Please give me your honest opinion of my chances!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
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<p>Here is some information about me:</p>

<p>Graduation Year: 2010
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Asian (Indian)
State: Oregon</p>

<p>School: Small international school in Oregon
GPA: 4.0 (unweighted)
Class rank: 1 out of 20
SAT: 2400, 12 essay
ACT: 35 composite, 8 essay (I think most schools will disregard this in favor of the SAT score?)
SAT Subject Tests: Math 2 790 (I might retake), Chemistry 790
Courses: IB diploma candidate</p>

<ul>
<li>IB English HL</li>
<li>IB History HL</li>
<li>IB Biology HL</li>
<li>IB Math HL</li>
<li>IB Chemistry SL</li>
<li>IB Mandarin SL (I've heard that this makes my application unique... does it?)</li>
<li>(IB) Theory of Knowledge</li>
</ul>

<p>Recommendations: Good at least, probably pretty good.</p>

<p>Extracurricular activities:</p>

<p>My school was new when I started there, so I had the opportunity to start a lot of clubs/organizations.</p>

<ul>
<li>Model United Nations - 4 years - Founder, President/Ambassador all four years</li>
<li>Student Government - 3 years - Founder, Public Relations Officer</li>
<li>Boy Scouts - 7 years - Eagle Scout</li>
<li>Jazz Band - 3 years</li>
<li>School Newspaper - 2 years - Founder, Editor-in-Chief</li>
<li>Interact Club - 1 year - Founder, President</li>
</ul>

<p>Awards:</p>

<ul>
<li>National Honor Society</li>
<li>Eagle Scout</li>
<li>AMC 10/12 school winner - 3 years running</li>
<li>National Merit Semifinalist (PSAT 223)</li>
</ul>

<p>This summer, I am working at the Green Building Research Laboratory at Portland State University. You can learn a little more about it at greenbuilding.pdx.edu. I am doing some testing with phase-changing materials, as well as green roofs. This is the kind of stuff I am really passionate about, and I hope to help develop alternative energy sources in my career.</p>

<p>I also love playing the guitar. You could call it my passion. I haven't won any major awards or anything, but it's something that I spend a lot of time doing and will pursue throughout my life.</p>

<p>Please give me your honest opinion of my chances of admission at Stanford! Thank you!</p>

2

<p>holy ****t… perfect sat and near perfect act? 4.0… a ton of IB classes… nice extracurriculars… I would say you could get in, but you never know. they are really unpredictable and they always see people with academic stats like yours, so they look towards other stuff…</p>

3

<p>being Asian KILLS your chances, especially at Stanford. I had 2310 SAT, 35 ACT, 800 MathII, 790 Bio, 800 chem. took 20 AP classes, made 5’s on 17 of them, one 4, and two 1’s (both one’s were french). Crapload of mathlete awards, varsity track, varsity crosscountry, national merit (232), stuff in science fair, blah, blah, blah. I applied EA (which is suppose to improve your chances) and was straight up DENIED. Both of my friends, even better stats, one was denied like me, another pushed to regular and then denied.
But try it, you never know. But I think you stand a better chance at Harvard, Yale, Princeton.</p>

4

<p>let me flip this coin here…</p>

<p>eh, rejected. next please.
But in all seriousness, how the ***** should i know? These threads are ri-goddamn-diculous.</p>

<p>Obiwankenobi - being asian didn’t ruin your chances. having no life outside of academics and resume-padding activities did. Case in point: still visiting this forum after being denied EA.</p>

5

<p>ya thats a crazy app. where else are you applying? i would say you have a good shot, just make sure to find one EC you are really passionata bout and convey to Stanford that passion</p>

6

<p>But on a lighter note, I also have a passion for guitar, and i’m an eagle scout too. I got in. Make of it what you will.</p>

7

<p>“being Asian KILLS your chances”</p>

<p>Didn’t kill the chances of 21 percent of the students there. According to college board, that’s a higher percentage than Harvard and Yale. Interestingly, Stanford has the lowest percentage of race unreported.</p>

8

<p>Well, being Asian certainly doesn’t kill your chances. I do happen to think some things the S application indicates it values just do not make sense, though – most especially that while its philosophy of trying to find out lots and lots about applicants is good, there aren’t exactly adequate means to do so in any school application; for this reason, I really think part of the reason admissions decisions seem random is that while AOs aren’t being random in their selection of a winning application, they are in the end selecting their favorite essays, not directly their favorite applicants. </p>

<p>OP, as has been stated, these threads are all futile – suggestion is just to apply. You probably already know this, and may be understandably anxious. I do have a slight gut feel that HYP may be better for you, but I do not claim this to be a well-substantiated feeling. </p>

<p>Anyway, whatever ngolsh or anyone says, (and I understand it was probably just understandable frustration with the vastly overdone “Stanford hates Asians” thing), we can never know what the real problem was, and it’s usually not something easy to detect.</p>

9

<p>I think you have a decent chance of getting in. For the record, I am Asian and my uncle attends Stanford Law after he completed his undergraduate at Stanford. I have been on the campus and when we visited him, we saw no disturbing lack of Asian people. :') </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

10

<p>Hmm well a couple things on your app do raise concerns:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>You a founder of almost every EC you are in. Dont get me wrong founding a club or two is great…but not every single club your are in. I would consider not saying you founded some of these clubs on your app.</p></li>
<li><p>Ok, we can beat around the bush about it, but being white/asian will hurt you any way you spin it. We are members of races that apparently just culturally value education more highly than other races and thus are reversely discrimated against at colleges. Is it wrong? I think it is borderline racist…but who am I to make such claims. Regardless, being Asian will hurt you…by how much? I dont know</p></li>
<li><p>Your app (like mine) lacks a major WOW factor. Your stats are good…but you dont really have any state/national awards. Lol junior year, I went out of my way to enter and win state competitions in science and econ type contests. You might want to try to win some before you apply.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>So moral of the story, I would bet money you will get into at least one of the following Mid or Upper Tier Ivy, Stanford, or MIT. However, I think it is VERY hard to say “Oh ya your definately in at Stanford” when admissions is so dang arbitrary.</p>

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<p>“Math 2 790 (I might retake)”</p>

<p>Oh goodness. Please do NOT retake that.</p>

12

<p>Instead of retaking the Math Level 2 subject test, you might want to take additional subject tests. </p>

<p>You should apply to other top universities too! :)</p>

<p>Good luck. :D</p>

13

<p>@Rtgrove123:
“You a founder of almost every EC you are in. Dont get me wrong founding a club or two is great…but not every single club your are in. I would consider not saying you founded some of these clubs on your app.”</p>

<p>I’d have to disagree with that; I think being founder of every club could be seen as evidence of a passion for leadership. Of course, OP’s college counselor should mention in his/her recommendation that the school was new, and that OP did not found the clubs just to get easy leadership positions.</p>

14

<p>I had a social life or at least EC’s outside of academics. Crosscountry, track, varsity and lettered in both junior and senior year. Captain/president of ultimate frisbee. Ok, I was still mad at Stanford when I posted my previous thread for accepting some guy who slept in class, made average grades at best, and who applied as a joke when he saw my friend and I being rejected from EA, while rejecting the top 5 in my class (myself included). I may have exaggerated a bit when I said it KILLS your chances, but it certainly doesn’t help.
Plus you never know with hyps. If you go look at their threads, you see people with lower scores and stuff than you getting accepted, and people with higher scores/more ec’s being denied.</p>

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<p>Rejected based on a couple things you are asian and most of your extracirriculars center around founding or bein a member of these clubs… additionally you dont have many achievements that make your app stand out</p>

16

<p>@dreambig1</p>

<p>When has founding a club ever been put down?</p>

<p>@OP</p>

<p>Just apply and see how things pan out.</p>

17

<p>Wow guys, haha, this thread is from last year. I applied and didn’t get in (not surprisingly).</p>

18

<p>Soadquake: shows the arbitrariness of the admission process… BTW where will you be going?</p>

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<p>they are not arbitrary at all. they reject thousands of great applicants. they just know what they are looking for and we dont.</p>