Hi @mczchl! I would say 10 were very selective schools (~10% admissions rate). Five were less selective, but still good schools, where I applied for full ride merit scholarships. The last 5 were safeties where I automatically received (close to, if not completely) full rides, and I applied into their honors college programs.
As to your last question, it definitely depends on the person. If applying to 20+ schools will decrease the quality of your applications, then you should apply to less and devote more time to each to help your admissions chances at any one of them. I was genuinely interested in each school, so I was willing to take the time to create an application for each school, though it was an intense 3 months or so.
@mohave If I’m considering applying as a transfer student to Stanford, what are some things I need to do at the current school I’m in? I’m kind of upset on how my college application process turned out. I got rejected by all the Ivys and all the top 20s schools I applied to. The top 25 school I wanted to go to didn’t offer much financial aid and was out of my reach financially and my parents saw no justifiable reason why I should go there versus my State Flagship school. How do I stand out at my large State flagship school. When applying to Stanford, I really to study Economics and International Relations because I want to continue on and study Politics and Economics when I go on to Grad school. If you’re able to, can you please PM me because I have a lot of questions about Stanford life and how I can make transfer application for Stanford successful.
Hi @Tire2024. Unfortunately, I am very inexperienced when it come to transfer admissions. I only know that it is very, very selective for Stanford. I know there are people in grad school at Stanford in IR/ Econ who came from state schools as undergraduates, so this can be a possibility for you as well. You can PM me if you have any questions.
Hi! I was just wondering how you exactly were able to see your admissions record. I would love to figure out how to do so and see my admissions record from my university. Thanks so much!
when your adcoms said you had a clear reason for attending, where in the application did you state or express that interest in the departments and what you hope to do? Because other than the short question asking one thing you are excited about at Stanford, I find it hard to specifically name departments in like the personal statement or the supplemental long essays because those are meant for showing specifically you (or at least I assumed)?
Hi there! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions.
I’m a Canadian student who moved to Canada at the age of 12, and before that lived in a war-torn region for 5 years. Do you think I should include that in my application? My problem is that I’m having trouble articulating how this experience has influenced my personality/identity, and I’ve also heard that immigration is a popular topic in commonapp essays, so I would love to hear your opinion on this.
Why did you want to see your admissions record through FERPA?
Anyway, my kid is also a rising Junior at Stanford, and he says although smart kids will do well at any college, it does affect you (mostly positively) to be around other students (almost all of them) who are very motivated. He says that’s one reason why it’s impossible to not try very hard at Stanford. My kid is a type of person who don’t mind NOT standing out in a big pond rather than shine in a small pond, so Stanford was a good choice for him. He also wanted to learn the Silicon Valley culture. He did many outside the class activities that made him gain knowledge about the business world such as internships abroad, researching and presenting to high level officers of an actual business, organizing and participating in tech seminars and helping professors. I really think it’s better to have average GPA and gain many work exoperiences (of course, if you can shine in both areas, that’s great) and find out what you don’t like and what suits you. My kid found out he really is not cut out to be a think tank person after he worked at one during summer. My kid applied to Stanford on REA basis because he truly felt Stanford was his number 1 choice, and he didn’t apply to other schools after he found out he got into Stanford.
Stanford campus definitely has a techie feel but my kid (non-STEM who sucks in math) doesn’t mind that at all because he sees the need for non-techie people to learn something about tech.
One thing you should keep in mind is if COVID 19 lasts for long time whether it’s financially good decision to pay high tuition to attend Stanford when all classes are going to be online anyway. This question will be relevant for those students whose families will have to pay full tuition or big portion of costs.
Hi @zoea4057! A publication at Stanford sent students instructions on how to view admissions records. Unfortunately, I don’t know the process of viewing records at other universities.
Hi @currentjunior! I don’t recall specific essays I wrote for Stanford (other than general topics). I know that I mentioned certain departments somewhere in my application. I wouldn’t stress too much about where to mention your Stanford-specific interests, so long as they are clearly and passionately stated somewhere.
Hi @FatimaIbrahim ! You’re welcome! If this aspect of your identity is very important to you, and it has shaped you, the way you view the world, and your approach to collegiate life, then I think this could be a great essay topic. I think immigration is a popular topic because it deeply affects a lot of applicants, I wouldn’t choose to write about it just because it happens to be a more common topic. If you’re having trouble articulating what you want to in your essay, I can definitely relate. As I wrote above, I went through countless revisions myself before having a finished product I was proud of-- but it definitely helped to be writing about a topic I knew alot about and that I wanted to write about.
Based on the comments that admissions officer wrote on your application what is the one advise that you will give for students who aspire to apply to Stanford. What do you think worked in your favor ?
Hi @VP2023. My advice would be to 1) show your genuine interest in Stanford by 2) showing how you will be a good fit there. In other words, be able to effectively pitch why you would make a good Stanford student.
Hi @vaevict1s. Stanford doesn’t have a premed “program” per se, but there is certainly a premed “track” which consists of recommended courses to take before taking the MCAT and applying to med school. Additionally, Stanford offers premed advisors to guide you through the premed process, and organizations like Stanford Women in Medicine to give exposure to the field.
Hi @mohave Hope you’re having an amazing time at the Farm! I had started my non - profit related to CS, in my junior year but now because of COVID it has become harder for it to grow and help more people.
What the non profit does- We try to help schools in areas that don’t have a ton of access to computer science and we invite them weekly to study with schools nearby that do.
I thought of doing online classes for the kids but it’s getting harder? What advice would you give?
Thank you so much for your response! As a sophomore in high school now, I’m just really fearful of what I want to pursue but I do have an idea in pursuing neurology/neuroscience and/or AI. How can I broaden my extracurriculars and experience in these fields? I really want to be involved in research and clubs to show my passion, but during quarantine I feel like my choices are limited. I also feel like I am not as passionate in several, if not pretty much all, of my extracurriculars that I am involved in. I am exploring them though, but I just feel really lazy and not “deep” into these outside activities. Again, thank you so much for your help!
Hi! I’m a junior in high school and I just feel so much anxiety around extracurriculars and building my resume. I go to a competitive high school and it seems as if everyone around me is starting non profits or going to national sports tournaments.
I have adhd and my main interests are medicine and I love art/writing, but throughout freshman and sophomore year I did so many random things (from political jsa conferences to being a tour guide to hundreds of hours volunteering at a science museum to working at a bakery to being in stem clubs).
Right now the main ECs I have are that I’m president of HOSA, Girls Who Code, and Creative Writing Club at my school. I also founded a literary magazine for my school and am xc varsity captain. I have some awards from Scholastics Art & Writing as well. I just feel like I don’t have a cohesive story and I’m out of time. Over the summer I had lots of plans (a girls who code internship for example—because I’m also interested in compsci) but they were cancelled because of corona. This past year has been really difficult for me (my mom battled cancer twice) but now my life is finally getting better and I’m filled with motivation—I just don’t know what I should do to build my resume and create a theme for when I apply. Do I have to have a theme? Any advice? (Btw I’m not hoping to get into Stanford or anything but I want to apply to some selective schools and scholarships)