Im not perfect, nowhere near. Chance. Please.

Colleges & Universities Stanford University
1

<p>Im not here trying to show how im a 4.0 student with a 2400 SAT and I am valedictorian with a 40000000 iq hah. What I want to know is what are my chances based on my extra curricular activities.</p>

<p>Ive grown to make a difference at my school over the past 4 years, I get more and more involved each year. This year I was one of the lead speakers at the pep rally (once a year event before homecoming) and I founded a seminar that helped shy students develop their public speaking skills. I just want to know as a student that is involved in his school to the utmost extent, what are possibly my chances (im applying ED)</p>

<p>3.57 uw 4.21 w</p>

<p>4 Years of FIRST Robotics Competition (Business Lead currently, went from helping with basic mechanical projects to writing the team’s first business plan and becoming the first student to help with the organization of finances)
4 Years of SGA (2 on class board 2 on executive board) I am currently School Treasurer
4 Years of FBLA (Participated in competitions in the regional and state level)
3 Years of Key Club (Treasurer during chapter year)
Internship at UMDCP over the summer (where I realized I wanted to be an electrical engineer)
Internship at JHUAPL currently (where I realized I wanted to also do something with computer science)
Founder and President of Public Speaking Seminar (a seminar that helps shy students become better public speakers by practicing in a comfortable environment)
Volunteer Coach at First Tee (taught life lessons through golf and learned how important a sport can be in the development of a child living in low income areas)
Unpaid Tutor (I tutor upperclassmen and underclassmen alike in math, english, history, and the SAT)</p>

<p>Spent a year researching the relationship between cell phone use and brain cancer, then had article published on a major website as a result of my work.</p>

<p>I only listed the stuff that helped develop me as a student, leader, and human in terms of EC’s.</p>

<p>Middle Eastern</p>

<p>2030 SAT (Took it again in october)</p>

<p>690 M
620 R
720 W (11 Essay)</p>

<p>30 ACT</p>

<p>Rank : 81/376 (Top county in maryland for public schools) (Maryland is the state for schools in the nation)</p>

<p>God Bless!</p>

<p>And to all of you applying ED or RD this year: May the odds be ever in your favor haha</p>

2

<p>Hi rocksupper. There’s no such thing as a “perfect” applicant, even one with perfect stats and lots of ECs, etc. The question is whether you will be realistically competitive. I don’t do chance threads, but I would suggest you consider applying to Stanford RD rather than SCEA (we don’t have ED, which is binding, but if you apply Single-Choice Early Action, it severely limits your ability to apply early elsewhere, with very limited exceptions). If you wait for the RD round you can take a shot at improving your test scores, and also spend lots of time working on your essays. </p>

<p>Speaking of essays, here is advice for everyone, whether nearly “perfect” or not: keep in mind who you are addressing in your essays. The admissions officer wants to know not only how you have spent your time during high school, but more importantly, how you plan to build on those experiences as a contributing member to the Stanford community. They are trying to assemble a group who can contribute to this particular college community in the widest possible variety of ways, for everyone’s mutual benefit. So I’d suggest keeping that in mind when writing your essays. Best of luck.</p>

3

<p>Unless an applicant looks exceptional, I try not to really chance for Stanford.</p>

<p>It’s a complete curveball. Whether this is to get more kids to apply and decrease admittance rate or because of some unique characteristic or passion… one, both, neither, who except for adcoms know?</p>

<p>All this said, I think it’s worth applying. Your chances doesn’t look completely dismal.</p>

4

<p>Well, understand that your GPA and standardized test scores account are prioritized over all else. Good ECs don’t get you in any colleges if you don’t have the grades to back it up (unless you’re a god at sports). They only make you more competitive in cases of applicants with similar stats.</p>

<p>You’re a bit below average for Stanford, but don’t let that discourage you. Who knows? Maybe they’ll think that you’ll bring something special to the school.</p>

5

<p>Hello, I’m a Stanford EE Junior. In order to save me time, here’s an article I fully agree with that you may want to check out:
[How</a> do you get into Stanford University](<a href=“Answers - The Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions”>How do you get into Stanford University? - Answers)</p>

<p>From this logic, I’m going to assume that you took most of the hardest classes your school had to offer (judging by the weighted GPA). If that’s the case, then I think it safe to say you succeeded the weed-out that really comes from GPAs (Can you make it through Stanford? Yes.) AP scores would be nice to include here, but mostly it’s number and if you did reasonably well. They want to see you are committed to learning and challenging yourself with a GPA and SAT score like yours (which is completely within range).</p>

<p>However, there are a number of things I don’t see. First, I there should be more emphasis on you as a person, so that they know you will be successful at everything at Stanford (academics, social life, extra curricular, etc.), and that your addition to the school will improve other’s experiences as well. Second, why Stanford? Why not Havard, MIT, Yale, Princeton, CalTech, etc.? The more you emphasis why Stanford (good EE department, good engineering department, good other departments as well so not all of your friends are techies, a chill, non-competitive atmosphere, being nontraditional (just look at its band or its take on some of its research and department trajectories). The more it feels like you are Stanford, the better.</p>

<p>Finally, and I can’t stress this enough (see the link), what makes you stand out, and what makes you amazing and unique in the country? For me, I would say its the fact that I was most likely in the top 100 (if not 50 or 30, there is no official ranking system) for seniors in math competitions in the country, while still enjoying other things, such as socializing, dancing, science, teamwork, problem solving, philosophy etc. Not only was I quite good at one thing, I had enough other skills to be a successful person rather than a “lock yourself in your room and only think about math” person. For you, I see the Public Speaking Seminar as being the highlight of this in your application, but it’s still a bit shaky. If you had begun an organization around this with multiple (4-5) people you managed to help teach students from mainly within your school, but maybe from a few other schools as well, then that would be impressive. Why did you want to make it? How did you problem solve to address these issues? What obstacles did you have? How did you relate to your helpers and your students? Bringing insight into why this creation will lead you to become a successful person (and let’s face it, it’s Stanford, everyone has entrepreneurship, especially in computer software, on their mind)? Did you create tools such as software to help you? All of these questions are things I would want to know, but only you know if this experience or any other share these types of qualities.</p>

<p>Good luck, and remember, to let yourself shine, and to not be afraid of letting a little too much of yourself show. I once was thinking of writing about my struggles with procrastination for my college essay, and people I shared my draft with loved it. Now, that would probably be on the risky side, but letting things such as that sneak in will not hurt you, so long as they can tell you can manage, deliver, and move on through it.</p>