Chance me for REA Stanford [CA resident, 3.95 UW, 1580 SAT, Computational Biology]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US citizen
  • Female
  • CA - Bay Area
  • Public high school
  • None

Cost constraints: none

Intended major: Computational Biology

Academics:

  • 3.95 UW, 4.35 W (School weights GPA for all AP classes and Honors Precalculus course)
  • Weighted GPA for 10th and 11th grade 4.53
  • SAT 1580 (800 M, 780 V)
  • Score of 5 in AP Biology, AP Computer Science A, AP Chemistry, AP Calculus BC, AP Psychology, AP Spanish
  • Score of 4 in AP English Language

HS coursework

  • English: Honors English in 9th and 10th, AP English language in 11th, Advanced Composition in 12th
  • Math: AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, Multivariate calculus
  • Science: AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics C
  • Social Studies: World History, US History, AP psychology, AP economics, AP US government
  • LOTE: AP Spanish Language
  • Other: AP Computer Science A, AP Music theory

College Coursework

  • Summer research Academy at UC Santa Barbara. Received 4 credits. Conducted research in Computational Biology

Awards:

  • AIME qualification
  • Will qualify for national merit (scored 1520 in PSAT)
  • AP Scholar with distinction
  • Two awards in world level robotics tournament
  • Completed ABRSM violin exams
  • Selected for All State Violin Orchestra
  • Published research paper in peer reviewed journal
  • Presidential volunteer service award for tutoring math

Extracurriculars:

  • Robotics tournaments for 6+ years. Multiple regional and state level awards. Qualified for world level robotics tournament in 9th, 10th and 11th grade. Two awards in world level robotics tournament
  • Violin: for 7+ years. In School Symphony orchestra for 4 years. Qualified for All State orchestra. Completed ABRSM certification. School orchestra has won multiple state level awards
  • Tutoring middle school students for competitive math tournaments
  • Major specific extracurriculars:
  1. Attended summer program in computational biology at Carnegie Mellon
  2. Conducted research in computational biology at UC Santa Barbara Summer research academy
  3. Research paper published in a peer reviewed journal in a topic related to computational biology

Essays/ LORs: I am a good writer and I anticipate good LORs, but I do not have any extraneous circumstances or hardships to talk about

**Schools: **
Stanford REA - computational biology
UPenn ED - biomedical sciences
Brown ED - computational biology

Do not require scholarship

Please let me know if it is worthwhile applying REA to Stanford?

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I don’t think you can do what you are asking - because I don’t think you can apply ED to either Penn or Brown - unless it’s ED2. And they don’t have ED2 (I don’t believe).

So to answer your question - is it worth it - the answer is - if it’s your top choice. But if Penn or Brown are your top choice, then no, it would not be worth it and applying to either of those would make more sense.

Of course, your list should contain more than just these three - as they are all unlikely although your resume is superb.

Restrictive Early Action Policy

It is Stanford policy that:

  • if you apply to Stanford with a decision plan of Restrictive Early Action, you may not apply to any other private college/university under their Early Action, Restrictive Early Action, Early Decision, or Early Notification plan.
  • you may not apply to any public university under an early binding plan, such as Early Decision.
  • if you apply to Stanford under Restrictive Early Action, you may apply to other colleges and universities under their Regular Decision plan.
  • if you apply to Stanford under Restrictive Early Action and you are either not offered admission or your application is deferred, you may apply to another college’s Early Decision II plan.

Also, you note about your essay that - I do not have any extraneous circumstances or hardships to talk about.

That’s good - you don’t need any. Your essay can be about anything - a local student by me who got into Yale wrote about the exhiiiration of waiting for Papa John’s pizza. Another student I read an essay about wrote about the yellow fuzz on a tennis ball. My one student wrote about Tea. So you needn’t write about hardships, etc. but you’ll have more than one essay with this level of school.

For Stanford alone, on top of Common App, they have 3 essays:

There is a 100-word minimum and a 250-word maximum for each essay.

  1. The Stanford community is deeply curious and driven to learn in and out of the classroom. Reflect on an idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning.
  2. Virtually all of Stanford’s undergraduates live on campus. Write a note to your future roommate that reveals something about you or that will help your roommate—and us—get to know you better.
  3. Please describe what aspects of your life experiences, interests and character would help you make a distinctive contribution as an undergraduate to Stanford University.

Best of luck to you.

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Thank you for your feedback. I was not clear in my post. I am considering one of the three options: REA Stanford, ED Penn or ED Brown. I understand I can not apply to all three. Stanford is my top choice school. However, I am concerned that I may be aiming too high by applying REA to Stanford. I am looking for feedback from others in this forum if Stanford is completely out of reach for my profile.

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Yes it’s worthwhile. It’s your top choice. Therefore it’s worth it.

If you were a 3.75 with 2 APs and a 1250 SAT, of course not.

But your profile is superb both academically and ECs are well rounded with music, robotics, service (tutoring).

No one can say you’ll get in but if it’s your top choice, you certainly are worthy of applying REA.

If it doesn’t work out, it likely makes Penn a much longer shot with ED gone (not necessarily Brown) but to me it’s well worth the risk.

These three schools are, in theory, similar admission wise. Not the same but similar. I don’t think anyone would be surprised if you got into Stanford but not the others or vice versa for each.

So if you want Stanford, there’s no reason not to take your shot. I do know if you bypassed that shot and applied to another school ED and got in - then guess what - you wouldn’t be going to your favored school. And you didn’t do all you’ve done all these years to not even try !!! Seems silly to give up your Stanford goal. And unless you were turned down ED elsewhere, you’d not have even tried Stanford, which seems a shame.

Just ensure you have others on your list as well.

Best of luck on your admissions journey.

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What happened to Duke?

You should only be using ED for the school you are absolutely sure is your first choice. If you are waffling, just apply RD.

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You have a great background and will be a competitive candidate everywhere. That being said, the schools on your list reject scores of outstanding applicants every year. You should apply early to the school you like the most — if you don’t have a favorite, don’t apply ED/REA. For unhooked students ED doesn’t appear to give much of a bump at places like Brown/Penn/Stanford. Above all, have some targets/likelies/safeties on your list. Even an outstanding student like you can’t count on a T20 acceptance—it’s just too competitive.

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You are accomplished, for sure. I’m guessing your profile as a Bay Area violinist and robotics kid with top grades is something Stanford sees quite a lot of, however. I might go for a school that sees fewer profiles like that or expects to lose those kids to Stanford and UCB. But you should apply to your top choice under REA or ED, so proceed based which school is your favorite. No regrets.

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If it’s your top choice, shoot your shot. You have a great profile and are clearly a strong student…The problem is so are probably 85% of others applying to Stanford, which will only accept 4%. So it’s a long shot. For EVERY unhooked applicant. But as Wayne Gretzky said, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. And a 4% chance is higher than a 0% percent chance.

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You can’t apply to all of these in the early round. Are you trying to decide which one?

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Well…if you apply REA to Stanford, even if you get accepted, you can still apply to Penn and Brown in the regular decision round.

If you choose ED and get accepted to one of these ED options…you are done.

So consider that?

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:point_down:

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See my most recent post. I understand.

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I visited a few college campuses this summer and my college list changed afterwards.

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Thank you. That’s exactly how I feel. My application may stand out better at Penn or Brown but will be identical to thousands others in Stanford. But at the same time, like you and others pointed out, it makes sense to go with what I like the most instead of applying ED to a place where I feel I stand the best chance.

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Thank you. Just wanted to clarify about your Brown reference. You said: “not necessarily Brown” - Is it because Brown does not have much of an ED bump?

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If Stanford is truly your top choice - go for it. Your profile is strong and since you mention you are a good writer you can focus on making your Stanford essays great.

I’ve recounted this story before, but I’ll repeat here for you (the OP)…

Our son was conflicted on applying to Stanford SCREA. His academics were great, his ECs were so-so, but his essays told his story in interesting ways. But, everyone warned him that “Stanford sees hundreds of applications from students with just as strong academics, stronger ECs and awards”. He heard the cautions so much, he felt that applying ED to a different school would give him a better chance. The day before the Stanford REA deadline, he told his high school English teacher that he was thinking about not applying REA to Stanford. She looked him in the eye and reminded him of all his work and desire to attend Stanford. She advised him to “Go for it!”. He graduated from Stanford in 2020 with a BSCS, and again in 2021 with an MSCS. His years at Stanford were magical and opened many doors.

No one can guarantee what will happen with college admissions, but if part of your strategy is to apply to an REA college it should the one that most interests you.

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Brown itself says this about ED.

Now it doesn’t mean a chance isn’t better but it implies if you’re not getting in RD, you’re not ED.

“Please do not assume that your admission chances are improved by applying under the Early Decision plan. The Board of Admission makes the same decisions under Early Decision that it would under the Regular Decision plan.”

Statistically, Penn enrolled 2416 and 1204 were admitted ED so even with a little breakage on ED nearly have the class came in that way. The other year a bit more than half.

Brown accepted 884 and enrolled 1695.

So maybe my belief is off. But I just keep reading that Brown statement and it makes me think that way.

There’s only two reasons I can think of not applying REA to Stanford.

  1. It’s not your top choice

  2. You’re going to be NMF and can go to college for free (Tulsa)or for under $10k a year at others and your family wants to explore saving $350k+ $

Other than that, even if you end up hurting your chances at Penn and Brown, it makes little sense to ED. And don’t forget those ED #s include athletes and other hooked kids. So in some ways, the populace may be a bit overstated. They’re still accepting a lot RD.

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I have a very similar student same SAT score, GPA, APs, a variety of ECs but nothing crazy outstanding. -rising senior here in CA. He knows it’s a long shot and has plans for possible ED2 and RD at less competitive schools (ex. Wash U, St Louis, UCs -including Santa Cruz, Davis, and others) if Stanford REA doesn’t pan out. After lots of college tours, it’s hard to compare to Stanford unless you really want to leave the area (and my kid doesn’t)

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All of the elite schools are very clear that the acceptance criteria is the same ED or RD. In other words an unqualified student will not benefit simply by applying early.

While the extent of the benefit is debatable, Brown (and all of these schools) do convey a benefit upon unhooked applicants who apply ED.
I say this specifically about Brown having close recent ties to the school.

Brown tends to be a bit more transparent in trying to avoid attracting applicants seeking to game the system but all of the single digit schools fall into this camp. Warning applicants not to assume an advantage is warning them not to take it as a given, it doesn’t however state definitively that an advantage doesn’t exist. They are very deliberate in the choice of words.

If Brown is kids favorite worth taking the best shot with ED in my opinion if not take your shot at the top choice.

FYI CC has a fairly large community of people with first hand experience at Brown and the other schools you specifically mention. If you want college specific info probably worth noting people’s basis for offering advice.

Just a thought.

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To me this sentence is the most important. This really answers your question.

You are a very strong applicant. You have done really well in high school and have an impressive list of accomplishments. Your SAT is superb. You are competitive for any university that you apply to.

Stanford is a reach. Penn is a reach. Brown is a reach. It is very difficult to know what your chances are for any of these schools. I would guess that your chances are pretty close to the acceptance rate. These top universities will have the large majority of applicants that are qualified to attend, and they will be looking for a diverse student body. Admissions will be partly merit based, but not entirely. I think that all that you can do for any of them is to be the best student that you can be, be the best person that you can be, and apply and see what happens.

I would use up your REA or ED on the one school that is your top choice. It sounds like this is Stanford.

I might be slightly biased. I got my master’s degree at Stanford and loved it. However, if it is your top choice, then I would apply there REA and see what happens.

Also make sure that you apply to safeties.

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