I’ve heard so many different perspectives of what really matters to the Stanford admissions AdCom. Some say you have to have perfect SATs and GPAs and LMNOPs. Others say that that crap doesn’t matter, what really matters is how authentic you present yourself in your essays. Others say you have to cure cancer and start a company.
Of course, no one really knows what actually matters unless you’re part of AdCom yourself. But some people have been admitted and know what their strategy was that got them accepted or rejected.
So my question is, what do you think actually matters?
Look. They reject around 95 to 96 out of everyone who applies. Everything and nothing matters. By that, I mean there just isn’t a simple formula. So just give up on trying to figure it out.
They want “excellence.” But excellence can be manifested in many ways, and it will vary from candidate to candidate. Some students will be very well-rounded with strengths across a wide range of attributes, others will be truly super stellar in just one area. What may get a candidate accepted one year, may not get them accepted if they applied the year before or the year after.
This is a slightly illuminating article: https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=66225
The overall theme is “intellectual vitality” and commitment, which are broadly defined. But if you spend a day in a small Stanford tutorial session, you’ll find students who are intrinsically curious - they learn because they can’t help but ask the next question. They do what they do out of strong passion. These are qualities that are present in a lot of students, but with the emphasis on scores and gpas, sometimes students lose sight of why they want to learn.
In the end it’s mostly luck and timing… I was an alumni interviewer this year for about a dozen applicants. I have a mental list of who I think should get in based on the qualities we’re asked to comment on, but I won’t know until end of March. I’m pretty curious to find out. Based on statistics though, probably nobody I interviewed will get in…