Should I apply to Stanford?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi everyone! My Junior year of High School has just ended and, like everyone else, I’m starting to freak out about college. Recently I’ve had my eyes set on Stanford…yes…I know my chances of getting in are extremely low if not 0 lol. I’m just going to list out everything I got. Please let me know if you think it would be somewhat reasonable for me to apply early decision or “Single-Choice Early Action.” Here it goes…

Demographics:
-Race: Black/white
-Middle to Upper-middle class
-Single mom
-Mom never graduated high school, my dad went to dartmouth but has been out of my life
-Mom’s family immigrants from Caribbean, I would be the first in her family to go to college

Academics (rip my academics are so bad):
-My public High School is top 100 of nation
-Unweighted GPA: 3.7
-AP World 5
-AP Enviro 5
-AP Stats 4
-SAT 2 World: 650
-SAT 2 Korean: 690
(I plan to take SAT 2 for literature and Math 2 in November)
SAT: 2110 :frowning:

Activities:
-Played in Grammy-award-winning school orchestra for 4 years
-Photo-Editor of high school newspaper and yearbook (both ranked first in all of Southern California) where I mentor and grade 10 photographers, and edit, delegate, and distribute photos.
-Currently interning at a pretty important Congressman’s office where I help constituents with immigration, attend events on Congressman’s behalf, etc. This Congressman is extremely involved in Asian relations which is why I choose them. [hopefully I am getting a letter of Rec from this Congressman]
-Student Poll Worker for local registrar of voters where I processed hundreds of voters on election days
-Take Korean. I did a summer program at Yeonsei University the summer after Freshman year
-Lived in Korea by completely myself for 3 weeks last summer
-V.P. and co-founder of my school’s first competitive business club. I ranked 8th in Southern California for Law
-Member of Junior Class Council where I promoted various student events and planned Prom
-Part of a organization that helps incoming freshman learn the ropes of high school and mentors them throughout the year
-Put on tribute to a South African activist that was murdered and raised $1,000 for underprivileged children in South Africa. Event took 10 months to plan.
-Participates in MUN and won an award at a UC Berkeley MUN Conference for my research on cyber warfare
-I organized a Indian Color Run at my school (Holi) with high school students coming from many different high schools(a total of 300)

Goals:
I would love to major in something related to Law (or economics/public policy) and computer science! One of my career goals would be to become an Ambassador to Korea. For my Korean class, I made my final project a video about how much I want to go to Stanford LMFAO so maybe I could submit that as my art supplement haha.

I know that my academics are crap compared to other students applying to Stanford, but I want to know if my race/background/activities would sufficiently compensate for this? Please be honest :slight_smile: I know the truth will really hurt lol. If not Stanford, I would definitely plan on applying to NYU.

2

While you obviously don’t have a great chance at Stanford (neither does literally anyone lol), your ECs are off the charts and probably better than the vast majority of applicants there or anywhere else. Your test scores are pretty low but Stanford seems to emphasize those slightly less than many other elite schools, and I think you’re actually inside their middle 50% range (except those SAT IIs). If you could maybe get that SAT up to 2200 or so it would make you a very solid candidate. As it is, Stanford is definitely a reach, but not a huge one. SCEA won’t help you much with Stanford though, as the acceptance boost is way less than anywhere else (it’s still only 10% and that includes recruited athletes, etc.). As for NYU, I don’t know much about their EA but in RD you should be a solid match. I would guess that if you applied NYU EA you would probably be in.
Good luck!
Chance me?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18608565#Comment_18608565

3

If your test scores go up, it’s definitely viable

4

Wow, thank you guys for constructive criticism. This is really helpful!
:slight_smile:

5

I think you actually have a good (but not great) chance. Great ECs, okay SAT and URM. Chance back?: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1778302-chance-an-asian-yale-duke-williams.html#latest

6

Your ECs are outstanding, and the internship at the congressman’s office is really unique because of the certain things you say you do there (asian relations, immigration, etc). I think if you 1) bring up your SAT about 100 points and 2) really emphasize and convey this work and also your interest in Korea in your essays/supplements/interviews, then while it is always impossible to know for sure, you have an amazing chance and are definitely qualified. Good luck! :slight_smile:

7

Stanford is extremely hard to get into, but you have good extracurriculars. I would recommend doing well senior year in your classes and trying to get SAT score up a little to get in mid range for Stanford at least