Hi! I hope someone can help me with a few questions I have about Stanford. I’m really curious about my chances of gaining acceptance for the fall of 2016. First, I’ll tell a little bit about myself. I am a current junior in high school, and my cumulative weighted GPA is a 4.3. I hope to continue the upward trend for the remainder of this year and into next year. My SAT score is 1410/1600 and 2130/2400. I am really involved in my school’s extracurriculars. I am a part of the Science Olympiad, Academic Bowl, and Spanish Club. I am also a part of a nationally-ranked “TEAMS” (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics, and Science) team (3rd & 9th in nation). I am a member of my school’s chapter of the National Honor Society. I recently won an art award from the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition. It earned significant recognition - 2 Gold Keys, 2 American Vision awards, an article in Scholastic’s magazine, etc. I have also taken 5 APs/7 honors courses up to this point, and am scheduled for 5 more APs for next year (senior year). I also won the National Spanish Exam’s Junior Travel Award, an award in which recipients travel to a Spanish-speaking country for 1 week, all expenses paid. I was one of 24 in the nation. Also, I am a two-sport varsity athlete: football and basketball. I volunteer at three organizations in my free time. I think that covers most of it. I am seeking any insight from current/past students, or simply anyone who has some sort of knowledge of the admissions criteria. Any tips? How do I stand based on my current grades/scores/extracurriculars? I am not a resident of California.
truth is…there is no way to know. Your SAT scores are definitely lower than what you see most Stanford admits posting, but you have lots of other good things going on. I know student with as much who were rejected, and students with as much who were accepted. Are you a good enough athlete to get in that way? Stanford’s very big on its sports.
Just make sure to focus on the extracurriculars that really reflect you and your passions. They like to see a pattern in ECs and Volunteer work rather than 1000 hours of random stuff. But it seems like you’ve established some patterns already. Stanford is really hard to predict though. There is no way to tell. Stanford values teamwork as well as leadership so when you do write your essays it isn’t a bad idea to mention that. Cooperative spirit and all. And just make sure your essays don’t read like a resume next year.