Please Chance me for Stanford!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

Hi,

I am a junior from a competitive public school in the Bay Area and I am planning on applying to Stanford next year (dream).
I was hoping you guys could chance me with my current profile:

SAT (breakdown):
1580 (M790, R+W790, E23)

Old SAT (breakdown):
2370 (M800, R800, W770, E10)

SAT II:
800 Math II
800 Bio

Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0, Weighted: 4.45

Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): School doesn’t rank, but they tell colleges top 10%

AP (place score in parenthesis):
Calculus BC (5), Biology (5), Human Geography (4)

Junior Coursework Load: AP Stats, AP Chem, AP Language & Composition, AP U.S. History

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
Siemens semifinalist
National Merit Semifinalist (projected w/ 1500 score on PSAT)
National AP Scholar (projected as I should have 8 AP exams done this year)
California State Science Fair – 1st place in category in 2015, 2nd place in category in 2016

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Neuroscience Club (9, 10, 11) – 11th Secretary
Sports Analytics Club (11) – 11th Co-founder/prez
Research (9, 10, 11)
9th – Independent research project

  • 1st place in category at regional and state science fairs
  • Paper accepted for publication in high school journal
    Summer before 10th — UCSD Research scholars program
    10th – Independent research
  • 1st place in category at regional fair, 2nd place in category at state fair
  • 2nd place BrainResearch award at State science fair
  • Siemens Semifinalist
  • Research presented at 2 prestigious conferences
    Summer before 11th – Interned at a local neuro research center
    11th – Internship at a Stanford lab in the Department of Chemistry
    Piano (9th, 10th, 11th) – CM until Level 7

Job/Work Experience:
NA

Volunteer/Community service:
Neighborhood safety leader (11th grade)

  • Launched+led an effort with local conciler to start neighborhood safety watch programs in my city due to rising robbery rate
  • Currently maintaining these programs & working with the city to devise new safety strategies
    Hospital volunteering (9, 10, 11), ~200 hours total

Summer Activities:
Research as detailed above

State (if domestic applicant): CA
School Type: Public
Race: Asian
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: Very high
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Nope

Reccomendations: Will probably get my teacher recommendations from current Chem + Lit teacher, Supplemental rec from the PI of the lab I work in

What (hopefully) makes me different: Strong focus on research, Also very specific focus on neuroscience (my research has all been in neuroscience, I am an officer in neuroscience club, I am currently starting a foundation to fundraise for Parkinson’s disease)

Strength: Stellar grades and test scores, with a very rigorous coursework. Strong research involvement and awards.
Weakness: Not many extracurriculars / leadership / community involvement compared to other applicants.

Essays: Hopefully good!

2

I mean you’ve got what you need but keep in mind HYPSM schools are a crapshoot no matter who you are… but you’ve got a better shot than most except that you’re asian which sucks.

3

Hey man, thanks for your reply. I was wondering if you had any more specific ideas of what Stanford is looking for. I just saw your thread and you’re also interested in Stanford which is cool :slight_smile:

4

You need to be the sort who, on his own, can scour the info S puts out and learn what they look for. That’s the sort of mindset. Then you can fine tune. Also look at how other tippy tops explain what they value, for the info.

Take out the stem and what do you have? The neighborhood watch and your own piano lessons. Is there anything you omitted here?

And don’t start a Parkinson thing, they already exist, in droves. It seems you want to count vol hours, maybe count dollars, but that’s not what makes “it” factor.

5

@lookingforward What do you mean by “taking out the STEM”? I don’t see the harm in having a strong focus on research. Isn’t having a clear dedication to one activity (ostensibly related to his major) preferable to having more non-STEM extracurriculars that are unrelated to what he wants to pursue?

@paul49ers I do think that your focus on neuroscience research will help, especially if you can communicate why that specifically has intrigued you through our high school career. Your scores & GPA are obviously good enough.

Best of luck! :slight_smile: Chance me back? http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1966406-chance-me-upenn-ed-yale-brown-princeton-etc-will-chance-back-p1.html

6

@writergirl0316 But other than the research, what does OP show? It’s not as much about “passion” as CC claims. The tippy tops rarely value unilateral over nicely rounded. Remember, they get tens of thousands of top applicants, many with breadth, as well as depth, and want to build a community. The non-stem choices can show very much about how a kid engages, other than his one primary interest and one thing in the community. It’s not loosey-goosey “padding,” but having various interests and pursuing them, too. (You can follow what MIT has to say about all this.)

It’s not about communicating “why that specifically has intrigued” OP. It’s about showing them why they want you, based on what they want, in the first place. We’re talking Stanford. Various energies matter.

7

That’s an interesting perspective. Do you believe it goes both ways – for humanities kids with STEM as well? In my experience, I focus like 90% of my energy on writing, with leadership in art and debate as well. I have taken math APs, but I don’t have STEM extracurriculars because it’s not my thing. Is it more about community engagement or diversity, in your opinion?

8

^ @lookingforward

9

@writergirl0316 I think a big thing these top schools are looking for is community engagement. Involvement in programs like scouting and others like it- they like to accept students with leadership experience.

10

You won’t be expected to have stem activities. OT for a moment, but your writing pursuits are good and you do have the campaign work. Now if you could take that and the debate and find an issue to get involved with, hands on, in the community, something that impacts need. Less white glove than the museum vol.

But that points to this, for OP, as well. He has science fair/independent research, a couple of internships, that watch program. The neuro at school is a club (for all we know, they sit around and talk.) No other math-sci activities, something collaborative and/or competitive within the hs? Some further comm service?

11

Oh, okay! I misunderstod what you were alleging in your original post. Thank you! @lookingforward

12

Hey @writergirl0316 @lookingforward

Thanks for your replies! I agree that I don’t have much other than my research activities – that is my main passion and interest. I am specifically interested in the “comm service / collaborative and/or competitive” part that lookingforward was talking about. What type of activity would this be? I don’t have much time, but I do have this summer to try to strenghten what I have.

By the way, I did recently take the Biology olympiad test and I am hoping to get Semifinalist status. How would this change my resume from what I have right now?

13

I am not quite sure what lookingforward is talking about. The top rated universities want a well rounded student body not a well rounded student. Stanford takes a lot of its students from California and a lot from the Bay Area. So that is good for you.