Almost done with junior year. Chances of Ivy leagues/Stanford if I start an impactful passion project

Applying to College
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Hi guys, I’m currently a junior in high school in the last 6 weeks of his school year. My stats and extracurriculars aren’t outstanding right now, but I want to try to increase my chances of getting into Stanford (my top choice) and possibly schools in the Boston area such as Harvard or Boston University. If I start a passion project and grow it to be very impactful over the summer and early fall, how will it affect my chances at getting into my top reach schools?

Here are my current stats:

  • 3.9 UW GPA, 1460 SAT (720 ERW, 740 Math)
  • Highest level math course: Honors Precalculus (will be taking AP Calc BC in my senior year)
  • Highest level science course: AP Physics C: Mechanics (will be taking AP Chem and AP Physics C: E&M in my senior year)
  • Extracurriculars:
    • Competitive speedcubing since 9th grade (11 regional medals, qualified for world championships in 2025)
    • Varsity track and field (since 9th grade) and XC team (since 10th grade). Will be XC team captain for 2026-27 season.
    • Volunteering with autism nonprofits on a monthly basis (just started recently)
    • Python programming (also started recently)

So my idea for a passion project was combining my interests: computer science/engineering, mental health, and helping people with autism. I am diagnosed with autism myself- and I deeply care about and understand the struggles that other autistic people go through, including anxiety, depression, and executive functioning deficits, which are linked with each other according to research. I recently created a concrete plan to code a unique, unheard-of AI-powered browser app to help autistic people with getting uncomfortable and anxiety-provoking tasks done. Once completed, I want to proliferate my tool to a considerable amount of users (50-100) if possible.

I also want to host one or two official speedcubing competitions in my city between now and October (which actually isn’t that hard to do), and I intend to donate all accumulated funds to the autism nonprofits I’m already involved with. The last speedcubing competition hosted in my city attracted over 150 people, and I fortunately have good connections with the people that hosted it.

And finally, I’m seeking lots of support from my parents and classmates to help me be accountable and responsible for these undertakings. If I succeed in these passion projects of mine and truly make an impact, (and maybe bring up my SAT score) will my chances at Ivy leagues and Stanford go up? Or will my efforts in developing my passions look rushed to colleges and make them think I’m doing everything just to impress them?

(Also, the reason why I want to go to colleges in the Boston area is because Boston is one of the best cities in the US for autism support and advanced autism research, which I want to become involved in.)

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How about you take advantage of what’s already out there vs. start something. Walk dogs at the shelter, get a job at McDonalds, take a club at school and expand it.

You don’t need to start something - and I think these colleges see through everyone’s passion projects, quite honestly. Start something if you truly believe in it - but you have more believability and pull by kicking butt on something that exists.

You have a fine record - but as you know, looking at school with low single digit acceptance rates is tough for all.

And your SAT is very low for the Ivies and Stanford. Your SAT is in range for BU - and only 40% submit there.

Do you have at least 3 years of language and four years of social science? I’ll assume you do.

Do you have any cost concerns? BU is need aware - so if you need a lot, they’d hold against you.

Schools in the Boston area that would be more favorable for you - Brandeis for sure, maybe Northeastern (in addition to BU) and definitely Suffolk. If you had a film/journalism interest, Emerson, Engineering would be Wentworth and for business Babson and Bentley could work.

You have a wonderful record and I’m sure you’ll do well. You mention Autism research - I’m not familiar with it and I don’t know if research happens at the undergrad level but I see UNC, Emory, etc. I also see that the U of South Carolina has an autism and neurodevelopment research center and the Medical U of South Carolina does a lot of research. The neighboring school - college of Charleston.

I’m not saying those schools fit you but my guess is that if you dig deeper, autism research is being done at a lot more schools. Perhaps a genetics major might be something worth a look - I show 14 including UNH - which has a train near campus to Boston. They have an Institute on Disability. Others that I see with genetics degrees are Wisconsin, UC Davis, UGA, Iowa State, NC State, UAB (medical powerhouse), Purdue, Ohio Wesleyan, Wash State, Auburn, UCI, Texas A&M and NM State. I’m sure many more do autism research - is the point - it’s not just in Boston.

But the first part of building a list is budget.

Then because you are limiting your geography, you have to find schools in that area - and within the budget if you are limited to Boston.

But to answer your question - you need another 80 points to have a realistic (but not good) shot at Ivy, you might be ok as is for BU (might - ED would help a lot), a passion project likely won’t help - but get a summer job, that’s great - and you gain so many things like teamwork and responsibility that impresses people.

Best of luck.

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Relax.

From another thread, you want to major in either computer science or some form of engineering. TAMU is very good for computer science and engineering. UT Austin is very good for computer science and engineering. I have heard that UT Dallas is very good for computer science and engineering, although I do not know it as well.

You might want to read the “applying sideways” blog on the MIT admissions web site. As I understand it, the recommendation is that you do what is right for you, whatever you do you should do it well, and treat people well. This sounds like what you are already doing. Don’t do anything specifically for the purpose of getting into a top university. Instead be genuine and do what is right for you.

This approach of “do what is right for you” is what my family has done. This has worked for us. It will most likely work for you. However, “work for you” might not mean Harvard or BU. It might however mean a university that is a good fit for you and where you can do very well.

Next: I have worked in high tech my entire career. I have worked with graduates from MIT and Stanford and Harvard and BU and U.Mass Amherst and UNH and Rutgers and San Jose State and a wide range of other universities, including many universities outside the US. No one cares where you got your degree. They care whether your code works. They care whether you are reasonable to work with. They care about bugs that show up in the middle of the night or on weekends. They care whether you shower. They do not care whether you went to MIT or TAMU or San Jose State or Stanford.

Harvard and BU are not particularly well known for computer science and engineering. You would be at least as well off and possibly better off at U.Mass Amherst or TAMU.

For the purpose of applying to Stanford, I would not worry about your ECs. I would however worry a bit about your 740 on the math part of the SAT. This is a very good score. However, 740 on the math part of the SAT is not good for Stanford (nor for MIT or Caltech). One problem that I see is that Stanford is full of students, at least in the math and engineering and computer science programs, who when they were a high school senior could walk in off the street with no preparation and get 790 or 800 on the math part of the SAT, and they still find Stanford to be academically very challenging.

By the way, I got my master’s degree at Stanford and loved it, but I found it to be a lot of work. I also found it to be full of graduate students who had gotten their bachelor’s degree at a very wide range of universities. You can get a bachelor’s degree at an in-state public university, and then have a reasonable chance to attend Stanford or some similarly highly ranked school for a master’s degree. You would need to do very well as an undergraduate student to pull this off, and some relevant work or internship experience could also help admissions chances for graduate programs. Saving some money for graduate school could also help (it is way more expensive than when I was there, and a master’s degree is typically not accompanied by any financial aid).

I would not pursue any of these passion projects for the purpose of applying to universities. If these projects are something that you would want to do without even thinking about university admissions, then go for it.

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I mean, I’ve always wanted to do them anyways for almost a year now. College applications just served as a bigger incentive to start taking action.

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In terms of big-reach schools with significant research activity in your area of interest, you might take a look at Vanderbilt: Frist Center for Autism and Innovation | Vanderbilt University (You may also be interested in the “Aspie Python Summer Bootcamp” mentioned on this page - application deadline in April 30th.) While Vandy is a very tough admit, it’s at least a school where an early decision application provides a meaningful boost, unlike Harvard and Stanford which quite honestly are going to be extremely tough to crack with your profile, passion project notwithstanding.

Your project sounds like a very interesting idea, but you’re looking at a very short arc to show results before the application cycle in the fall.

CalcBC + AP Chem + AP Physics C, all in the same year, is a lot. You may be feeling like you haven’t done enough to get into tippy-top schools, but doubling up on AP STEM classes while also doing college apps may not be the right response to this feeling.

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In the past week, you have 2 other “chance me” threads, a “match me” thread, and a “how are my EC’s” thread. I think you’ve received enough information to get started and you can still solicit opinions on those threads.

So a hypothetical “what about if I do this” thread is duplicative. And, TBH, pointless until you actually have those things. Closing

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