College application of Stanford

Applying to College
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Background - A high schooler from India currently studying in grade 10th CBSE. Got 65% in ninth with only street play in theatre as EC. I’m currently a prefect. My entire grade depends on the final exam

Plan- Get into an IB school like Jaishree Periwal International School and learn two languages from delhi school of foreign languages. Take the SAT and score around 1550 and start a vocational training club and maybe start a blog.

Help me please, I do not understand what I have to do to get into Stanford. I really want to get in.

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Many people really want to get into Stanford. The school has an acceptance rate under 5% – that number is likely lower for an international student from an over-represented country (and lower yet if you require financial aid). You would be wise to expand your horizons.

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There isn’t really anything you can do to make Stanford admission likely. If you are able to achieve superior grades and test scores while engaging in sustained and impactful extracurricular activities, your application may be similar to most other applicants, a few of whom will be admitted. Do your best and take your shot, but don’t count on it happening. Good luck.

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So do hundreds of thousands of students all around the world. Why do you want to get into Stanford? Because of the name?

Finish strong in high school. You need to know that even students with perfect grades, test scores and perfect extracurricular activities do not get into Stanford.

Ask your parents what they plan on paying for your college education and go from there to find something affordable.

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In terms of grades, you would need to be one of the very strongest students in India. Stanford is likely to accept several students from India in a given year. However, you might expect that quite a few of the 100 or maybe 1,000 strongest students in India will apply each year, and only a tiny handful of them will get in.

In terms of extracurricular activities, do what is right for you. Whatever you do, do it very well. Treat people well. While MIT is not Stanford, the “applying sideways” blog from the MIT admissions web site outlines a very sensible approach, which is IMHO also applicable to other top schools in the US, including Stanford.

Also, think about whether Stanford is a good fit for you, and if so why. Then look for other universities that would also be a good fit for you. If the primarily reason that you want to go to Stanford is “prestige”, then understand that is not a good reason to pick a university. When you are a few weeks into classes and have piles of homework to do, “prestige” gets old very quickly. There are a large number of very good universities in the US, and also in India, and you should be looking for schools that are a good fit for you.

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I’ll tell you what I tell high school students from the USA:

“Being accepted to X University” isn’t much of a life’s goal.

A real goal is “I want to be a Physicist”, “I want to be a scholar of History”, I want to be a Civil Engineer", or “I want to work in health”. Alternatively it can be “I love many things and want to explore multiple directions”.

College is a means to reach a goal, not a goal, and focusing primarily on that means is really not useful. It is as though you need to get to the airport to catch a plane, but you are focusing exclusively on whether the taxi that takes you there is luxurious or is the latest model car, and not caring whether it will get you to the airport on time, or even to the correct airport.

Rather than planning your trip and packing, you’re spending your time finding ways to catch the “the best taxi”.

This, unfortunately, is not a plan. It’s an aspiration. It’s a hope. You plan to apply to “an IB school like Jaishree Periwal International School” and you hope that you will be accepted, you plan to study “two languages from Delhi school of foreign languages” and you hope that you will successfully learn these languages, and you plan to take the SAT, and you hope to score 1550.

You have no idea whether you will be accepted to any IB school, you have no idea whether you we learn two languages successfully, and you have no idea how well you’ll do on your SATs.

Which brings me back to the first part of my post: will attending an IB school and learning two languages help you in your plans for after college? If you are not successful at being admitted to Stanford (which is the most likely scenario) will these actions help you in being admitted to one of the many excellent universities that are in India? Alternatively, will they help you be accepted to, and then do well at, one of the many excellent international universities that are not in the USA?

Spending two years engaging full time in activities that are aimed solely at increasing your chances at admission to Stanford is a waste of your time, which would be better spent on activities which will help you succeed while at college and after you graduate.

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I’ve edited your title to remove the “urgent” tone of it.

There is no recipe to get into Stanford. Be genuine. Be one of the best in India. Maybe you have a shot, but the odds are very much against you and everyone else. Plan to apply to more realistic colleges where you are among the top applicants. If you intend to ask for need based aid, understand that it will be even harder for you to get in to any US college or university.

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I think an argument can be made that there are more benefits to attending Stanford than any other university on the planet. I completely understand why you are interested. You only have one life, and I encourage you to take your shot, but you need to understand it is the longest of shots. You need to have many other options.

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Being a legacy dramatically improves the odds.

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I disagree. Being a legacy helps in a small way, unless you also have a very significant donor history.

Regardless, OP can’t do anything about his legacy status.

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Three times more likely is not a small difference. Regardless, I posted it tongue in cheek as a way to say there’s nothing the OP can do now.

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Ah - sorry I didn’t realize you were being ironic. Definitely agree you can’t suddenly become a legacy.

I am curious about your data. Is this something they publish? I’ve never seen a school publish data like that on legacy admits. My comment on the very small increase in chances for most legacy unless you have a very substantial donation history is something I’ve heard from many admission officers and several development directors. To be fair, have not heard this directly from Stanford, but from some other Ivy and Top 20 schools.

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Please take the legacy discussion to PM and let’s get back to the OP who has not indicated they are a legacy. TIA!