What are my chances and looking for some constructive criticism!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

<p>Incoming Junior with hopes of going to Stanford. How do my stats look, and do you have any suggestions to make them stronger. </p>

<p>SAT I:1900
Unweighted GPA: 4.0<br>
Plan to finish school with about 6 APs total
Extracurricular:
Volunteered at many community events<br>
Part of school's Garden Club
Member of out of school Community Service Club: Teens at Service
5 years of Taekwondo
4 years of Recreational Soccer
2 years of Competitive Soccer<br>
Plan to run for leadership position for senior year </p>

<p>Gender: Female<br>
Ethnicity: Half Greek/ Half Afghan
Family: Middle Class
Hook?: First Generation American </p>

<p>Possible Majors: Science or Pre Med</p>

<p>All help is greatly appreciated!</p>

2

<p>Since “people” tend to say SATs aren’t that important, I think you should at least get to a 2100. </p>

<p>Think like this: You’re an admissions’ officer, someone likes medicine and/or science, - don’t you think it’s “nice” to see that in someone’s profile? If I look at your extracurriculars, I’d say you’re more into soccer than science or medicine.</p>

3

<p>Well next summer I plan to go to a medical research camp,m do you think that would help?</p>

4

<p>I think you should do the things you think make you happy the most. If there’s nothing that prevents you from going to that camp, then go there and see how it is. Maybe you can also write an essay about how this camp was and what kind of experience you’ve gained from it. </p>

<p>I’m not sure what clubs/programs your school offers, but if there’s something medical/science related, take advantage of it. But I honestly think this camp could be something interesting (even for me, lol). You can definitely write about it and how it has affected you.</p>

5

<p>Not saying I know for sure, but my son applied EA to Stanford and was rejected.
2280 SAT, 3.79 gpa all Honors and AP courses, Calc BC
800SATII Math II
760 SATII Bio
7 AP’s 4’s and 5’s
Varsity Tennis
Treasurer Honors Art Club
Tri M
National Honor Soc.
National ARt Honors Soc.
4 years in Honors Wind Ensemble
Clubs</p>

<p>Stanford is like Harvard of the West and is particularly hard to get into unless you have something super extraordinary or legacy or if you are a URM with those stats. I’ve learned that all apps have high stats like yours.
Find something you have alot of interest in and pursue it. Try to show this passion through different areas: i.e. start a club, run a charity event involving your passion, start a website, blog about your passion, do something on youtube on your subject and see how many subscribers you can get. In essence do something extraordinary. And if you don’t get into Stanford, don’t fret, you will be doing something you love and can pursue it anywhere! good luck.</p>

6

<p>I think it’s interesting to hear other people’s opinions on Stanford, but some of them, (well lots of them) contradict themselves in every thread in this forum. I’ve read somewhere (yes, in this forum), that Harvard mostly picks up the students with high stats, and Stanford accepts the ones that are more “well-rounded”. Of course this contradicts itself in almost every way, since this is not true at all, if you look at the people who get rejected and admitted. There are many people that get rejected who have nearly perfect scores, as jujumak said. But if I may ask, what was your son’s intended major and what did he do outside of school to pursue his interest? Maybe that was one thing that didn’t stand out, can’t think of anything else to be honest.</p>

7

<p>The fact is that you need great stats plus “something else” for a good shot at either Stanford or Harvard. ( At either school you can have somewhat lower stats if you’re genuinely hooked, as in URM, first gen, etc. Legacy isn’t enough to compensate for crummy stats.) I would say that Stanford might be more creative and open-minded about what the “something else” can be, but everyone needs to remember that the “something else” isn’t instead of the great stats for unhooked applicants–it’s in addition to them.</p>

8

<p>@zenkoan - but there’s still kind of no guarantee of course. This “something else” is what for example, besides first gen, etc.)?</p>

9

<p>Obviously there’s no guarantee, Fintork, but once you cross the stats hurdle, there’s any number of outstanding accomplishments, qualities and talents that can improve your chances of making it into the admit pile. It can be academic recognition at a national or international level; it can be artistic recognition at those levels; it can be having created an organization of some kind that actually accomplishes something significant, rather than something nominal for the sake of an application; it can be showing perspective and maturity beyond your years in your essays, which show that you would bring something to unique to campus; it can be having specific, well-articulated research goals that dovetail better with projects underway at Stanford than elsewhere; it could be evidence of rare perseverance in following any kind of challenging undertaking; and countless other things. What all of these "something else"s have in common is that they show the admissions committee how the Stanford community would be better for having admitted the applicant. Hope this helped.</p>

10

<p>MockingJay0714,</p>

<p>As a precept, it is important to understand that Stanford’s admission process is a “crap-shoot” for just about everybody. Even kids that have started companies have been turned down. </p>

<p>So, here is my personal analysis of your information.</p>

<p>SAT 1: 1900 is not bad; however, it is nothing superb. That said, the SAT does not really devalue your application as you have other pieces of your admission puzzle to put it all together. </p>

<p>Unweighted GPA: 4.0 is great (assuming that you are on a 4 point scale). That said, I would guess that a large portion of Stanford Applicants have 4.0 GPA so, unfortunately, this, as good as it sounds, does not send you over the edge into admission. </p>

<p>6 AP Classes: That is a solid amount assuming that you have done well on the exams that you have taken. Unfortunately, you did not provide me with those. </p>

<p>Extracurricular: First things first - define many. Many is simply too trite, too hackneyed and too vague. How many hours do you actually have and have you made a commitment to a particular community service site? Next, the clubs and the sports sound great - nothing much else to say there. Lastly, simply planning to run for leadership is not good enough in Stanford’s eyes. No one likes people who can only talk the talk but fail to walk the walk. That said, run for that position and try your best to gain it! </p>

<p>Gender: Ummm, can’t really say much here.</p>

<p>Ethnicity: Being Half Greek/ Half Afghan is probably going to help the most (and I DO NOT say that to discredit everything else that you have accomplished. Rather, just see it the status quo of contemporary society at the time). The most difficult part in getting admission into highly selective colleges is being unique and different. I don’t think that I have heard of anyone who is your ethnicity. Plus, whether people agree with it or not, Stanford practices affirmative action - something that will help your chances. It is no wonder that Stanford can claim to be one of the most diverse schools in the nation. </p>

<p>Family: Being middle class won’t really do much. Most of the kids that apply are middle class and I don’t see it affecting your chances. </p>

<p>Hook: This, coupled with your ethnicity, will help your chances. Much the same argument that I made in that section also applies here. </p>

<p>Overall, I think you stand a decent chance; however, you still need a vibe/personality to be present in your application to solidify your chances. </p>

<p>Good luck! :D</p>

11

<p>Source: Rising Stanford Senior</p>

<p>I think you’re SAT is fine but if you feel you can do better by working harder or studying more it can only help</p>

<p>The one thing I would stress based on what you’ve provided is to really delve into your ECs and get as much out of them as you can. Stanford wants to see passion in and outside of the classroom and that’s what your ECs are supposed to reflect. If you can show that through your current ECs you’re good, if you can’t then you need to find something you want to invest yourself in</p>

<p>Incoming Junior with hopes of going to Stanford. How do my stats look, and do you have any suggestions to make them stronger. </p>

<p>Some other advice I would give you would be to not focus so much on the stats colleges provide and what people throughout high school and on this site preach in terms of SAT scores, over 4.0gpas and having to be nearly inhuman to get into a good school. </p>

<p>I knew I was one of the top students in my high school and believed I deserved to go to a great school so I applied to all of the top 20 and a few schools in the top 50 because I wanted to not because some stats told me I should. The biggest advice I can give you is to try your best and aim for the great schools and don’t worry about your competition, worry about how well you can do</p>

<p>Good luck! if you need anything else let me know</p>