| Once the admission process rolls around next year for your son, statistics, grades, extracurriculars, accolades, etc will be virtually immutable. Your son must employ the majority of his efforts on creating creative essays. Based on the strength of this years applicant pool, and the strength of my application in contrast, I believe that the primary reason I procured admission was really because of the strength and creativity of my essays. Your son must really focus on clearly conveying who they are as an individual and what seperates them from all of the other students with identical resume's. According to the Stanford representatives I've talked to, Stanford is also looking for students that exhibit and demonstrate passion, inquisitiveness, and I quote almost verbatim, "a love for learning".
When everything else is written in stone, like accolades, grades, and extracurricular's, really strive to answer the essay prompts as honestly and lucidly as possible, as to reflect WHO your son or daughter is as an individual, and not only as a student. Avoid recapitulating or overemphasizing his/her accolades, grades, and extracurriculars in the essays. Be honest, be sincere, and be yourself.
Essays are the ultimate factor that bifurcate the students who get in, and those who do not. Best wishes!
(Sorry for the stream of consciousness style of my writing!) |