Chances at Stanford

unclefeezus1
Wed, 13 Apr 2005 22:51:17 +0000

My application was in my opinion considerably worse than that- had a lot less EC’s, awards, and I’m 21/503 in my class (however, I did have near perfect test scores). But then again, when I submitted to the MIT threads people accused me of making stats up- and I got deferred and rejected. I think what did it for Stanford was my essays- my Stanford application was by far my best (it gave me the most opportunity to express myself). My advice is start working on your essays right now- slightly overkill it, because when the time comes, you might be severely writer’s blocked. Be conversational, self-deprecating, and above all else, completely honest- it’s really obvious when you try to (even slightly) make yourself something you’re not; dogged honestly probably helps you out a lot, especially in the close calls. Remember, your stats speak for your academic talents- just make the adcoms like you. “Emphasizing” things that may not be entirely accurate will make your essays stifled and relatively bad.