<p>I've heard that on Stanford's application, they request everyone to say whether or not they have applied to Stanford before. Does anyone know if this could be harmful to someone if they had applied before, gotten rejected, and tried applying the next year (ex. say as a junior, then a senior)?</p>
<p>All thoughts are appreciated. </p>
<p>How could you apply as a junior?</p>
<p>No, it won’t hurt you. In fact, it can help you. If there were any areas of your prior application that were weak, you can strengthen those - and they’ll see the improvement!</p>
<p>Many colleges and universities have that question on their applications. Just answer truthfully.</p>
<p>You have to be able to graduate in 3 years though since that’s required. You won’t get any preferential treatment and will be compared with regular seniors.</p>
<p>@pastwise You’re talking about gap year applicants? As long as they don’t take any college classes, they’re consider freshmen applicants just like regular seniors, which means they get the full 4 years to graduate.</p>
<p>Doesn’t matter though; the OP seems to be a senior now.</p>
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<p>Think of this as if you were an admissions officer.</p>
<p>The fact that you applied before and rejected doesn’t really have any bearing on whether or not you are a good applicant THIS time.</p>
<p>If you are a strong candidate one never knows why one was rejected, nor how close you were to being accepted.</p>
<p>So the only thing that is in your control now is writing stronger essays, getting better recs, improving SAT scores, doing whatever ECs you do, and having a solid Senior year.</p>
<p>I asked this question to a Yale admissions officer a couple of years ago. He said, it all depends on the applicant pool. You may be rejected one year, then admitted the next, because they “need” someone who has your profile the second time around.</p>
<p>@Lilliana330 I’m actually a rising junior and am thinking of applying this year, but if I don’t get into any colleges that I like, I don’t want to hurt my chances senior year…</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the answer! You’ve all been really helpful.</p>
<p>@collegesplease Huh? Why are you applying as a junior? Is that even allowed?</p>
<p>@Lilliana330 Yeah, I know of a few people that used to go to my school that got into a college as a junior. i’m not sure about all the tiny details, but I know that it’s possible.</p>
<p>A hs junior would have to meet the academic prep requirements. Sure hope you looked at that. In general, you would also need the “rest of the story” that equates to hs seniors. That includes the maturity. Best place to ask is your GC and the college. </p>
<p>@collegesplease Ohh I see. Well as @lookingforward said, you might have some specific guidelines to follow.</p>
<p>It’s of course possible, but how likely is a different story. Your have to show you are on track to graduate in 3 years since Stanford requires high school diploma for acceptance. You also only have 2.5 years to show the same amount of prep work compared to 3.5 years for regular applicants. And in the case that you don’t get in, you better have a plan for your “senior” year since you have now graduated. For most applicants, it’s unlikely to be a worthwhile tradeoff.</p>
<p>@pastwise you make a good point…the people that I know that applied as juniors went to UC Davis/UC Berkeley, and since those schools don’t require a high school diploma so they may have not gotten one. Thanks for the advice.</p>
<p>EDIT: I just looked up Stanford’s requirements, and they say that they require that all students require a high school diploma or the equivalent. By the equivalent, could they mean the same thing that UCs require, which is:
“If students do not have a high school diploma, we will accept the Certificate of Proficiency awarded by the State Board of Education upon successful completion of the California High School Proficiency Examination. We’ll also accept proficiency examinations from other states, and the General Education Development (GED) Certificate, in place of a diploma.” (taken from the UC freshman requirements page)?</p>
<p>The reason I’m asking is that I know for sure that the juniors never got a diploma. At our school, senior year, we need some weird business credits and have to do a benchmark project throughout the year. If they never completed junior year, they couldn’t have done the project…</p>
<p>By the equivalent, Stanford says GED. Of all the schools in the US, Stanford, with its 40k-plus applicants, is one where you do not assume or guess. </p>
<p>Some kids may grad hs early and get into a fine college. They are exceptionally prepared, academically and personally, for those particular colleges which will accept them. There are no shortcuts to Stanford. They may also consider your age and will look for maturity. Scour the S websites for info on what they want. It is more than stats and some paperwork attesting you completed enough hs to obtain some certificate. Get on your game.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>