Hi,
I applied to Stanford Early Action this year. I felt like I was a very strong applicant, but obviously at Stanford that means almost nothing, since almost everyone is. I’m in a little bit of a panic, since I submitted my application already, and the suspense is killing me. Stanford is my dream school.
So this is what I’ve done:
GPA: 4.0 unweighted, about 4.67 weighted
School is very competitive, ranked top twenty schools in illinois. We don’t do rankings but I’ve taken the most difficult courses available (except AP lit) and have never gotten a B.
Have taken 13 AP courses in school, and of the AP tests I’ve taken, I’ve scored all 5’s, except Comp Sci and Physics, which were 4’s.
ACT: 34 (33 reading, 35 math, 35 english, 34 science), scored a perfect on the essay twice
SAT II: 800 math 2, 750 Physics, 710 Chem
I’m national merit commended and a National Hispanic Scholar. I’m a URM (mexican, puerto rican, spanish). AP scholar with disinction.
Varsity soccer: I’m a starting player on our team, which is currently in the final four in the 3A state division (most competitive). So at the very least we’ll place 4th in the state, possibly higher. I’m looking to be on the all-conference team, might happen, might not, but I’ve received academic all conference for two years now.
Also have done club soccer in the spring and summer all 4 years. We’ve won some tournaments but nothing incredible.
On the executive board of key club for two years now. Too many volunteer hours to count. Have a lot of very specific stories about unique volunteer opportunities that I helped bring to fruition.
Did a leadership program with a food bank, led a lot of volunteer food packing sessions. Also did an online fundraiser with the same foodbank, which broke all their records and they ended up interviewing my team and I.
On the executive board for science national honors society. Member of math national honors society.
My hook is going to be (along with URM), an internship that I did this summer, which is still ongoing. It was a research internship relating to plasma physics that was WAY above my level of education, but I managed to get a viable technical paper submitted for it. I worked with a research team for months and have some awesome stories and accomplishments (interviewed CEO’s, NASA employees, provided the keystone of a presentation given in a international space development conference in Hawaii, currently working to get a paper submitted for publication). The professor who I worked under is a prof. of electrical engineering at Indiana-Purdue, which I feel like is nothing to laugh at. We worked together on a pretty incredible letter of recommendation.
My essays were pretty solid. I was just myself. I talked a lot about my love of science and space, and how I like to play guitar to calm down. My personal statement made my dad break down crying, but maybe that’s just because he’s my dad. It drew in my internship, how my dad taught me guitar, my athletics and how despite my love of science and a certain direction in engineering, I’m more than just a kid who’s good at math.
One teacher letter of recommendation came from my calc bc and calc 3 (dual enrollment) teacher, which I read and was pretty stellar.
The other teacher is a chemistry/biology teacher. She’s also my advisor for science honors society. She taught me freshman/sophomore year but she loves me and I have a lot of faith that her letter will outweigh that.
DOWNSIDES. My counselor is awful. I have no doubt that she contributed little to nothing to my app besides laundry listing my activities. Also I am not underprivileged… I’m not rich but my parents do pretty well for themselves. And also I don’t have a ton of leadership-type stuff.
Any input helps. I’m dying here, and struggling to get motivated on my other apps.
thank you all for the wisdom