Stanford SCEA? Good stats, but not sure about ECs.

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

<p>Hi Everyone, I really appreciate anyone who helps me with this dilemma I have.</p>

<p>Stanford is my first choice, but MIT and Caltech are in my top choices too. I think that I have the stats and science EC's to stand out for MIT/Caltech EA, but I'm not sure about Stanford. </p>

<p>Here are my general stats.</p>

<p>Race: Indian Male
SAT: 2340
GPA Unweighted: 4.0
Rank: Officially Top 10%, but the office screwed up and let me see that I was in Top 1%!
SATII: 800 Chemistry, 800 Math 2, 800 Biology</p>

<p>-Courses-
No APs in 9th/10th offered. 2 Honors
11th- 3 APs, 1 Honor
12th- 6 APs</p>

<p>-Extracurriculars-
*Science Research since 6th grade.
*Regional Cricket team, toured India representing the U.S. team.
*Gardening is a huge hobby for me (Basically, im a gardening freak), volunteer at the community garden where I have a plot, manage our home garden.
*President of 2 clubs
*Volunteer to help children with developmental disabilities, almost like an unpaid job
*Indian Vocal Music</p>

<p>-Awards-
*ISEF Finalist, won a special award
*Numerous State/Regional 1st place science fair awards
*Vice-Captained winning team of US National Youth Cricket Tournament
*Going to submit patent for one of my research projects. Need to do more research, so won't be able to before EA.
*Might be able to get a science comptetion award like Intel or Siemens, but that's after EA</p>

<p>-My Questions-</p>

<p>*So, is it better for me to try MIT/Caltech or am I competitive enough for SCEA?
*Another issue, should I wait till I get my grades for senior year 1st semester? It's my strongest course load.
*Do you consider my ECs to be diverse? Does long term participation help b/c most ECs I have done for at least 4 years.</p>

<p>Thanks a lot!</p>

2

<p>ahh I am an Indian male too, yet I am a rising junior…Stanford is also my top choice.
But anyway, your stats are beyond amazing (represent ;)) and so are your EC’s :smiley:
however, Stanford admission is quite unpredictable I have heard, so just be cautious :wink: Good luck man!</p>

3

<p>heyy I am an Indian male too apply for Stanford :slight_smile: Can u tell me more about the Regional Cricket team ur in? Which tournament did u play in? How long have u been playin for? btw I think u have a great chance for all MIT, Cal Tech and Stanford. Go for it. Good Luck!</p>

4

<p>In my honest opinion, i think you stand a great chance at MIT EA. Stanford SCEA is known to be ruthless and only the best of the best can get in. I say, you have a great chance at MIT EA and Caltech EA, so apply to both EA, then apply to stanford when you have more EC’s under your belt (like that research or research awards)</p>

5

<p>hahah three Indian males! :D</p>

6

<p>First let me say that I think you have as good of a chance as anyone of getting into Stanford, MIT, and Caltech. Obviously you should apply to all three plus some safety schools.</p>

<p>Now I am going to play devil’s advocate as to how an admissions officer at any elite school might look at your EC’s and Awards. I use a contrarian’s approach because I think it can be of more value than the typical CC “you’ll do great” comment on chance threads.</p>

<p>For your EC’s: </p>

<p>-You say Science Research since 6th grade. That is way too vague. Anybody can make this claim just by occasionally doing some simple experiments. I know you are summarizing here, but there will have to be something specific on your application. Focus on junior year and beginning of senior year. What you did in 6th grade is of no consequence.</p>

<p>-Being on the cricket team, even at a very high level, is not going to help you substantially at any elite school other than to say you have varied interests. This in itself is not much. However, the fact that you toured India carries weight. Not so much because you played cricket, but just for the experience of going to another culture.</p>

<p>-Gardening is a hobby. So is hanging out at the mall with your friends. It doesn’t carry any weight. </p>

<p>-Being President of high school clubs is a dime a dozen activity on applicants’ resumes. Most high schools force all students to join at least one club. In most cases, clubs are at excuse for students to hang out and do nothing. Admissions officers know this.</p>

<p>-Indian Vocal Music is too vague. If it is a hobby you enjoy, it is not going to help. If you have won awards it may mean something.</p>

<p>For your Awards:</p>

<p>-You are going to submit a patent? You might as well say you are going to win a Nobel Prize. Plus anyone can submit an idea for a patent. It is a little harder to actually get the patent. Admissions Officers usually will dismiss what applicants say they might do in the future. Your accomplishments need to be tangible. </p>

<p>-You might win an Intel or Siemen’s award? You also might become CEO of Intel, but I wouldn’t put that on your application until after you do it.</p>

<p>OK, now that I have finished being difficult, I just want to say that I am giving you a possible perspective that an Admissions Officer might have after seeing thousands of applications. I may have made assumptions about your resume that are not accurate. Only take from my words, what might be helpful and ignore the rest. I know you were abbreviating the description of your EC’s and I may have come to the wrong conclusion about some of them.</p>

<p>One last thought is that you might not have enough AP classes your junior year to apply SCEA.</p>

<p>I don’t know what will appeal to the Admissions Officer that evaluates your application and no one else on CC knows either. Use your own intuition and you will do fine.</p>

<p>Best of luck and perhaps you will find yourself on the farm in a year.</p>

7

<p>

</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>My gut reaction is to think the same as this, but I thought about it and one thing comes to mind. Which is that there is probably more to the S application than awards and academics. Zero significant involvement (actually resulting in something tangible, not, as cardfan says, a statement that one has done something for a long time) outside of school usually ends in a bad result. I think given the expansiveness of this component of the application, your essays are very important. You are a good applicant, but it is ultimately a question of a school finding a place for you among various good applicants. I have certainly known people without tons of awards or even out of the world academics, no URM status, and no legacy make it; while we’ll never know what helped them, we do know it’s no secret that essays count for a lot. And know that it is not how interesting you are, but how you will contribute to the school’s community (and what indication you give of that) which will likely make or break how seriously your application is considered.</p>

<p>This advice is less my own, and more what I have gathered from a few posters I found knowledgeable. Particularly the last thing I said is an important point several posters have made. So gardening may or may not help. Several things which appear superficial may or may not help. I would focus on answering the question: what does it appear to you that you can contribute to the given school’s community in terms of talent and involvement. This advice is mainly for HYPS schools. I think it’s good for many schools, but MIT and Caltech likely want a slightly different side of you developed and discussed in your application.</p>

8

<p>Mathboy, I really do not follow your comments in the first paragraph. Are you saying the OP should highlight that he enjoys gardening in his essays to MIT, Caltech, and Stanford? That may work, but common sense tells me there are other subjects (i.e his research) that would make a bigger impact for an applicant who is going to present himself as wanting to major in the sciences. I am not clear how gardening is going to “contribute to the school’s community”.</p>

<p>I want to make it clear that gardening and Indian vocal music should be listed as EC’s, but they are probably not the mainstay of what will get someone accepted to these schools.</p>

<p>Tanakeame; Needless to say, you are going to get conflicting ideas on a chance thread. Some of them make no sense to me, but they may make sense to you and others. All I would say is do what feels right for you.</p>

9

<p>^There are two schools of thought on the topic the past couple posts brought up. I think my MIT application highlights this…</p>

<p>I play golf. Really well. I’d be the best player (arguably) at MIT based on the team results I’ve seen. I also enjoy math and science. A lot. But so does every other stinking MIT applicant. </p>

<p>So, do I highlight what makes me different (golf) or focus on what the school is looking for that almost everyone else has (strong math and science)? Tough dilemna. If I write an essay about golf, then I don’t get to express my passion for math and science and MIT might think I’m just a random guy with good math/science grades and a couple math/science ECs (which I may or may not be passionate for) who wants in at MIT. If I write an essay about math/science, then I may end up sounding like every other applicant and I don’t get to stand out as much as I’d like. So, what to do? </p>

<p>In case you were wondering, I ended up writing the essay about golf and getting rejected. The two may not be correlated at all, though. Who knows?</p>

10

<p>

</p>

<p>Oh, I can clarify. My point was slightly more abstract than to say gardening could necessarily contribute to the school community. It is to say that while on first glance, if one’s activities aren’t anything one has won awards in, I wanted to emphasize that schools like HYPS (especially according to some knowledgeable posters I learned from) will foremost admit one not based on what their community will do for the one, but rather the other way around (only logical, of course, but a point many applicants do not appreciate enough). Which is why talented applicants can be rejected easily, and I want to say that awards do not mean everything. I believe an essay about an out of school involvement that may at first sound overused and completely the opposite of unique can be powerful if showing signs of some unique contribution the applicant can make to the school community.</p>

<p>To give an example: say the applicant is into a certain special form of community service. Say there is no award behind it (safe to say – heck, it’s community service, and every other applicant has done some probably). But that doesn’t mean the applicant can’t say something unique about this community service, something so unique and mature that it really stands out. After all, tons of applicants have tons of awards, and they needn’t exactly be super unique. Sure, a small percentage of the population in the US may have attained these awards, but then again, a small percentage of the US has attained 2300+ SATs, and we all know from the boring complaint threads on CC that these mean only a little. The conclusion is that it isn’t quite how accomplished the applicant is, but what the applicant is going to bring to the school. I have the impression that essays are taken very seriously.</p>

<p>So I think either one must be accomplished in very unique ECs, or present something unique in the essays that the AOs read and think would make a fine addition to the school community. While community service, vocal music, such activities, will not get applicants accepted, neither will any specific award, and I think it’s what one says about what one has done that gives the potential to make many apparently less than unique or impressive involvements into winners.</p>

11

<p>Thanks everyone so far for their comments. Now, I’m getting a clearer idea that colleges want to see what you can bring to the school.</p>

<p>I realized that I was a little general before, so to clarify things: </p>

<p><em>I am not going to put that “I might get an award”! I was merely speculating that in case I get an award, it would be better to apply regular decision. I don’t think that I have any 1 thing that is a super stand out for SCEA, so I wanted to get input about my holistic app.
*Science Research since 6th grade means, I thought of my own research topics, entered in the regional competition, and won big in 11th grade. I thought that a long-term participation would show a *genuine</em> interest in science and discovery. Most people I know do 1 or 2 years in 11th/12th for college app, so it doesn’t show genuine interest. I think this is the biggest thing I want to emphasize; my intellectual curiosity through research.
*Applying for patent. I am interacting with a Stanford faculty to further my research. I know that the patent will take a while, but I can show that I can interact with college faculty, do a project, and help the world (my projects in renewable energy).
*Gardening. To me, gardening isn’t a hobby. Its almost like a science, manipulating plants, experimenting what works, trying to plant Indian varieties of tomatoes and peppers. Also, Stanford has a community garden that is really lacking in a composting system, so this is where it applies to the school.</p>

<p>Anyways, I hope this will spark up some more debate. My questions now, is it good to emphasize something that is purely a hobby (no awards), but is important to you and applicable to college? And, does a long term commitment/passion in science research help me stand out by showing that I will make a difference by doing research at their college?</p>

12

<p>^^ Right, looks like you’re on the right track. Think about how you can contribute to the schools you’re applying to, why they’d want you. They get lots of talent, but ultimately HYPS schools, it seems, are especially strong in building a student body that gives back to them. One can pretty much accomplish roughly anything intellectual one desires to do at several other sites of learning in the US. </p>

<p>If you can write an essay about something you’ll do to better the community, firstly it probably shouldn’t have to do with your talent so much as inspiration – talent is best seen through tangible measures like awards, after all. But this is why the essay addresses something so different from anything awards or test scores or grades measure. Nevertheless, if you have an award demonstrating a particular knack for something you want to give to the school community, that can be a plus point, I’d only imagine.</p>

<p>As for what you should write on your essays, well just keep it real and feasible and earnest. It’s easy to tell when something is totally out of the blue. If you write about something you love, well you should have evidence as to having loved it I imagine. Use your common sense, basically. </p>

<p>The best advice on applications circulating on CC as of late is to take only our more general observations to heart, and to ignore specific suggestions at your whim, or accept them at your whim also.</p>

13

<p>You are competitive for any school. Apply early to the one that is your first choice.
The gardening aspect (especially combined with science-related side if it) is very unique, and will make you stand out.</p>

14

<p>tanakeame: You are very articulate and explained your activities well. As you describe your long term interest in science, it makes perfect sense. </p>

<p>Working with a Stanford faculty member on a research project is very impressive. There will be few, if any, other high school applicants that will be able to make this claim.</p>

<p>Now that I see the elaboration of your EC’s, my suggestion is to ignore every bit of advice you receive on CC (including mine) and let your intuition make the decision for essay topics. Heck, my advice is to never come back to this website because it will probably muddy your clear thinking.</p>

<p>My son is a student at Stanford. When he applied he had never heard of CC. He didn’t know anything about URMs and ORMs. He had never even heard of the term “hook” as used ubiquitously here on CC. He had received no advice on what Admissions Officers are looking for and was really not interested in that perspective. My son simply wrote his essays in an honest, straight-forward manner about what he was most passionate about. Same thing for all his friends at Stanford that I have talked to about admissions. None of them thought in terms of trying to second-guess what the Admissions Officers were looking for.</p>

<p>Here on CC, everyone is trying to second-guess what an Admissions Officer wants to read. Everyone is looking for some kind of angle or special advantage.</p>

<p>I say that your best bet is to just be yourself and forget about CC. I predict you get accepted.</p>