Would YOU be surprised if I got rejected from EA Stanford Class of 2016?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

<p>It's nearing the end of my junior year and recently I have done extensive research on which universities I should pursue my undergraduate education at. Stanford, is without a doubt, my first choice. I will be applying EA for Stanford Class of 2016 next year. Below is basically everything I have done so far throughout my high school career; the only thing I haven't given you is my name. :x </p>

<p>I would like you all to do me a kind favor and evaluate my chances at Stanford EA, so I can see where I'm standing at. Thank you!</p>

<p>[ *] SAT I: 2360 2nd time (800W 800M 760CR), 1st time was 2050 (LOL)
[ *] SAT II: Biology M 780, Math II 800
[ *] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.89 UW, 4.20 W
[ *] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 2.5%
[ *] AP (place score in parenthesis): Biology (5), Projected 5s for Chemistry, Calculus BC, Physics B
[ *] Senior Year Course Load: AP Statistics, AP Government/Economics, AP English (self study), AP Computer Science (self study); Will be taking additional college science courses at a local community college (Microbiology, Organic Chemistry)
[ *] Major Awards: Siemens semifinalist, USNCO Qualifier (x2), National Merit Commended, probably will be AP Scholar</p>

<p>[/list]High School Transcript:[ul]
Freshie</p>

<p>Biology 1/2 A/A
Chinese 3/4 A/A-
Advanced English 1/2 A/A
Advanced Contemporary World Studies/Health B/A
Geometry A-/A
PE 1/2 A-/A+</p>

<p>Summer Courses at CC (community college):
Applied Chemistry - A
Piano I - A</p>

<p>Sophomore</p>

<p>Algebra 3/4 B+/A
Art/Law B/A
AP Biology A-/A
Advanced English 3/4 B+/A
World History A/A
PE 3/4 A-/A-</p>

<p>If you're wondering why I had such terrible grades first semester, it's because I had a family death at the time and suffered from major depression. But whatever, excuses are excuses. </p>

<p>Summer Courses at CC:
Trigonometry - A
Precalculus - A</p>

<p>Junior (second semester is what I currently have right now)</p>

<p>Biotech A/A+
AP Calculus BC A/A+
AP Chemistry A/A+
Honors English A-/A
AP Physics B A-/A+
US History A/A </p>

<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[ ] Extracurriculars:
**American Cancer Society<a href="founder%20and%20president">/b</a>: 2 years
-Raised $10,000 through extensive fundraisers, donated to various research organizations
-Promoted the awareness of cancer and age-related disease by organizing assemblies and lectures for the schools and masses
-Contacted professors at Stanford to come to our high school and lecture about cancer
**Chemistry Club<a href="president">/b</a>: 2 years
-Prepared and entered USNCO
-Provided free AP chemistry tutoring for the masses
-Raised money so members could conduct chemistry experiments for fun (experimenting with catalysts, observing chemical reactions, titrations, etc.)
**Math Club <a href="vice-president">/b</a>: 4 years
-California Mathematics League
-Provided free Calculus tutoring for the masses
-Writing out all the digits of pi
**Chess Club*: 4 years
-Winner of Fall/Spring 2009/2010 tournaments
-Chess, what else?
-Chess Rating: 1740
**Biological Sciences Organization<a href="founder%20and%20president">/b</a>: 2 years
-Raised money so members to experiment with different enzymes, organisms, etc. at instructor's lab
-Mentored junior members for their local science fair projects, i.e. how to conduct research and write about it, gave them ideas for researching at lab in school
-Gave lectures about fun AP Biology topics (immunology, gene expression, biotechnology, molecular biology and cells, etc.); In fact, the audience preferred my lectures over my school's current AP Biology teacher's lectures... Therefore I was given permission to teach one of my AP Biology teacher's classes for a brief amount of time (a week), giving informative lectures regarding cell structure and function. It went very well.
-Organized career exploration field trips in which members could see what it would be like to be a virologist, biomedical research scientist, radiologist, etc.</p>

<p>[ ] Job/Volunteer/Community service:
**UCSF Fellowship/Cancer Research: Summer 2009
-Experience with laboratory equipment and development of research skills
-Was allowed to independently research tumorgenesis in rats after a certain period of time
-Created own research project, identified method of delaying tumor formation
**Stanford University Cancer Research: Spring 2010 - Present
-Semens!
-Created own research project after a quick training and introduction to the new laboratory, cancer research, etc.
**Stanford Hospital*: 4 years
-170+ hours
-assisting the elderly with their daily activities, made sure that Alzheimer and dementia patients had enough exercise everyda
-general paperwork</p>

<p>[/ul]Other:[list]
[ *] Interview: How important is this?
[ *] Intended Major: Human Biology
[ *] State: California
[ *] School Type: Competitive public
[ *] Ethnicity: Caucasian/Asian (Father is white, mother is Chinese)
[ *] Gender: XY
[ *] Income Bracket: Less than $60,000</p>

2

<p>I would be surprised if you got in! Also, your Asian which NEVER helps hehehehehehe. :)</p>

<p>Have FUN!!!</p>

3

<p>I would be surprised. Pretty conventional Asian resume. You need sports to get into
Stanford.</p>

4

<p>Wow, I never knew race mattered so much in college admissions. I’m half white, if that helps. </p>

<p>@StanfordCS
Are my chances really that bad? What’s pulling me down besides my race and not-so-shiny transcript?</p>

<p>@placido
No can do; all my life I have been told to pursue what I love, which is cancer research. Sports aren’t just my thing and I’m especially not going to join it just to get into college.</p>

5

<p>Wow, the title of this thread totally wasn’t contemptuous and self-glorifying at all. Nope. Not one bit.</p>

6

<p>Okay, lowincome Stanford accepts 7% of the 34,000 students that apply. Most of those students are STELLAR I am talking Perfect SAT’s, 4.0 GPA’s, and Nice EC’s and they end up rejected!!! Being Asian hurts, because your held to a higher standard during the admissions process than lets say an African American. </p>

<p>I am being brutally honest when I say I will be shocked if you got in.</p>

7

<p>@Calvin</p>

<p>How in the world is my title contemptuous?..</p>

8

<p>I don’t agree with previous posters - if you applied early action, I’d be surprised if you were outright rejected (I think acceptance or deferral is more likely).</p>

<p>Your resume/activities are actually very good, assuming you follow up with equally impressive summer/senior year activities. I agree that not participating in sports may hurt you, but can your “low” grades (fyi, they aren’t low to the point of deterrence, and you certainly had extenuating circumstances, and I don’t really know what the grade distribution/inflation is like at your school, so…). I mean, I think you’ve done the best you can, resume wise. </p>

<p>Amazing essays (important!) and a successful interview will definitely give you a boost. As of right now, very few people can claim that they will “probably” get into Stanford (with the exception of the triple-legacy-sport-star-perfect-student), as Stanford admission is unpredictable at best. </p>

<p>So in short, will I be surprised if you get rejected? Not really. Do I think you have a good shot? Yep.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

9

<p>No, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were rejected.</p>

10

<p>Read your title–it’s not going to help you if you are arrogant. Yes, this is an anonymous board, still, a little maturity will help a lot.</p>

<p>Your states are in the ball park, but you are one of many who are academically qualified. Coming from a low-income family helps you, but being in cali and having an asian background do not. Your personal connection with Stanford may not matter that much; admission officers will likely see them as another pile of ECs unless you can find a larger narrative to frame your involvement there. </p>

<p>But don’t believe those who tell you that you have no chance. It will depend on how you present yourself. With your close ties with the school, I would suggest you approach your application intelligently, not emotionally --try not to induce the admission officer to give you special consideration because you have spent so much time on campus --they won’t give you a break, and it will make clear to them that you did those things to advantage yourself for college admission, not out of your needs to learn and grow.</p>

11

<p>I wouldn’t be surprised. I know an Asian who was in the top 20 out of 350 of our grade (our school doesn’t release anything more specific except Sal and Val) who had a 2300+ SAT and who was a violinist in an all-national orchestra and she got rejected.</p>

12

<p>Assuming your essays and recs are great, your admission is almost certain. Many of the above posters know frighteningly little about admissions. But at the same time, I don’t think you’re being completely honest. Also, if I’m remembering right, your entire profile is absurdly similar to a girl who applied early to Stanford a few years ago and was rejected; she then went to Harvard. (I remember people were outraged that she was rejected.) Her username is chillaxin–the site is messing up and won’t find her posts, though it recognizes the name.</p>

13

<p>@phatasmagoric, I’m a high school senior who has seen all of my friends results from the EA round. I think I know more about how admissions are CURRENTLY than you do. I’m not saying this applicant is definitely getting rejected, far from it. I’m just saying, seeing what’s happened this year, my jaw wouldn’t be dropping if he/she was rejected, especially being Asian. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this person accepted either. It very much is a crapshoot. Not in the sense that they choose randomly who gets accepted from that “qualified” pile, but that it depends on the preferences of those particular admissions officers. You might just get an admissions officer in a bad mood. Who knows?</p>

14

<p>I agree with Rainbowrose.</p>

<p>I’ve seen two of my friends with stronger resumes (though not low income) getting rejected this year in REA, Both were 2350+ sat with 4.7+ gpa (uw 4.0), one was a state ranked x-country runner and track and field runner, and the other one was a math genius who was one of the captains of the volleyball team. </p>

<p>Of course, the OP will probably get into at least one HYPMS if he applies into all of them, but after seeing people that i thought were shoe-ins getting flat out rejected, I wouldn’t be surprised if next year similar things happen. Since OP is also low income, it should make the achievements even more impressive, so getting into at least one of those schools is all but guaranteed.</p>

15

<p>I don’t think this OP is serious. It’s another new poster getting everyone excited. But, I’m game. Your recs will have to back up your claims. Your essays will have to show some humanity. Then, they’ll look for some reason to like the person behind the stats. Like that person enough among all the thousands in the stellar semi-finalist pool that they’ll sweat over.</p>

16

<p>rainbowrose,</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Because admissions have changed drastically right–difference of, what, 1% in acceptance rate? Stanford hasn’t changed its admissions. Seeing the results of friends doesn’t confer any authority on how admissions works. It’s anecdotal. (FWIW, I wasn’t indicating your post, because I didn’t read it–the ones above it were enough to make me stop reading the replies.)</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>This is a weird rumor that people on this site always seem to fall prey to. Every application is read multiple times, by multiple people. Also, each admissions officer undergoes a long training process to ensure uniformity in decisions; whatever the decision made, it wouldn’t be different if other admissions officers had read your application (also the voting structure stops that from happening; this is straight from the, or rather a, horse’s mouth–a friend of mine who graduated last spring and was hired as an admissions officer for Stanford. I haven’t talked to her in detail about how Stanford makes its decisions or how race plays into it, but she described to me the training/process, so I know that this whole “adcom in a bad mood” idea is just absurd).</p>

17

<p>to be honest, i’d be pretty surprised if almost anyone got into stanford. your gpa is a little on the low side, but your sat is good. stanford says that what they really look for in their students is passion, and many of your ECs are centered around one thing, the cancer society, which is really good. you are not, however, incredibly well-rounded. you may want to pick up a sport because to be honest, you’re lookin pretty typical-asian right now…so the only thing im really surprised about is that your ECS didn’t include 14+ playing the violin.</p>

18

<p>Thanks for the info @phantasmagoric :D</p>

<p>Sorry about how that post came off… it was REALLY late at night (or early in the morning if you’d rather).</p>

19

<p>I’m currently a Stanford senior. My younger sister, an avid rock climber, horseback rider, triple legacy, low income, valedictorian, with great test scores, who speaks Spanish, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Shona, and Latin (well, reads/writes Latin), from rural Montana, just got outright rejected from Stanford EA. She was a stronger applicant than I was, frankly sort of a flawless applicant.</p>

<p>In answer to your question, no I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you got rejected. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if you got in either. </p>

<p>Being from California certainly won’t help you and as for race, my half Asian Stanford boyfriend checked a ‘mixed race’ box and didn’t specify which ones; might not be a bad idea if you have the option to do it.</p>

20

<p>I would end fewer sentences with the preposition “at.”</p>