Am I good enough to get into Stanford?

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<p>I am a Norwegian who really wants to get into Stanford.</p>

<p>Currently, I have 6 (equivalent to A, or whatever your best grade is) in every subject, but I am still a junior.</p>

<p>I have purchased a book about practicing for the SAT, and I will travel to the University of Oslo in a few months to take it, since high school kids in Norway normally don’t have SATs. I aim to get north of 2300.</p>

<p>We don’t have extracurriculars in Norway, but outside of school i have one great passion; running. I’m a middle distance runner who competes at a national level. My PBs are:
400m: 49,00
800m: 1:52
1500m: 4:00</p>

<p>We don’t have APs in Norway either, but we have something called optional subjects, and among these subjects I have chosen only the hardest science subjects (hardest math, physics, chemistry).</p>

<p>After I’m done with high school here in Norway, I want to go to the USA both to study at one of the world’s best universities, and to run/train/compete with some of Americas best distance runners (in my age group, of course). What I look for in a university is basically that it must have great academics (preferably in the fields of engineering/technology), it also must have lots of soft running trails close to campus (woods, mountains, beaches, etc), and it should also have a great running team so that I don’t have to train alone (which I am currently doing). Therefore i have my heat set on Stanford.</p>

<p>So the questions that I was hoping you guys could help me with, are these:</p>

<p>Am I good enough to get into Stanford? What can I do to increase my chances? </p>

<p>How is Stanford’s policy/view on admitting foreigners? </p>

<p>Are there any better options for me? I have considered Berkeley and the UCLA. Aslo UVA has been considered, but don’t they have kind of bad academics there? I’ve heard a lot of people say that they are almost on height with Berkeley and UCLA, but topuniversities.com says otherwise. Is topuniversities.com a reliable source?</p>

<p>Thank you for your time.</p>

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<p>Only one way to find out.</p>

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<p>Do you need financial aid?</p>

<p>Are you hoping to be recruited for running, or do you plan to run for fun?</p>

<p>You might want to also consider University of Oregon-it is an amazing place for runners.</p>

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<p>With your athletics, if you do as well as you hope to in testing and coursework, I think you would fare very well as a domestic applicant. I do not know enough about Stanford to tell you what the effect of being Norwegian will be. In a perfect world, your chances would still be high, but American higher education (and foreign/immigration policy) is crazy in a lot of ways. Remember to cover any other community or school involvements, summer camps, etc. in addition to grades and athletics when you fill out your application. That is extremely important.</p>

<p>I would not rely on topuniversities much. If you want a rough idea of how smart the students are at a particular American school, you could go to the collegeboard’s college search program ([College</a> MatchMaker - Type of School](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)). Search for a school in the “College QuickFinder.” When you click the box labeled “SAT®, AP®, CLEP®”, you can see the standardized test scores for the top of the bottom 25% and the bottom of the top 25% of students at that school. </p>

<p>It is important to remember that there are more considerations than student scores. UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UVA are all state schools. They probably display a wider range of abilities and interests than you might guess because they are state schools and state schools are usually less competitive for students from whatever state the schools happen to be located in. This does not mean that they have bad programs. All three of those schools have some of the most prolific and brilliant students, researchers, and scholars in the world. UVA is considered better than Berkeley for several things; both are prestigious and will not limit graduates’ opportunities at all. Nevertheless, the experience will be very different at a place like Stanford. </p>

<p>I do not really support college rankings but the fact that other people do support them makes them important. Among Americans, the U.S. News & World Report rankings basically set the standard of academic prestige. Obviously, you should always filter things according to relevance to your own interests and various specific qualities of the schools ([National</a> University Rankings | Top National Universities | US News Best Colleges](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities]National”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities)).</p>