What are my chances for Stanford

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

This post might be a little bit weird since I’m not going to go into my extracurriculars or academics, but I can tell you that I am well-qualified academically, and at least considerable in terms of extracurriculars. My main question in this discussion is in terms of legacy and personal story chances. I have 3 of these personal/legacy stories, and I’m wondering if they’d have any impact/boost on my application at all, and whether or not to include them, so here they are:

  1. My dad was born to a poor family in China, and he was accepted into Stanford. However, because people who couldn't afford college at the time were controlled by the Chinese government, they did not allow him to go to Stanford, but instead to a Japanese University (because it was less expensive). Would I be able to be counted as a legacy student or no?
  2. When I was born, I had a severe head injury (I was bleeding severely around my brain and out of my head), and I was rushed to the Stanford medical center, where I had several MRI scans and I had to stay overnight there for about a week. Luckily, I was able to come out without a disability. I feel extremely grateful to Stanford for this, and because of this, I have always looked up to their various programs throughout my life.
  3. I have a classmate who's father is a professor at Stanford, and even though I have never met him, I'm thinking, maybe I could ask her to tell her dad about me and write me a letter of recommendation. Would this help at all, especially since he is not a professor in my major of interest?

Thank you for reading this :slight_smile:

2
  1. You are not a legacy.
  2. How does this incident make you an attractive candidate for Stanford? What is the tie in? You would have to write an essay that ties this together.
  3. Even assuming the professor were willing to write a letter (doubtful in the first place since he doesn't even know you), it would most likely not be helpful. The most effective LoR's are from instructors/mentors who have worked closely with you and can speak and advocate for you from a very personal, not generic basis.
3

First two things do not help you at all. A LOR from someone who doesn’t know you can actually harm your application.
It will detract from the LORs from people who do know you and write positive things about you.

4

The odds are so slim at Stanford unless you have super high scores, perfect grades, and are a star athlete at a national level or have cured cancer or have done something so quirky to stand out. They reject 2/3 of applicants who have perfect ACT or SAT scores. My deceased wife’s boss’ daughter was a legacy, an All-State volleyball player, and had a perfect SAT score and even she thought that Stanford was a total reach school (she did get accepted). in fact, that same boss, also a professor at the school, wrote my kid’s recommendation letter and it didn’t move the needle one bit. None of those things that you mention will move the needle either, sorry to say.

5

All three will not help. LORs from faculty only matter if the student has worked directly with the professor.