AlexMartin

what is the most important part of the application to stanford compared to schools like Harvard, Princeton, Yale? Does Stanford value say the essays more or less or EC's more or what?

kcastelle

god, I hope it's not the essays lol

marlgirl

No one can really be sure... but is seems as if the first priority is just seeing that you are strong academically (GPA, transcript, and to some extent test scores). After that, they just want to see if you are an interesting person. That is mostly likely to come through in your essays and possibly recs, but could also appear in unusual ECs. Stanford seems to look for bright people who have a couple of things they are really passionate about and/or a couple of random/cool interests.

stuckinthemist

i'm told that while yale looks for numbers & harvard looks for diversity, stanford looks for passion.

but then again, who the hell REALLY knows...

riptide88

its easier if u do a weird sport. like a guy at my school got in with a fencing scholarship. schools that are super selective also look for leadership or some one that can make a difference in the world.