Sophomore aiming for Stanford

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

<p>So, as you can tell by the title, I'm a high school sophomore who's dream, like many others, is to go to Stanford. To start off I'm most definitely not asking anyone to chance me because it's obviously to early. But, if possible, I'd like some advice and information about what it takes to get accepted into Stanford when admissions do roll around in a couple of years. </p>

<p>My fear is that my statistics are just average. Actually, I'm quite sure they are. I don't have a perfect gpa or sat score (yet) to show. </p>

<p>Freshman year was pretty decent, all As in all my classes which were Honors Algebra II Trig, Honors World History, Chinese I, Gym, Honors English I, Honors Biology, and Advanced Computers, which resulted in a 4.0 unweighted GPA and a 4.5 weighted GPA. However, I am aware Stanford does not look at freshman grades. </p>

<p>I have about two weeks left in my first semester of sophomore year, and so far my grades aren't so hot. I currently have As in Honors Chemistry, Chinese II, Health, and Astronomy, and Bs in AP European History, Honors Precalculus, and Honors English II. Which is about a 3.6 unweighted GPA and 4.1 weighted GPA. I really regret slacking off and my grades should be much better second semester.</p>

<p>Anyways, my junior year schedule consists of Gym, Chinese III, AP Statistics, AP Physics I (I took a physics course over the summer), AP Computers Science, AP Calculus BC, and AP English III. </p>

<p>And my senior year schedule will most likely consist of Gym, AP Chinese, AP Macro Economics, AP Government, AP Physics II, AP English IV, and Calculus III.</p>

<p>I took a practice SAT and scored an 800 on writing, 640 on math, and 620 on reading. Obviously I'm hoping that those scores will improve by Junior year. However, I don't yet have any practice with the ACT. </p>

<p>My extracurriculars are nothing spectacular, but I play varsity tennis in the fall and club tennis the rest of the year, I am a member of our varsity math team, and I'm a member of our school's youth and government. </p>

<p>This summer I have a job teaching tennis at our tennis club and a summer internship with a trading company. </p>

<p>I attend a public high school, nothing extraordinary, but it is a decent school. We send quite a few people to schools such as MIT, Stanford, Yale, and Harvard. </p>

<p>Anyways, all I'm looking for is a little bit of advice. Stanford is the school of my dreams (literally, I've dreamt about Stanford quite a few times) and I'd obviously love to attend. And thank you so much for reading and have a happy new year!</p>

2

<p>are you by any chance asian?</p>

3

<p>Hahaha how did you know? Yeah, I was born in India but live in the states. So no, I don’t have any URM advantage whatsoever.</p>

4

<p>Stanford class of 2017, woot woot! It’s my dream too. Can I ask the group at large - how much emphasis does Stanford place on community service?? About half of my extracurrics are service stuff. Good luck McCandless (don’t die in a bus in Alaska or anything ;))</p>

5

<p>Hahahahah, first off all you totally made my day with the whole McCandless statement. Finally, someone who knows who this guy is. :D. Anyways, nice to meet you hopefuladmit, maybe will see each other in stanford in 2013. xD</p>

6

<p>I think Stanford likes research a lot. SO many people here seem to have done research it’s crazy. As far as community service yeah I guess that’s a good thing to.</p>

<p>I forgot the term, but there’s like the almost-surefire way to get into top schools. I recommend reading that article if I could just remember the name. I’m stumped. Anyways it has to do with how colleges will look at ECs. There are some ECs that may not require a lot of work, but because they seem so hard to get access to, they seem really incredible. Like the article mentions I think a guy who spoke at a UN committee meeting or something versus a varsity high school athlete. The latter requires a lot more work but almost anyone can do it if they wanted to. It takes a tremendous amount of fortune to end up having an opportunity to do the former, although not as much work is necessary. </p>

<p>Maybe someone else knows the article I’m talking about.</p>

7

<p>lol, I’ve seen that article, it really was great. This probably makes me sound really idiotic, but what do you mean by doing research. I’ve heard of it quite a bit, but I don’t understand. I mean research what, and where, and how?</p>

<p>Anyways, thanks for responding! And also, how do you like it at Stanford?</p>

8

<p>Like if there is a medical school, or a hospital, or a university around you, there are probably research positions for high schoolers. Generally this is more in the science realm, where I guess you do lab work, but you could also help with other research, especially in psychology crunching the numbers or administering the tests. </p>

<p>I don’t really know myself because I’ve never done research so I have no idea really what it’s like or how to help you out. Very few people at my HS did research so I was just never exposed to that until Stanford really. Oh and doing research may not help your chances at all. There does seem to be a correlation between Stanford students and research though. </p>

<p>Yeah I like Stanford a lot. Probably too many things I like about the school, so I’ll just say a few things I dislike. For instance, I thought going in the students would be more interdisciplinary, or more all-around smart. I also think a lot of students are overconfident in their abilities. I don’t like the Silicon Valley location/Palo Alto, and I am annoyed with the lack of sports culture among Stanford students (being from the Midwest, it was an eye-opening difference). And, as has been explained to death on other threads, I think Stanford lacks class (not social class, but class). Also I’m not very fond of the entrepreneurship types. Grading I think could be harder, study abroad to Spanish-speaking countries could be easier (I don’t want to take a language class here- I passed out of the requirement, and I’d rather learn more Spanish abroad than at school), and the winter-spring IHUM could be better.</p>

<p>Pretty much everything else I either like or love about the school. Hope this helps!</p>

9

<p>dude, here’s the most important piece of advice you will get about college:</p>

<p>Stop telling yourself that ______ (insert school name here) is your dream, otherwise you’ll end up in a living nightmare.</p>

<p>Instead tell yourself that Stanford, Penn, Univ. of Puget Sound, etc would all be lucky to have you and all would probably be great places for you; you’ll select a half-dozen schools that would work for your interests, visit them to make sure you’re cool with them, and then crank out the apps. It’s a real downer reading about students that have been dreaming about MIT since the age of 5, killed themselves to create a 5-pound resume, and then get rejected. Admission is at the whim of the college, with no magic (e.g. research in stem cells will guarantee entry) formula.</p>

<p>BTW, if you do more than one volunteer EC that dilutes the value of the whole thing.</p>

10

<p>Research? What if you’re much more of a writing and history type than a math and science type? Thanks for any advice. And haha McCandless we had to read it for school!</p>

11

<p>^^^^oops never mind, you kind of already answered that. If you do have any tips for a writing kid I’d appreciate it. :)</p>

12

<p>^Do what you love. If you can get published, obviously that will help. But the writers I know did normal things like music, theater, and volunteering. Some wrote for their school newspapers.</p>

13

<p>On the newspaper, yay. Will likely get some poems published in school lit magazine. Might try for TeenInk. Hoping for some Scholastics award. Other than that, I mostly do volunteering. These writers you know - are they Stanford students? It seems like every Stanford kid on this board is studying science! Which I’m sure is not representative of the general student body.</p>

14

<p>I wish I’d though to do research. I got into Stanford, but it would have given me some peace of mind and valuable experience. (I only ever met ONE person who did research in high school; he’s in med school now, qualified for the Rice-Baylor Medical program)</p>

<p>If you like humanities, I guess you can alternatively try to, I don’t know, get something published? Not necessarily a book, but maybe an essay or short story? That’s a really high goal but try going for lower-level publications instead of the New Yorker.</p>

15

<p>

Yep, unless they’re frauds. </p>

<p>Not me. I study engineering!</p>

16

<p>Do what you love, not just for college. In the end, only true passion stands out. Pick one area and go really deep into it. I know this sounds ambiguous, but there’s a reason for it.</p>

17

<p>iceui2 - I completely agree with you, but I’m afraid that I’m not doing enough to publicly display this things I love (besides tennis) in a way that would benefit me when it does come to applying for college. For example, I’m really passionate about math and as lame as it is, I spend a lot of my time doing random math problems or puzzles. But I haven’t won any major math competitions. And I’m also passionate about astronomy and astrophysics, so I read a ton of books about the subject. But I fear that this doesn’t completely display my passion because I do these things privately. So, my question is how do I publicly display my passion in a way that colleges are able to tell that it is truly something I love?</p>

18

<p>I don’t have any information specific to Stanford, but maybe you could demonstrate leadership by starting a group at your school that fits in with one of your passions, e.g. astronomy or astrophysics.</p>

19

<p>If you are really interested in math, especially competition math, then you should definitely check out the Art of Problem Solving books to prepare you for the AMC. If you do well then you can qualify for the USAMO, which is heavily considered by adcoms. Just make sure that in pursuing your ECs you keep your grades up; the closer you get to a 4.0 UW the better.</p>

<p>Senior0991, that part about doing something that sounds difficult sounds really similar to the “Failed Simulation Effect” described in How to Be a High School Superstar. It’s not an article, though.</p>

20

<p>^Yes that! Failed Simulation Effect. There’s a stand-alone (shortened?) version somewhere on the internet.</p>