<p>Ok, So here is the dealio. I am very interested in Stanford, Penn, and Georgetown. However, I realize I may be on the longer end of the spectrum for all of these schools, but I want to know your thoughts on me and my chances.
Stats: </p>
<p>GPA: 3.9 (all A's in high school, except a couple B's beginning of sophomore year, and every single honors course available and I have taken up extra classes each tri of junior year to add on to my workload. I have also taken the most rigorous possible course load). I believe that I will have the highest GPA in the class, although my school does not rank.
SAT: 1st time on very little sleep... M: 650 W: 670 CR: 730 (I realize these are quite low for these schools. I have been working on them and plan on retaking in May. I have been consistently scoring above 700 on math now and writing I should be able to get above 700 as well since I really bombed the essay last time)
I will probably be a National Merit Commended Student.
AP's: My school does not offer AP's due to its self styled curriculum. I am taking Stats, US History, and Lang
*I go to a small private school, which almost always has very competitive students who go to top schools. </p>
<p>EC's: I am student body VP. I am also on my school's Academic team and we won regionals and placed 3rd in the state this year.
One of my main interests is human rights and international (doings/relations/happenings?). I am the president of our school's Amnesty International chapter. I am also an active member of the school's Community Service Leadership Team and have won volunteer awards. I am also active on the school's Green Team.<br>
Summers: Last summer I went and volunteered for a month in a West Africa human rights firm (albeit not much was accomplished). This summer I am attending Boy's State, going to Georgetown JSA to study international relations, and coming home and getting a job.
Sports: I am a cross country runner (33rd in state meet), a varsity tennis player, and a nordic skier. </p>
<p>State: ID
Hooks: Legacy (Parent is not major donor, but has given gifts of around 50k. Do not know if this would play any role whatsoever)
Race: White
Miscellaneous Info: I spent my freshman year abroad in France with my family and went to an international school. </p>
<p>Thanks for your time! Like I said, I love Penn, Gtown, and Stanford. I am trying to figure out which one to apply to early and what my shots are.</p>
<p>I think you stand a great chance. What would it hurt you to apply?</p>
<p>On the SCEA vs. RD thing: are you going to be a recruited athlete? If you are, I’m not really sure what the process is for this but I think you apply early to your first choice. Anyway, I applied RD to Yale, was deferred, and ended up being rejected. I think my app was a lot weaker by the SCEA deadline. Yours might not be, but you might also end up changing things you hadn’t expected to change. And just writing a ton of college essays is good practice–by the time I did my Stanford app I had written a ton of college essays so I knew what I was doing. I ended up getting into Stanford RD. I think it’s really hard to say on the SCEA vs. RD thing…</p>
<p>I am not going to be a recruited athlete. I think I will definitely apply, unless I stood no chance at all. Now I guess that I just have to decided between SCEA and RD. Does being legacy help during the early round?</p>
<p>I just came back from the Stanford Admit weekend and during the welcome ceremony the Dean of Undergraduate studies named off a list of the accomplishments for the incoming class of 2015. It was very impressive from a world champion tap dancer to a world champion skeet/trap shooter. His list consisted of about 15 very different things that kids did before they got to Stanford. The point being that Stanford really appreciates individuality. They aren’t looking for cookie cutter students. Its not all about grades for them. Yes, you have to have very good grades but individuality, leadership and service are really key components. My S was accepted this year and I’m pretty sure that it had a lot to do with his extra curricula activites. There were at least 2 or 3 kids from our very large and competitive school who also applied and were waitlisted. Two of these kids were our valedictorian and saluditorian. They both had 2400 on the SAT, (first sitting), all of them were intel national finalists and one of the even came in 2nd in the country (recd a 50K scholarship). However, they were all very similiar in that they were all work and not much else. My s had started his own community service programs for our town and created 90% of his own opportunities for leadership and community service. When he received the acceptance letter in the mail there was a hand written section where the Admission counselor made mention of his work with the environment. She mentioned how his service work would fit in perfectly in the Stanford community. </p>
<p>So although I think its necessary to have a few things on your resume like VP of student body etc. try to do something on your own. Create something new. Stanford is all about creativity, and ingenuity. In the college process its so important to stand out. You have to look different than the other 34,000 applications that they are receiving. My s applied to 12 schools and got into all of them. I really think he did something right. He was different! </p>
<p>texaspg, rest assured that there are plenty of Intel/Siemens prize winners, perfect SAT scorers, and international academic Olympiad winners at Stanford, along with the world champion dancers, etc. Students who rise to the top of any of these endeavors must have extraordinary focus, talent, passion, perseverance, energy and time management skills. Those attributes, along with the requisite academic ability, are what it takes to thrive here, especially the time management skills!</p>
<p>There are lots of prize winners in Intel/Siemens and there are 400 perfect scores each year. However, the number of 50k scholarship winners is limited to single digits.</p>
<p>OP - Sorry I sidetracked your thread. If you are spending the summer in Gtown, you may get more out of dropping in regularly on the admissions office than you will get on asking for opinions on CC! You do need three SAT IIs for Georgetown or as they put it, strongly recommended.</p>
<p>UPenn is ED so it is binding. You can only apply to only one of your three choices listed early although if you apply early to Gtown, you can apply to any other open EA schools like Chicago also EA. GTown is interesting in a way that if you apply early, the percentage admitted does nt differ from regular and you also wont get rejected (only admit or deferred). Stanford tends to reject a large percentage in SCEA so as not to give them false hope by deferring them and those who are waitlisted can be highly qualified (2400, 36 types).</p>
<p>Speaking as one of those 2400/36 “types” (with a variety of other, more interesting attributes, if I do say so myself), I can attest that we do tend to be admitted SCEA. :)</p>
<p>And, there are similar anecdotes re: mystifying deferrals/denials at all the top schools. That’s because these colleges mean it when they say they are holistic in their evaluations. Holistic review also renders the decision process inherently inscrutable to an extent, but it is what it is. The point, I think, is not to make too much of any particular case.</p>
<p>Texaspg: We were all surprised our valedictorian had a whole list of accomplishments only got into one school- Dartmouth. This person was waitlisted at Harvard, Yale and Stanford. Interestingly this individual only put Dartmouth down as a safety. I know that sounds weird but its the truth.</p>
<p>The other person got into MIT and was waitlisted at Stanford, Harvard, Yale too. Again this person was happy with MIT but it wasn’t a first choice. I believe Stanford followed by Harvard were. Again, this kids was outrageously accomplished.</p>
<p>This shocked our school district. These types of students never have had a problem in the past getting into these schools. </p>
<p>This year there were a lot of kids who were waitlisted.</p>
<p>dungareedoll - seems to be a problem everywhere. I suspect with the increase in number of applications, the admissions are also being spread out further. So if your school was receiving 4 admissions in a college in the past, it is being cut down to 2 so they choose some student from a school they have nt picked before.</p>
<p>The waitlist is a lottery for Harvard. They have something like 800 or more (someone on the waitlist thread was making the estimate based on a facebook waitlist group) but have identified only 10-15 spaces to be filled.</p>
<p>I think that more high school seniors are applying to more school so then more kids are waitlisted. I heard that the average kid is now applying to as many as 10 schools. My s applied to 12, so I feel like there’s some validity to that statement. My niece applied to 16 last year.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the replies. It sounds as if I do not have a very good chance at Stanford… However, it does seem shocking that they would reject some of the kids that you guys are discussing.</p>