Give it to me straight, CC. Can I get into Stanford?

Colleges & Universities Stanford University
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<p>Objective:</p>

<p>SAT I (breakdown): 2290 (770 M, 720 CR, 800 W) (one sitting, going to improve in the Fall)
ACT: taking soon
SAT II: 780 Bio-M, just took Math II/Chemistry/USH (expected 800/800/780ish)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0, 4.83 weighted (AP/Hon A+ = 5.0)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1 or 2/250ish
AP (place score in parenthesis): Biology (5), recently took Chemistry/US History (expected 5/5), many more next year
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc BC/Statistics/English Lit & Lang/Psychology/Physics C-M/Latin/possible self-studies
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): One gold and one silver on National Latin Exam, judges’ choice awards at drum performances in school bands, drum teacher uses me to show off to his other students, National Merit and National AP Scholar stuff probably lol what even is that</p>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<p>Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Chemical Club (founder and president), Ultimate disc (helped found/grow club, long time participant), Math team (4 years), NHS (VP), peer tutoring, Boy Scouts (many years, all sorts of leadership positions), track (2 years), concert (1 year) -> intermediate jazz (1 year) -> advanced jazz (2 years) band
Job/Work Experience: N/A so far, probably volunteering at hospitals soon
Volunteer/Community service: Eagle Project (won’t go into specific detail but it involves helping out kids in a third-world country and relates to my musical passion), plenty of community service hours including math tutoring (not too serious though)
Summer Activities: Backpacking trip, vacations, camp, living life, working on Eagle stuff, YouTube drumming channel, teaching self to code, Ultimate with friends</p>

<p>Other:</p>

<p>State (if domestic applicant): MA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public
Race: White
Ethnicity: Hispanic (¿¿¿???)
Gender: M
Income Bracket: ~75,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): two uncles went to Stanford, cousin got accepted but chose another school</p>

<p>I am very passionate about the drums. I plan to write at least one essay linking drums to my intended major (engineering, possibly chemical) and my individuality. I’ve been told that I write beautifully, but I don’t think that’s really the point of college (or at least Stanford) essays. Also, I have high hopes for my Eagle Project and I think it will receive a great deal more attention than your typical sign or park bench.</p>

<p>Should I apply SCEA to Stanford or am I delusional? I’m also considering Columbia, UPenn, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, maybe Brown, and some safeties. I know that the Early Action thing is 100% my decision; I’m just interested to see some opinions.</p>

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<p>Your stats are excellent. Your chance is as good as anyone’s. GL</p>

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<p>By “anyone” do you mean the applicant pool as a whole or the CC community? Also, what do you think about applying EA?</p>

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<p>Excellent stats, congratulations! They will get you through the first stage (if there is any). No point in retaking the SAT’s either. How you come across in your essays will probably be the decisive factor in your admission.
EA is totally up to you, if you’re pretty sure Stanford is your first choice, go for it. I personally don’t think applying EA will increase/decrease your chances.</p>

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<p>As good as anyone with those, but doubt your uncles going there will do anything for you.</p>

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<p>^im fairly sure they take legacy into account.</p>

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<p>@onemoreparent</p>

<p>Stanford is my top choice, and all my other high choices’ early admissions policies are binding. For example, there’s no way I would apply ED to Columbia if I had a chance of getting into Stanford. Are there any advantages at all to SCEA? I’m sure all the bright kids who apply with it have some sort of justification for their actions.</p>

<p>Also, should I use my test day next year to improve my SAT scores or take SAT II Latin/Literature?</p>

<p>Thanks for your response.</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>No. You have a 2290.</p>

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</p>

<p>If you have already taken 3 SAT II’s and your score comes out well on the last 2, there is really no point in taking more tests, unless you enjoy wasting a perfectly good Saturday?</p>

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<p>I hate standardized testing as much as the next guy, but I’d totally give up a Saturday morning sleep if it helped me get into Stanford.</p>

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<p>@picklechicken Legacy is usually parents and sometimes grandparents, not other family members ie uncles</p>

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<p>I do believe they consider it if you have siblings/aunts/uncles/cousins who went to Stanford, but it’s not the same as parents/grandparents.</p>

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<p>Bumping for an answer to one of my earlier questions. Are there any real advantages to applying SCEA to Stanford? Does anybody have any data on SCEA vs. RD applicants’ statistics and admissions rates?</p>

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<p>Hope this helps:</p>

<p>Of the four SCEA schools…the hardest school to get into in the early round is Stanford:
Stanford…11.90%
Yale… 14.36%
Princeton…18.29%
Harvard…18.43%</p>

<p>Unfortunately none of the schools give the actual regular round acceptance rates except “overall” acceptance rates in April so one can realistically extrapolate their chances being far lower than the overall rate. Once again, Stanford is the hardest school to get into with the lowest overall acceptance rate:
Stanford…5.69%
Harvard…5.79%
Yale…6.72%
Princeton…7.29%</p>

<p>If you have the extraordinary credentials to apply in the early round, I would strongly recommend it…if not, wait for the regular round.</p>

<p><a href=“Stanford beats out all of the Ivy League schools by having the toughest admissions rate of all | Daily Mail Online”>www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2302966/stanford-beats-Ivy-League-schools-having-toughest-admissions-rate-all.html</a></p>

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<p>@orbdas</p>

<p>There is only one advantage to applying SCEA: if you get in you don’t have to do anymore college apps.</p>

<p>The higher percentage that get in during SCEA vs RD has NOTHING to do with a person’s odds of getting in. It only is a reflection of the number of highly qualified applicants in the SCEA pool.</p>

<p>Stanford is different from many other schools in that they defer relatively few people in the SCEA round (I think last year was about 9% vs. other schools that deferred 50-60% if not more). They state that they prefer to make as many final decisions as they can in the SCEA round.</p>

<p>So the implication is that if you have anything in your application that could make your case stronger after the SCEA decisions come out (fall grades, harder courses, EC activities, contests, whatever), then it may make more sense to do RD.</p>

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<p>@gravitas2</p>

<p>Most of my “credentials” are listed here. Do you think they qualify as extraordinary enough for SCEA?</p>

<p>@collegedad2013</p>

<p>I can see Stanford’s accept-or-deny mentality working both for and against me. I plan on submitting a nontraditional (if risky) arts supplement that will hopefully distinguish me from other applicants and maybe even secure my quick admission.</p>

<p>You make an excellent point regarding SCEA vs. RD. I will keep that in mind during September/October of my senior year.</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>You should decide for yourself in my opinion.</p>

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<p>

Every analysis I’ve ever seen came to a different conclusion. It’s true that at selective schools, the ED/EA applicant pool is stronger than the regular pool. However, after discounting differences in SAT scores, GPA, demographic, course schedule, and just about anything else you could think of; there is still a significant difference in the admit rate between ED and RD at most top schools. </p>

<p>For example, the ridiculously detailed study at <a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/~jdlevin/Papers/EarlyAdmissions.pdf[/url]”>http://www.stanford.edu/~jdlevin/Papers/EarlyAdmissions.pdf&lt;/a&gt; (co-authored by Stanford professor) found a 17-20% increase in chance of admission for non-commit early action after accounting for differences in strength of the applicant pool and a 31-37% increase for single choice early decision. These numbers were calculated by averaging across 30 schools, including all of the top schools gravitas2 listed. Note that the numbers gravitas2 posted show the SCEA rate of admission was 2 to 3x higher, far more than 17-20% or 31-37%, implying that the vast majority of the difference in admission rate is due to a stronger applicant pool. The remaining 30+% difference is still quite significant, but not huge. It would be like a 5% admit rate on RD vs a 6.5% admit rate on SCEA. As collegedad2013 touched on, if something happens to make your application stronger later on in your senior year, then it could have far more impact than the difference in admission rates for SCEA discussed above.</p>

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<p>@Data10</p>

<p>I clearly just need to make sure that my
E[πA(v,y)|v = AE, y ≥ Y] = E[πA(v,y)|v = AR,y ∈ [0,Y)]
and I’ll get into Stanford easily.</p>

<p>Thanks for the info, though. I would apply RD but my other top choices all have restrictive ED policies and there’s no way I’d risk not being able to go to Stanford if I’m accepted.</p>

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<p>@data10 great source. thanks.</p>

<p>I am not sure I understand the methodology. </p>

<p>How did they control for the acceptances of highly hooked people in the EA round (especially sports) that tend to apply more in EA?</p>

<p>Or does it not matter because they looked at individual results as opposed to group results?</p>

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<p>Is it really worth taking the SAT again after scoring a 2290?</p>