Colleges like Stanford are fairly good at parsing true passion from parents’ money. You also never know what else is in someone’s application. Example: a kid in D2’s class is 1/4 Pacific Islander. We know because we are close friends with their family, but very few of his classmates would know this info. So they aren’t aware that he has URM status. Someone might think the charity did the trick in admissions, but you don’t really know.
Colleges like Stanford are fairly good at parsing true passion from parents’ money. You also never know what else is in someone’s application. Example: a kid in D2’s class is 1/4 Pacific Islander. We know because we are close friends with their family, but very few of his classmates would know this info. So they aren’t aware that he has URM status. Someone might think the charity did the trick in admissions, but you don’t really know.
Is moving out of your house on your own in 7th grade to pursue a passion considered a hook? While keeping up on academics of course.
Only if you do it well enough to compete for the college, or at a national or international level.
I went from ranked in the 600s in the nation to 20th in the nation over the two years (Is 20th good enough to be considered competitive on a national level? I know it’s not like I ever medaled since 20th clearly isn’t 1st 2nd or 3rd, but I’m proud of it at least). And I chose the common app prompt that said to talk about a time when you became an “adult” in your community, so I chose to talk about moving out and living on own in middle school without any adult figures, etc (It’s not like I went to a boarding school with supervision, I moved into a trailer by myself) so I am hoping that my essay will work well with my primary EC.
If it doesn’t get your parents arrested…
Good for them. That isn’t going to impress Stanford admissions, though.
“Good for them. That isn’t going to impress Stanford admissions, though.”
I checked with my son, apparently last year four girls were admitted to Stanford from schools in our area. Their SAT score range was 2100-2200 and IB score average 39-41. While top boy with SAT 2390 and IB score of 44 was flat out rejected in REA.
Only difference all the girls had started their charity. That is official guess, otherwise people are talking of casting couch theory, all these girls are mildly attractive. Or other theory Stanford want to dumb down their campus, too many nerds in that place. No one knows how these admission officers make decision but some of the decisions do look scary to kids.
Um, “casting couch theory”?
I doubt very much your son has any idea what the differences between candidates are.
This is from today’s Stanford Daily.
This is an example of a charity that gets noticed at Stanford. My dd has met others who’ve done similar types of things at Stanford. I really don’t think it’s just a matter of someone’s dad financed a project and the kid claims it as a major charity project. That alone won’t get you in. Of course if the family has buckets of money, they might be a development case and that’s a whole different set of parameters for admission!
Again, nobody knows what anybody else’s complete application looks like. You just don’t know everything so it’s impossible to say why one person gets accepted and another doesn’t. It’s not just scores and GPA. Activities, essays, recommendations, and character all also come into play. And what you want to study plays a part as well. Stanford doesn’t want to become Cal Tech North, so, yes, there are lots of incredibly qualified techie/math/science kids that get rejected. There are more kids applying in those areas so it may well be harder to get admitted if that’s your area of strength. It is probably slightly (and I do mean slightly!) easier to get it if you are interested in studying something else.
There are just far more highly qualified applicants than there are spaces in all areas. You need all the pieces and you need a lot of luck. Just remember that if you have the qualifications to be even considered for Stanford, there will be lots of great choices for you, no matter what the admissions committee decides.
This is the kind of thing that highly qualified applicants do. They get in because of who they are not because they started a charity.
I think many of you are focusing on the wrong things. Stanford places MASSIVE importance on the essays. Maybe that one kid with the super high SAT score that got rejected wrote terrible essays and the girls didn’t. It’s just so frustrating to see people talking about what aspect of the on paper app got a person in when, in most cases it’s the essays and/or rec letters. I know many people who got into Stanford in the last few years, and almost all of them received a note from the admissions officer saying that adcom was super impressed with the applicant’s writing ability. Yes, this is all anecdotal (much like most other examples here), but I still think it’s a valid point.