<p>Hmm hopefully this hasn't been answered too many times and if it has I apologize!</p>
<p>Well I was wondering what Stanford cares about the most, whether it be SAT scores or your essays or your extracurriculars.</p>
<p>Personally, my GPA is good, my SAT scores are a bit lower than average, but I was hoping my essays would make up for it. So I guess what I'm trying to ask is...are essays more important than SAT scores? =P Thanks for the help!</p>
<p>*Patiently waiting until December..</p>
<p>Well, on their site. If I remember correctly, they want "intellectual vitality" more than anything. Its not just one thing, Its the overall impression...</p>
<p>How much does a 2040 SAT hurt you is everything else is decent?</p>
<p>haha, i hope a 2050 doesn't hurt too badly because that's definitely what i have...</p>
<p>i think scores below 2200s will hurt.</p>
<p>Do they have a more stats oriented or hollistic approach?</p>
<p>holistic definately</p>
<p>Stanford puts a much larger emphasis on the essays than any other part. They use a holistic approach. In the past, adcoms had to read through a huge, huge book (300+ pages I think) with various student profiles before they could start looking at real applications.
However, while this is all true of Stanford in the past, with a new dean of admissions things could change. The adcoms are not even sure yet just how they will be required to look at and judge this year's applicants (i.e. - meet in a big group, small group, council, individual, etc.) because the new dean hasn't said much.</p>
<p>haha, i was just going to post that site that nngmm has sent
but keep in mind that was written in 1998, many things could have changed... possibly even more competitive, and considering they rejected a 1580 back then... you never know..</p>
<p>the vibe i get from that article is that once you make it past the sorting round, then your essays and recs have much more weight. if you get into the half where they deem as "competitive," your essays will start playing their role. the scores provide a very superficial view of the student, but it makes it easy to sort a student by the score he has.. now you never know, if they consider a sub-2100 score competitive or not, but if they do, then you'll make it to the second round and your essays will pick up your slack..</p>
<p>this is the early-action round... a very high percentage of students will have over a 2200 i'd think...</p>
<p>have faith though! i think a 2000+ should definitely get a second look, and then your essays will bring you back up. there's no way of knowing for sure, i'm not an adcom. but one thing i think i'd guarantee: if they have to choose between a student that's gotten a 2250 and a student that's gotten a 2050, i think the score wont be the reason they'll disregard the 2050. when it comes to choosing between candidates, it's the intangibles he/she brings that will put em over the top</p>
<p>god be with you and all of us!</p>
<p>he he...they even rejected a 1600 and 5 SAT 2 800..</p>
<p>they accpeted a 1370 though..</p>
<p>its funny how most CC students honestly believe that HYPS look at SAT scores alone. Your SAT alone wont get you into these schools.</p>
<p>But will a score of 1380 alone keep you out? Thanks what I'd like to find out</p>
<p>Just a curious question, say you have low(around 1800) SAT score, and/or a low GPA, but "THE BEST ESSAY", and everything else. Is it theoretically possible to get in, or do they just look at the test scores and/or GPA, and if they are lower then usual, they never get to your essay, or the rest of your application?</p>
<p>If you have a low(around 1800) SAT score, and/or a low GPA, no essay will get you in. You would need some incredible hook with those stats (like ending world hunger, or finding a cure for cancer, or donating a building ;))</p>
<p>So do adcoms just look at one of your scores or do they take the time to add it all up? My last SAT was a 2080 but my highest scores total 2190.</p>
<p>they look at your highest scores</p>
<p>Based on my experience here so far plus what I know of the admissions process... SATs hardly matter. They very rarely say anything that the rest of the app didn't already strong suggest. Your academic record is very, very important. If you didn't do well in your classes in high school you aren't getting in. Your grades/scores need to suggest that you can graduate but other than that I seriously doubt there is a cutoff GPA or SAT score. Everyone here is really interesting and I often wonder how the admissions department knew that. It seems they must look at essays a lot. And think about it, if you were reading all these apps, the easiest way to get a sense of what this application is like is to read the written parts, much easier to interpret than all the stats and lists. That does NOT mean that grades hardly matter. Not at all. But how do you choose who to accept after you have a while of students with very similar academic records? Everyone here is also very good at something, many people are very good at several things. That could be a sport, an academic subject, debate, dance, etc. Really investing time in one or two activities probably helps too. </p>
<p>That is all just my opinion. No one here really knows what they look for. I bet that even the people in the admissions department couldn't really tell you exactly what makes the difference between admit and waitlist and reject for borderline cases.</p>
<p>What about the new guy that just came in, who used to be dean of admissions at Yale? Is he more of a "hollistic" person? It seems that Stanford until now has been, but he might change things.</p>