Should I Even Bother Applying to Stanford?

Hey there, I’m a senior getting ready to apply for colleges, and I was wondering whether or not I should even bother applying to the top schools such as Stanford (specifically) and other ivies for computer science.

My grades are not good, let’s get that straight. I have a 3.6 uw and a 4.2 weighted GPA. I took as many AP’s as possible (awful mistake, AP Chem and AP physics at the same time junior year), so ended up taking about 15 AP classes. If I had just stuck to honors classes like a smart person would do, my GPA would probably be much higher. My SAT is not too good either, its a 1400 out of 1600, but I did pretty good on my SAT subject tests.

My only “exception” is that I created & run an online business that specializes in IT/web solutions for businesses. I make about $90k a year with this business, and its been in operation for two years now (started it in my sophomore year). It’s a sole proprietorship, meaning that I’m the only one running the business, but I have contractors I regularly work with to accomplish certain tasks.

I wouldn’t even bother applying to Stanford and other top schools with my grades, but I was wondering if I had a slight chance of going into their computer science department with my business and the work I’ve done so far. But I think that with my current grades, it’d take a miracle to get in. I was planning to go to a state school, but I visited Stanford last month just for the sake of it and fell in love with it as well as their campus.

Should I bother applying just for the sake of it?

Yeah, the worst that can happen is that you get rejected and are out of $80

There is no downside except you will have wasted your time on supps and $80, but if you have both, you might as well. However you don’t seem like a competitive candidate tbh

Yes, you have a shot. Your business will really help you and they will be happy to see that you created one at that age. If you live in California, there are still many good schools that you can go to if you do not get into Stanford.