is stanford within reach?

DunninLA
Mon, 20 Dec 2010 12:58:42 +0000

runner – go for it. If the average (for Stanford) statted applicant has an 8% chance, even below average still has about 4% chance.

As to what Stanford looks for, I’ve drawn two impressions from following admissions results over the past few years:

1) Stanford cares more about science and engineering than some of its peers… especially national and international recognition
2) Stanford used to be, and I assume it is still somewhat true, the “Student Body Presidents’ school”. So leadership seems to be quite important to them.

Lastly, make sure you separate out the Athletic recruits from whatever stats or admissions results you’re looking at. Of the Top 20 Unis, Stanford has the largest and most successful athletics program in the country. You have to feed that (bigtime) with lower statted applicants. If you remove the 200 or so scholarship athletic recruits from each class, you’d see Stanford’s 25/75 SAT average go up quite a bit.