<p>I wanted to know if anyone here (without any hooks) got into stanford with substancial, but not amazing extracurriculars (any national awards)? Would regular involvement and leadership in a few clubs at your school without any major awards be sufficient? (assuming test scores, GPA, Rank, and recs are very solid)</p>
<p>Yes, normal people get accepted too.</p>
<p>My extracurriculars certainly weren't exceptional and I got in. (2380 SAT, 4.3 GPA, #1 rank). I'd say time commitment and being able to clearly articulate why these activities were meaningful and what you got out of them, and why they are important to you, is just as compelling as a national award.</p>
<p>All I had for ECs was debate w/ just a few regional awards (nothing impressive), MUN with very few awards (also not impressive), two years of psych research at UCLA (no research awards, etc.), leadership position in middle school debate club, some piano, one season of a sport one year, and a bit of community service... really nothing special at all...
Does being a girl in physics count as a hook?? If not, then I def didn't have any hooks either</p>
<p>I was very involved in ECs, but never had any major awards. I was a leader in several of them, and had a passion in one area (foreign policy). I think that Stanford is looking for passion more than anything else. They want people who are going to be famous, which doesn't mean you had to win anything before you were 30 :)</p>