Hi @highschoolinnj! I would recommend you take the subjects tests in the areas you are strongest. For example, if you have recently completed AP US History and AP Chemistry, it would make sense to take the SAT subject tests for US History and Chemistry.
Cool question, @yearstogo ! They wrote “I suspect she’ll be well sought after by others”, which if I’m being honest is also what I thought, but NOT what ended up happening. I was waitlisted or rejected by every Ivy I applied to except one and was waitlisted by many top-20 institutions. But I do believe in God (or fate for some) so I really do believe I had to be rejected by all of those top schools and scholarships for me to “be forced” to choose Stanford. If this hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have chosen Stanford since it definitely wasn’t in my top 5 choices.
Hi @Agridulce! You’re welcome 
I’ve loved being a premed so far. I decided to start taking premed classes my sophomore year, so I was able to avoid some really toxic premed culture that can be pervasive in freshmen who are taking premed classes. I wanted to start taking premed courses off the bat, but I also wanted to explore different social science majors so I ended up only taking the math courses + a bio lab that I need to apply for med school. I am so, so happy I ended up starting premed a year later-- the other premeds who also started a year later are really empathetic, thoughtful people who are really generous with their time and we have a good community. I would say that premed at Stanford is relatively difficult, as one would expect.
You applied to a lot of colleges, which would have been a tremendous amount of work. I’m curious to know if that was due to seeking the best FA, or some other reason. If you were doing it again in, would you recommend students apply to fewer schools?
Hello! I am a rising senior planning to apply soon! I have a couple questions! As a Stanford fanatic, It has come to me several times that the idea of intellectual vitality is heavily sought for in an applicant. But with just one supplement directly targeted towards that, how’d you try to tailor your application to show this curiosity of learning? Also, I am very interested in studying sociology and gender inequality (most of my activities are spiked towards this). With that being said, do you know of any specific departments dedicated to research under these topics? and finally, what was the topic of your common app essay and how did you begin the writing process? Thank you so much!
oh forgot one last thing! my gpa is currently a 3.87 uw meaning I got quite a lot of b’s in hs. I knew I had to improve my grades throughout hs and show improvement but i couldn’t. Things like unexpected family circumstances, work schedules, and also corona (haha internet failure) led me to get 2 b’s last yr and 3 b’s jr yr but I was definitely planning to explain some of these b’s. Despite these troubling circumstances, I managed to take a whole lot of ap’s (8 jr yr!!) and wanted to at least show them rigor. I was planning to apply REA but am now pretty hesitant bc of my transcript. I am really worried they’re gonna dock me, but at the same time, I know that the essays are in my hands to make the best possible (started the process a month ago!!) Do you think that they would understand some of the mishaps?
Thank you
Hi @Lindagaf. Yes, I applied to 21 which was definitely more schools than most. I wanted to apply to certain selective institutions, but I also would have chosen full rides at other lower-tier schools over the selective institutions, and I also wanted good safeties that I would be proud of attending in case things didn’t work out. I ended up applying to 10ish top-20 schools (that didn’t offer merit scholarships), 5ish good schools with full rides, and 5ish safeties with full rides.
If I were doing it again, I honestly would apply to the same number. It was a lot of work, but I really did want to attend each college or be a part of each scholarship program I applied to, so I can’t say I have regrets. By the time you apply to 13 or so, you can start repeating essays and just changing a little for each school. I would rather do a lot of work and be told no than have applied to less and not known whether I could get in. But every applicant feels differently, so wouldn’t automatically recommend it.
^those b’s were semester b’s
hi! I’m also interested in majoring in something related to political science/social policy but then going down a premed track. I was curious how much support Stanford gives to finding internships for polisci, how accessible they would be for nonmajors, or how you have time for both poli sci + premed classes. thank you for doing this!
Hi! I was wondering what your timeline for writing essays and applying looked like (when did you start, how many times do you edit, etc).
Hi @aela00! In my experience, Stanford itself doesn’t give too much help in finding and securing internships, but having Stanford’s name as you’re applying is incredibly helpful. I think policy-related internships for nonmajors would be pretty accessible, provided you articulated a good reason for pursuing that internship and have extracurriculars/coursework/experiences in that policy area.
Having time for poli sci + premed is pretty tough to tell you the truth, it’s been more units than double majoring. Most who are interested in health policy tend to major in human biology because it has a policy track and overlaps with alot of required premed classes.
Hi @currentjunior! Intellectual vitality is definitely sought after in potential Stanford students, and that emphasis is something you can see when interacting with Stanford students. To be honest, I don’t remember what I wrote in that essay specifically, but even if I did, I don’t think it would be very helpful because intellectual vitality looks very different person to person. If you can demonstrate genuine curiosity about sociology/ gender in that essay, that would only be to your advantage.
I would recommend doing a google search about Stanford’s departments dedicated to those subjects. I don’t know off the top of my head.
My common app essay was written about the program I started at my school that dealt with racial inequity. It was a lighthearted, funny essay (in my opinion 
)
Hi @spring1nal! I wrote most of my applications in between Thanksgiving and New Years’. I had finished my common app before this, in order to apply REA elsewhere. I definitely spent the most time on my main common app essay, I probably rewrote in over ten times and each time, wrote and edited by hand because it helps my creativity and focus. I didn’t spend nearly as much time on the smaller essays for schools, because after a while you can start to recycle some of the essays you’ve used with minor edits. Writing that many essays did get tiring after a while, but I was lucky because I went to a high school that was relatively easy academically so I had plenty of time after school to work on the applications.
5 B’s will seem like a lot to them, though I understand you were under difficult circumstances. I only say this because the only negative thing my ad coms had to say about my application was two B’s I got in my first semester senior year (I only had A’s everywhere else). And this was despite the fact that I had a perfect score on my ACT, was a National Merit Finalist, had all 5’s on my APs, etc. Colleges like to see an upward trend in grades-- if you think you can make all A’s your first semester senior year, you may want to consider applying RD instead of SCEA to Stanford. SCEA might give you a small boost in admissions, but I think showing a resilient senior year would be more beneficial. Getting in RD is definitely possible, because it happened to me
@mohave, how did you assess fit for Stanford? What traits did you think they were most looking for? Were there comments that addressed this on your application?
@mohave I am a rising sophomore and I would like to go into pre-med and I was wondering if you took part in any internships, awards, honors, extracurriculars, or just about anything pertaining to the medical field which may have helped you in your amazing acceptances. Thank you very much in advance!!
Hi! Of the 21 colleges you applied to, were many of them very selective schools like Stanford? Or were most of them safety/target schools?
Do you think applying to many very selective schools helps or hurts admission chances to one of them?
Thanks so much for doing this!!
Hi @Southoftheriver. I’m not sure that I specifically considered what they were looking for, as with any other selective insitution, I assumed it was a dedicated and passionate student. I was more interested in how Stanford would fit me. In my application, I talked about the program I had founded that dealt with poverty and education inequality, and the desire to continue understand those things through certain departments at Stanford, and that is something the adcoms talked about.
Here’s the exact quote: “her reason for wanting to attend Stanford is clear— few other universities have a center dedicated to researching poverty and inequality, and this is a clear interest of hers.”
Hi @limelight101! I actually was adamantly not a premed when applying to colleges. I knew I wanted to work with policy after graduation (and I still do! but as a physician) so all of my awards and extracurriculars were policy (well, poverty and inequality) related.