the rejection. If in 3 applications they could not see you for what you were, maybe you don’t really want to go to their school.
@UniversalSnip can you elaborate a bit more about your personal statement and essays? Also are you a rising sophomore, junior, or a returning student? I don’t mean to pry, I’m just trying to get a better idea of the profile of acceptees.