Stanford Early Action, yes or no?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

<p>Hey there,</p>

<p>I'm going to be applying to Stanford this year and am in the process of deciding whether to apply early or not. I've been told my many that if Stanford is your first choice, you should apply early. I've also been told that if you don't make it in early, you wouldn't have gotten in regular decision. Is this true? </p>

<p>My stats aren't too shabby, but I think I can raise my GPA with my first semester senior grades. My school isn't on a 4.0 gpa scale (we have a strange 11-point scale) but I've made all A's throughout my high school career with the exception of a couple of B+s (AP History, really hard teacher, and sophomore Spanish honors). </p>

<p>Sat score is 2260 and I have a few 750+ Sat 2s.
If I do wait to do regular decision, I'll take the SAT again and I think I can bring my score close to 2300. </p>

<p>I have a bunch of ECs (sports, volunteering, leadership, work, and clubs), so I'm not really worried about that. </p>

<p>Also, my second question is about essays. I've heard that essays can be deal makers/breakers. Is it true that a student with extraordinary essays who might be a bit less qualified in terms of academics (wondering about my 2 Bs) still has a decent change to be admitted? </p>

<p>Thanks for any replies.</p>

2

<p>My guess would be that if you are right for Stanford and Stanford is right through you, your grades will not be a dealbreaker. This may shock and awe the CC community, but a couple B+s over three years isn't bad, it's human. If your essays are extraordinary as you say, a couple B+s won't matter. Your scores are top-tier also.</p>

<p>I'd apply regular, if your GPA would be brought substantially up. If it's just your test scores, I have a feeling that with essays, recs, transcripts, etc., I don't think a 2260->2300 would be a dealmaker. In that case, I'd apply early, to show your interest in the school.</p>

3

<p>The many who have told you to apply early....did they apply early or
are they just telling you?</p>

<p>If it is indeed true that you would get in EA if you would get in RD then
logically you gain no advantage by applying EA. By being limited by "SC"EA
you just reduced your overall chances of admissions to another top school
that might offer EA opportunities (MIT/Caltech/Georgetown)/</p>

<p>It makes more logical sense from a risk control viewpoint to apply to
EA schools and then do RD to Stanford. If you want to stand out in the RD pool
do RD with Art supplement (Earlier deadline) for Stanford.</p>

4

<p>Well, the thing is, Stanford is my top choice. From looking at some admissions statistics, it seems that Stanford's early acceptance rate is almost twice that of the regular one. By applying early, I'll be applying with about 4500 students whereas with a regular app, it will be with around 20,000.</p>

<p>I am applying to MIT, but I think I don't have the stats to make it into that school; plus, their early acceptance rate is actually lower than regular, amazingly. Stanford seems to be the school that values the whole person more than any other top tier school, meaning that a student with a less amazing GPA still has a good chance of making it in.</p>

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<p>If Stanford is your definite first choice, apply early. It will not improve your chances much (if at all), but if you do get in, it will make your second semester much happier, and save you time and effort of filling out all the other apps.</p>

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<p>actually a couple of B's are a big deal, unless you are like some national champion or warad winner.</p>

7

<p>A couple of B's are not a dealbreaker to Stanford. One of my friends got in last year, despite sub-average (for Stanford) test scores, I'm prety sure some B's, and almost no leadership in activities. Then again, I go to a very large public school, in a location where only a few people apply to Stanford each year (AZ PHX area, but still everyone looks East) and she did things like get 5's on AP tests she hadn't actually taken a class for... but to my knowledge she wasn't president of anything, or the discoverer of anything real amazing in science or anything like that. She just wrote really good essays.</p>

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<p>chsowlflax17 , that's like 1 out of 10,000....</p>

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<p>
[quote]
actually a couple of B's are a big deal, unless you are like some national champion or warad winner.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>it's less of a deal to stanford than it is for most other schools in stanford's peer group.</p>

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<p>Yes post#7 is right on, actually more than a "couple" seem to be
tolerated if the essays are stellar.</p>

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<p>It depends when you received your B's. If you received them first semester freshman year, I don't believe Stanford will look at them.</p>

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<p>I would consider applying EA. There are only a hanfdul of schools that you cant also apply ED to. But those others are BINDING, meaning if accepted you have to register and attend regardless of how much aid they give you or DONT give you. At Stanford, you pretty much double your chances applying SCEA and if accepted EA you arent bound. My D applied EA at Stanford and still applied ealy non-restricted rolling admissions at her in-state safeties and at other fine schools like University of Michigan. Luckilly she got in EA at Stanford, then applied to other dream schools RD. Having Stanford in her pocket took more stress off her that you could ever imagine, she enjoyed her senior year much more, and since Stanford doesn't take many APs she wasn't stressed out cramming for five of those at the end of her senior year. look into all the pros and cons.</p>

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<p>I guess I'll post my stats just so others can have a more objective view.</p>

<p>Like I said earlier, my school has a very strange GPA system (12 point) that takes into account + and - when calculating GPA. AP and Honors courses are given weight to. 1.2 for AP and 0.6 for honors.</p>

<p>Rank: school doesn't rank</p>

<p>GPA: 10.6/12. This roughly translates to about a 3.8-3.9 on a 4.0 scale. I've made As in all of my classes except for 2 Bs. </p>

<p>Up till senior year, I've taken 8 honors classes and 3 AP classes. I have the hardest course load in my school.</p>

<p>AP Scores:
US History 5
Chemistry 5
Spanish Language 5
English Language 4</p>

<p>12th Grade schedule
AP Biology
AP Physics
AP English Lit
AP Spanish Lit
AP Calc BC</p>

<p>Sat: 2260 (780 math, 700 reading, 780 writing). I will be taking the test again in November and am confident that my score will go up ~50 points. Hopefully the score will arrive at Stanford before they review my application.</p>

<p>SAT 2:
Math 2: 780
Chemistry: 770
Spanish: 730
US History: 710</p>

<p>I'm Pakistani so I don't think that's going to help in the race category.</p>

<p>ECs
Community service as a tutor for 2 years in high school, ~150 hours.
Vice-president of Young Investors Club at my school, member for 4 years.
Leadership club member, 3 years.
Music club member, 3 years.
Member of various cultural clubs.
Peer Mentor
Other activities I can't think of.
I think my ECs will be allright because I've been pretty involved in all of them.</p>

<p>Sports
Varsity soccer, 3 years
Club soccer, 3 years (Captain), won State Championship 1 year.</p>

<p>Awards
Honor Roll, throughout high school
National Spanish Exam gold, 2 years
AP Scholar with Honor
National Merit Commended (was sick on the day of the test, did bad)</p>

<p>Work experience (during summer)
3 summers during high school, about 2 months every summer, ~20 hours/week</p>

<p>Teacher recs: from teachers who like me, should be pretty good.
College counselor rec: should be pretty good since I go to a private school and the counselor knows me pretty well.
Optional letters: Have letters from employer and community service. </p>

<p>Essays: I think my essays will be excellent (hopefully) and will stand out because I have some special stuff to talk about (big goals in life, colorful past). </p>

<p>I know I'm not an applicant that flies off the page in terms of academics but Stanford is definitely my first choice. Comments would be great, thanks a lot.</p>

<p>PS. Other colleges I'm considering: MIT, Princeton, Northwestern, Rice, Penn, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Illinois, Michigan, Texas, Cal, GA Tech, Johns Hopkins (biomed engineering). At schools that require an application to a major/school, I'll apply to electrical engineering.</p>

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<p>hey toomuchpressure. i know umich real well, and it seems like for that school at least, u’re pretty much in for! it’s really well rounded and a great school, and your stats and creds are great!!!</p>

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<p>Someone above mentioned that the admit rate for stanford early is almost twice that of regular decision. That’s not true at all. It’s approximately 10% vs 8%.</p>

<p>If other schools actually give you a bump for applying early apply to those places EA and save Stanford for RD.</p>

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<p>Hey I am also applying EA to Stanford, but my SAT score is 2060 (I just retook it but won’t have my scores until later this month). My ACT is a 34, but I’m worried my SAT score will knock me out of the running. Is a 2060 really that bad, even with my ACT? I have a 4.8 GPA and lots of ECs, but do I even stand a chance at EA?</p>

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<p>^Don’t send in your SAT score. Just concentrate on your ACT score.</p>

<p>Btw, this thread is a year old. The OP decided to do SCEA… and got rejected.</p>

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<p>^Lolololololol</p>

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<p>Toomuchpressure-I feel that if it’s your first choice, apply early, and make sure your application shows a lot of demonstrated interest in the school. (i.e. a great “Why Stanford” essay, if they still have that prompt next cycle) </p>

<p>No offense to anyone on this thread, but a few of you have really skewed perceptions of what it takes to get into Stanford. You don’t need straight A’s, or 2300s to get in. Sure it’ll help, but if you don’t have em then it’s not a dealbreaker. Personally, I got in with a 2060 on the SAT (just like ElizaBennet) AND with about 5 B’s throughout my high school career, and no I didn’t win any prestigious national awards or anything of that sort. Obviously I could be an odd case, but after getting to know other people in my class I’ve met lots of other people with low 2000 SAT scores and some B’s on their transcripts. </p>

<p>Basically, you don’t have to be perfect to get into Stanford. The admit officers understand that we’re still kids and we slip up sometimes. Just put your best foot forward and make sure those essays are amazing. :)</p>

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<p>For some reason this long-moribund thread has been revived, but I’ll take this opportunity to mention, as I often have, that students whose academic stats would place them in the lowest quartile of admitted students typically need to bring something else of significance to the table. That might be URM status, residence in an underrepresented state, first-generation-to-college status, or other factor that fulfills an institutional priority of the college. Or, it might be some unusually high-level talent of some sort–artistic, athletic, philanthropic. Otherwise, chances of admission for candidates with below-par academic stats are rather poor. I definitely don’t intend to dash anyone’s hopes or dreams here, but I’m trying to convey the realistic situation. I think sometimes people tend to generalize a little too much from samples that are too small to be meaningful.</p>