What Stanford Looks For

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello, I realized my dream school is Stanford University and I plan to apply REA next year for the class of 2018. I have 4 main concerns:

  1. What about my resume would Stanford like?
  2. What about my resume would Stanford dislike?
  3. Do I have a good ‘chance’ at Stanford?
  4. Tips to improve my application?

Major: Bioengineering/Chemical Engineering and Pre Medicine
State: Ohio
School: Top public school
Race: African American and Asian American (Blasian)
Gender: XY (Male)
Class: 2018 (I’m a junior right now)
GPA: 3.97 W and 3.71 UW (freshmen + sophomore years, junior is yet to be determined. The goal is 4.2+ W.)
PSAT; Unsure, right now I’m getting 1380-1400 on PSAT and I have 11 days to study.
ACT: 26 w/o writing (took it as a practice with little prep my sophomore year. Plan on retaking for sure until 32+)
Subject test: Math 2 - 700 (took my sophomore year and plan on retaking this year for 750+), US History - 720
AP: AP US History (4)
Past class load: 6 honors and 1 AP - combined freshmen and sophomore years
Recommendations: My guidance counselor really likes me
Essay: I feel I can write very unique and whimsical essays, my 3 main themes are: sports, diversity, and research/science
Junior class load:
AP Calc BC
AP Physics 1
AP Economics
AP English 11
Spanish IV
Electives

Self studying AP Psychology

Senior class load plan: 5-6 AP’s (including Calc lll, AP Physics ll, and AP Chemistry )
Awards: Salute to excellence - Award for high achieving african americans, Scholar athlete, honor roll (generic awards as of now, nothing big. Applying to awards like Yale Young Global Scholars in the future.)

EC:

In school

Basketball - lettered sophomore year, won division 1 districts, really big part of my life
Track - lettered sophomore year, won division 1 districts
African American Culture Club - Co founder and Vice President, President next year
Diversity Acceptance Program - Vice president, President next year
Young Conservatives - Vice President
Youth For Christ - Vice President, President next year
LabLink - research club
Selected freshmen mentor
S.P.L.A.S.H - Selective program for leaders within my school

National Honors Society - Planning on doing this year
STEM Club - Planning on starting this within my school

Out of School

Partner at Be The Change Venture - diversity and inclusion movement within Cleveland, Chairman next year
Junior Ambassadors - Volunteered 109 hours at Cleveland Clinic main campus in the summer
Research Assistant - Assisted post doc at Case Western Reserve’s biomedical engineering lab
Student Board for DifferentLikeYou.com - summer internship at non profit - website for kids with disabilities
Interned at Artificial Intelligence Laboratories - Firm based in San Francisco
Lifeguard - last summer
Council Member at the City Club of Cleveland - year round
Youth Pastor for church - 100 hours - year round
Food bank - Volunteering
Ron Brown GPS Program
HandsOn - Volunteering Program
Member of National Society for Black Engineers
Afro Academic Scientific Olympics - Planning on competing in next year
Started my own lawn care company 2 summers ago

E2@MIT - Planning on doing next summer
Internship at Diversity Center - Planning on doing next summer
Cleveland clinic internship - Planning on doing next summer
Case Research - Planning on doing next summer
AP Psychology - Plan on taking online next summer

Since Stanford is the hardest school to get into within the US, I wish to know how their admissions differs from others. (Assume all things I mention that will happen in the future occur). Please help me out! Thank you :slight_smile:

-A typical OCD college applicant

2
  1. My school college counselor, who's really knowledgeable, told me that Stanford really likes minorities, and unusual ones at that. For example, the people who have been admitted into Stanford from my school have mostly all been Hispanic, Native American, and such. So I think they would "like" that you're Blasian.
  2. ACT is extremely low for Stanford. GPA is also on the lower side.
  3. No one can answer that. Their acceptance rate is below 5%; so no one really has a "good" chance.
  4. Increase GPA/SAT or ACT. Do all the things you are planning on doing next summer lol.

And most importantly, don’t be fixated on Stanford. More likely than not you won’t get in. Not because your application lacks anything, but just because its acceptance rate is so low. Of course apply, but please don’t become so obsessed with it that you won’t consider any other colleges. Good luck.

3

it’s going to be really hard for you to get in with a 26 ACT. even with a 32, that is definitely on the lower end of applicants. GPA is on the lower side too. you might be able to raise it, but freshman and sophomore grades are sent to colleges too. no one can say for sure what stanford is looking for. you have a lot of ECs, but the common app only allows you to list 10, so take that into account going into this next year.

4

You have a myriad of ECs. It is difficult to tell from lists if they are something you have participated in a major way or if you spent a minimal amount of time just so you could put them on a list for college applications. Make sure it doesn’t appear on your applications as though you were going thru the motions of doing things only for the sake of building a resume.

5

It’s hard to say exactly what Stanford looks for, since Stanford appears to be among the most holistic schools. They could post test score stats to match those at HYPM, Chicago, Caltech – but apparently they put a bit less emphasis on SAT/ACT. I think it makes Stanford even a little bit harder to figure out: a bit more qualitative than other elites.

That said, even with URM status, a 26 ACT is going to be an issue. The GPA of 3.71 is also low for the most selective schools.

If you can get your ACT up to 32, that will get you at or above the bottom quartile, which will help, but even then Stanford is a reach. At Stanford, you really need to make the qualitative portions of your application pop.

Have you considered any other schools? You have some good in-state public options there in Ohio (like OSU and Miami U) and some very good LACs in the vicinity. Or if you are interested in California exclusively, there are some other, less reachy (but still very good), private schools in that state.

Let us know what you are looking for and we can help you develop a list of schools to apply to. Nobody should have only HYPSMCCC-type schools on their app list.

6

Thank you for replying everyone

@wormholes Yeah ik my ACT score is terrible lol, will definitely get that up. I’m mainly fixated on Stanford just because I decided I will apply there early. I would be ecstatic to receive admission from other schools. What were the stats (GPA/test scores/course load) of those other minorities in your school that got into Stanford?

@junior2017 yeah my gpa and test scores are bad and I will definitely try to improve those this year. True I definitely won’t list all my ECs on common app, just the important ones.

@googledrone Thanks for that reminder, I definitely won’t list all those on my common app.

@prezbucky Yeah, I’m considering plenty of other schools: Duke, Johns Hopkins, Penn, Rice, OSU, basically any school with a good biomedical engineering program. I’m just applying early to Stanford so I figured I should focus on Stanford until I get accepted/rejected. Stanford IS so hard to figure out, I feel they are probably one of the most holistic schools. I’m not supporting a 26 ACT or anything, but Stanford admissions site stated that around 9% of their admitted class had an ACT of 24-29. I will definetly get it up though, I’m getting 1380-1420 on PSAT practice tests which I actually study for. So I figure if I prep for the ACT I can do well.

7

I am not sure but my school is super high achieving so I would be sure at least a 4.3-4.4 gpa and at least a 32 act probably. And they had INSANE ECs