<p>From your experience, what are the main differences between the selection processes at these two schools? Does one tend to reject 2400 valedictorians more often? Do both care about seeing your passions equally? And is it true that H values leadership slighlty more and that S values creativity slightly more?</p>
<p>And please don't let this degenerate into a "Which one is better?" thread.</p>
<p>WHAT?! If I heard that Stanford values creativity more, I would have applied!</p>
<p>That would only make sense, since Stanford is basically the factory for producing Silicon Valley magnates. Haha, I’m only kidding… kind of.</p>
<p>I fight the “crapshoot” thing for most selective colleges (it may not make sense for a single applicant, but if the adcom sat an outsider down and explained how this applicant fit into the class as the whole, I like to believe they’d be like oh of course, usually.) But for Stanford… It just seems extra unpredictable. I knew a couple kids (2-3: one may only have made semifinalist) who ended up as Presidential Scholars of their states who were rejected early. Not deferred, not waitlisted RD, rejected. So I find their admissions criteria a bit perplexing. I am an Easterner, though, so the pool I’ve seen applying to Stanford is rather smaller and maybe less representative of their admissions trends as a whole? Dunno. Don’t wanna hate.</p>
<p>I’ll tell you after the decisions for Harvard comes out. 
Or my viewpoint after the sample size of 1. Definitely dependable.</p>
<p>This whole thing is silly. It’s not as if Harvard list of accomplished artists and Silicon Valley titans is lacking compared to Stanford’s. Frankly, there’s probably not much of a difference between the two groups of admitted students (except the fact that Cali locals are better represented at Stanford and East Coasters are more prevalent in Cambridge), though four years in nice, sunny Cali might mellow some people.</p>
<p>Is it also true that H tends to reject more good students EA than S to leave EA spots for athletes and legacies?</p>
<p>No. If anything, Stanford rejects more EA applicants - many of whom seem brilliant, in order to minimize the size of the deferral pool.</p>
<p>But is there an observable preference for S to reject 2400 valedictorians, more than H?</p>
<p>Based on pretty much nothing except wildly generalized conclusions from anecdotal evidence, I think Harvard tends to value experts (2400’s, vals, and especially inter/national champions of anything), while Stanford tends to devalue the SAT and preference well-rounded ECs.</p>
<p>Of course, the two schools (and their peers) are more alike than not in acceptance policies. But of HYPS, Stanford is probably the odd one out.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that Stanford tends to reject valedictorians/other high achievers from East Coast schools thinking that they won’t go if admitted, is this true for EA as well?</p>
<p>From our school the only Stanford admits have been athletes and legacies (or both). They regularly reject kids who end up accepted at HYP.</p>
<p>I’m glad that the perceptions here seem to coincide with my perceptions of the differences between the two.</p>
<p>exultationsy, I think that’s the case no matter where the applicants are coming from. I had a similar story that I mentioned in the cross-post of this in the Stanford forum, about a girl who’s from California:</p>
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<p>So you aren’t alone in that “wt*?” perception. Honestly there have been moments when I’ve entertained the notion that Stanford is just plain mean - “oh we’re your first choice and you’re one of the most amazing students in the country? Well here’s what you get for that - reject! Mwahahaha.” Of course this isn’t the case, but I’m often left thinking, wth?</p>
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<p>For the record, the dean of admissions said that Stanford’s yield on admits from NYC is 90%, which surprised me. Also, Stanford adcoms insist that early admits and RD admits are held to the same standards, but there’s lots of debate on that.</p>
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<p>Just to add on to this: this year Harvard initially rejected only 13% of the students who applied early, and deferred over 2/3 of them. Stanford’s early admit press release didn’t mention the # deferred, but in past years it’s been <10%; around 80% are rejected in the early round.</p>
<p>Of course, Harvard rejected nearly all of them in the RD round, so the end result is the same. :p</p>
<p>The selection process is basically a crapshoot. I was rejected to Harvard but accepted to Stanford with a 2370 SAT, so I wouldn’t say Stanford devaluates test scores. I think (with some hestitation) that Harvard values leadership more while Stanford looks for creativity/innovation, but really this whole process is UNPREDICTABLE. In order to be competitive for both schools, you need to have BOTH leadership & creativity. It all comes down to the preferences of the particular admission officer reading your app. Most of the students admitted to Stanford from my region are legacies, but I can imagine that the percentage of students who are legacies at both Harvard & Stanford are about the same.</p>
<p>I’ll admit that Stanford’s score policies are a little curious (not necessarily bad) - no Score Choice, subject tests optional but recommended, etc. Conversely, Harvard’s Dean Fitzsimmons has stated that subject tests are the best indicator of success in college. Just something to bear in mind as you apply.</p>
<p>To answer the OP’s question about “passion” - check [url=<a href=“Stanford--What factors affect decision beyond academic measures - YouTube”>Stanford--What factors affect decision beyond academic measures - YouTube]this[/url</a>] out (scroll to ~2:35).</p>
<p>And again, to state the obvious, I’m sure either school would have no reservations about rejecting a 2400 who was otherwise an uninteresting person.</p>
<p>It may be worth looking at Naviance for some answers. In my county, Stanford takes a lot more students with lower GPAs and test scores than Harvard, and there just seems to be more variance as to the range of GPAs that Stanford accepts.</p>
<p>The college counselors ( who do this for living) say that Stanford is more of a crap shoot than Harvard. Since both have sub 7% acceptance rates, I think both are more like roulette. But, Stanford seems to be more unpredictable and a perfect SAT and GPA or class rank of 1 almost seems to be less likely to get into Stanford vs Harvard</p>
<p>In my affluent school district, we have kids who have been accepted at HYPM and other ivied, they were not accepted at Stanford. But then you look at those who got into Stanford, they had lower GPAs or test scores and were rejected from HYP, sometimes much lower GPAs such as 3.5 We live in the middle of the country so I would think there would be similar geographic appeal to both. </p>
<p>Seems like Stanford puts a lot of weight on the answers to those shorts answers in the supplement and ECs.</p>
<p>If only I was as mature and had the same mind focus as I do now my first years of high school…Community College is my 2nd chance.
Yes I am aware of the ~2% acceptance rate!
I’m not discouraged in the slightest. I’ll give it my all! I will have strong SATs, ECs, GPA, and essays.
If I get rejected, I’ll be sad but there’s always graduate school!
I will step foot in Leland Stanford Junior University!
But for now, I’ll finish what’s left of high school.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I got rejected from Yale and waitlisted at Harvard and Princeton but accepted to Stanford with a 2230 and no real major awards. </p>
<p>Sent from my SPH-D710 using CC</p>
<p>What was your major toasty?
Did you end up going?</p>
<p>2nd question is pretty dumb…</p>
<p>No matter what, I think perfect scores and gpas are overrated. With competitive objectives (within the range of the college’s), you need strong subjectives (essays, ECs, awards) to get in. Maybe part of the reason why Stanford admits have seemingly “lower” scores is because their application allows for showcasing of the subjectives (they have 3 short essays plus tons of short questions), where as Harvard has only one supplement essay on the topic of your choice. Whatever the case, I think both colleges - or HYPSM, for that matter - look for the same type of students. If you’re accomplished “enough,” you should get into at least one of them. There really isn’t any difference between a H or a S student.</p>