mcfly

Hey everyone. I am a junior in high school from Illinois looking at some pretty selective schools for college. However, of all of these, Stanford is by far my top choice. I have wanted to go there since I was 10 (just loving the sound of the name) and then when I finally visited it really did live up to all the high expectations I had built up for it. It really is a dream of mine to get to go to stanford, and I feel as though my numbers/app will be qualified enough so that i will have at least a decent shot. If anyone who is also looking at stanford could tell me how my app compares, or even better if any accepted students could let me know how my app compares with theirs, that would be really appreciated. I posted this on the "My Chances" thread, but wanted to really compare it specifically to other Stanford hopefuls/students For anyone who takes the time to read this and rate my chances, it means a lot.


My College Application

Male, White, from Suburb in Illinois
Go to a very large public school (2700 students) ranked as one of the top 5 public schools in the state year after year.

My GPA weighted is 5.93, not sure what it is unweighted, but I am ranked 5/691
I have yet to take the SAT, but my PSAT was 224, so I will be a National Merit semi finalist (and hopefully a finalist as well).

I recently took an in school ACT (state mandatory) and got a 34. My reading and english subscores were 35, and math and science were both 33. I am signed up to retake it in June and hope to raise my math and science scores (which I consider to be my strongest subjects).

I took the SAT II in chemistry, math II, and US history and received scores of 730,770,740

My Course Load The Past Four Years

8th grade- (taken at high school for credit)
Geometry Honors

9th
Algebra II Trigonometry Honors
English I Honors
World History Honors
Biology Honors
German I Honors

10th
Accounting honors
German II honors
Pre-Calculus Honors
English II Honors
Chemistry Honors

11th
Physics Honors
AP Calculus BC
AP US History
AP Language and Composition
German III Honors
Latin I Honors

12th ( scheduled)
AP Chemistry
German IV Honors (independent study AP test)
Latin II Honors
AP Literature and Composition
AP Statistics
AP Microeconomics (semester course)
AP Government and Politics (semester course)

Thus far I have received A's in all of the courses I have enrolled in with the exception of first semester calculus which I earned a B.

Athletics:

2 Years Varsity Swim Team. 5 x conference champion, and set 2 conference records.
1 Year Baseball- played for the freshman team
2 Year Varsity Cross Country- Scholar Athlete and Conference All Academic. Time of 16:40 for 3 miles (first season)
3 Year Varsity Track and Field- times of 4:47 for mile, 2:07 for 800 meters. Been injured almost all of my running career including this track season. I will hopefully be able to really dominate my cross country time this fall, as I know I am good enough to compete for all DIII and a good amount of DI schools. I spoke to the coaches who understood I had been injured and was making the transition from swimming to running. Because I am an "undeveloped talent" as they call me, I have much higher recruiting stock than someone who had been running say, 3 years would. I have been running for about a total of 1.25 years. (3 years track and 2 years cross country was including the upcoming 2 seasons that I will compete in).

In addition, our captains for cross country will be named this summer and there is a pretty good chance I will be chosen as one.

Also I compete for the Mideast Team Elite, a national elite triathlon team, one of the strongest teams in the nation.

Extra Stuff

2x AATG finalist. This is the German National competition. Scored 92,95 respectively on my last two national exams.
1x Latin National competition "gold medalist" 95%
1x Latin State finalist. 165/180 qualifier to state meet with superior honors.

Won American Legion Boy's State Scholarship for the summer of 2009. Will represent my school at Eastern Illinois University as one of two representatives.

Volunteer Work/Work:
4 year Peer Juror for the Downers Grove Peer Jury. Named a Senior Juror.
3 year Youth flag football coach for the community house.
Also worked as the scorekeeper and field setter for the community house.
5 year Umpire for the little league. One of the Senior Umpires.
Working downtown this summer at a lawfirm, and worked maintenance (gardening etc.) the last three years at an expensive country club (not one my family could even dream of joining lol.)
I also worked for a year as a short order chef at a restaurant in town.

Other Hobbies/Activities.
I have been in habitat for humanity all 4 years of high school, though il be honest, I do not do much for the club and would probably just as well leave it off my resume.

Sports writing. Write sports articles online for different sites. Have published over 100 articles with over 200,000 views. Full time writer on a few sites ([url]www.thesportingtruth.com,www.sportsguysblog.com, Fantasy Football Maniaxs: Your daily guide to victory!) but publish my work on numerous other sites. A few of my articles have appeared on "big name sites" such as sporting news, CBS Sports, USA Today, and Fox Sports, which is pretty cool.


My essays should be very strong. I prize my writing and have done very well in the writing sides of all my english classes, as both my parents have Phds in English Literature and really started me off on the right path when I was in elementary school. If anyone wants to critique this topic that would be appreciated, but basically what my essay (the one I am writing now) is about is becoming a runner. More specifically, however, it is about how different my track coach was from any of the other coaches I had had previously in other sports, and how his ability to be fair and make everyone on the team, not just the fastest guys feel included, has shaped me as an individual. This is actually a 100% true essay, but if it sounds cliche or corny in any way please let me know. My letters of recs should also be strong, one is from my German teacher who I have had for 3+ years and will have next year, and the other is from my english teacher who really likes having me in class (or at least she gives off that impression).


Thank You Very Much! I look forward to reading your responses.

uneverknow

Kudos on the profile! It's very impressive, and I got a good vibe reading your entire post....

Remember, though, Stanford is one of those places that put immense weight on your essays, so you'll want to put a lot of thought into those. Ace the essays and you should be fine if you keep up the way you're going

mcfly

Thank you very much. I assume Stanford would just as well take ACT scores or SAT? I am planned to take the SAT in June, so we will see how that turns out. I will try to really ace the essays, thank you for your feedback!

luckycharm18

Your ACT score is already high - no need to retake them or take the SATs because Stanford accepts both. It seems like you have a fairly good chance at getting accepted, but with a selective school like Stanford, they turn down top students all the time simply because there's not enough space, thus it is hard to predict. Like uneverknow said, work hard on those essays (especially the supplement ones)!

mcfly

Thanks Luckycharm! I appreciate it. If anyone else could rate my chances that would be great! Thanks to those who already did!!

luckycharm18

Haha no problem. My stats were not as high as yours, and you have much better EC's than I did, but I still got waitlisted. However I worked my butt off on those essays, so I definitely think that's why I didn't get flat out rejected.

SusieBra

How can your weighted GPA be 5.93? I'm pretty sure that that's impossible

Pea

Just finished reading your credentials. You must be very tired.

mcfly

To SusieBra: my school is on a 5.0 scale. so an A in a regular class is a 5. AP/Honor classes are out of 6. An A in an AP class is 6, B is 5, C is 4. Knowing this do you have any feedback for me?

to Pea- do you have any feedback for me? I am glad you took the time to read though.

SusieBra

Seems pretty good, but ultimately it depends on your app. I'm surprised that you're from Il. You want to come all the way to Ca. How come?