<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>I am going to be entering my senior year this fall, and plan on applying EA to Stanford. I consider myself an exceedingly bright student, and want to study Physics and Math in college, but am unsure whether or not am I Stanford material.</p>
<p>This is largely spurred on by my unique high school. My high school doesn't give grades and sends out written report cards. Its arguably better in every respect to traditional grades, but as a result I can't give a GPA or average grade to compare with Stanford's accepted students. </p>
<p>I take the most challenging courses available (including math courses at a college I will be taking this senior year), got an 800 on my SAT Math 2 and am confident that I will get a 5 on the BC Calculus (though my standard SAT scores were only so-so: 2130). The problem is that I think I'm lacking in my extracurriculars. </p>
<p>I have done EC Arts classes since freshmen year, as well as been on a sports team and Model UN since the same year, winning awards in both, but nothing else truly spectacular.</p>
<p>I'm wondering on my odds because if I truly don't stand a chance then as much as I want to go to Stanford, I might reconsider applying EA there. </p>
<p>Your thoughts? And thank you.</p>
<p>If Stanford is your first choice school, then I believe you should apply early. However, something you might consider is that at a school like Stanford, applying early really does not give you any boosted chance to gain admission to the school. Thus, you might consider applying early action to other schools and then simply RD to Stanford.</p>
<p>Just my opinion.</p>
<p>I agree with the point of view, but I really want to go to Stanford and think that the little but of demonstrated interest that applying EA would give might make the difference for me. However I want to be realistic and won’t do it if people think I don’t stand a shot.</p>
<p>Thanks though.</p>
<p>your SAT is fine as well as your test scores and Stanford won’t penalize you for the way your school evaluates you. The one thing I would stress to you is that you enhance your extracurriculurs and by that I mean really investing yourself in one or two things that you enjoy and doing great things within them. Don’t do what a lot of people do and join countless clubs just because they think it looks good.</p>
<p>Source:
Stanford student</p>
<p>Latcardinal is right. Your academics are fine, but nothing about you (from what you posted) stands out from what will inevitably be an applicant pool of people academically almost identical to yourself.
Since you’ll be a senior, you don’t have a lot of time to establish yourself in an EC, but dig deep and find what you really want to do with the next… four, five months. Volunteer somewhere, or build something. Paint a mural for a retirement home or a VA hospital, whatever you’re passionate about, and then write a REALLY GOOD ESSAY. The EA admissions % is always higher, but generally the applicants in that pool are also a little better, so you might be better off applying non-restrictive EA to other schools and then RD to Stanford (submit your application and arts supplement on the early arts deadline, though, if you’re good!).</p>