<p>I am a senior planning on applying to Stanford and it has always been my dream school. I have been researching for some time now what the application process is like and what it most likely takes to get in and what not. From what I can tell is that stats are nice but what it really comes down to is passion and a unique applicant. This leads to my situation. My passion is essentially politics and government. From my point of view my ECs mostly all relate back to this center passion in my life so I am really not wanting to make a chance thread out of this. What I am concerned with is an opportunity I have to be a House of Reps page in my state government, maybe even the page for the Speaker of the House. However this requires me to essentially move away for the weekdays and live 3 hours away from my school. Which means that my schooling will have to “tweaked”. I would have to cut my schedules to maybe 2 classes for a quarter or semester (I have block scheduling so that would mean 50% normal classes). They would be AP classes that I would take online. I am aware that this could be a tremendous negative on an application however I really want this experience. So my question is; Is it worth it? Will the slim schedule basically ruin my chances? Or will the page experience factor in with my passion for politics and be a big plus? I have thought about this a lot but I am stuck. Please help.</p>
<p>bro, I’m sorry but I do think your proposal would negatively impact your chances for admission to Stanford and similarly selective colleges. If you were proposing to maintain a rigorous class schedule and also undertake the page duties, that would be something else, but what you are talking about is much more than a “tweaK”–you’re saying you’re only going to do about half of the academics you otherwise would. Even though passion is important for sure, I think you’re misunderstanding a crucial aspect of admissions to a school like Stanford. It’s a big oversimplification to say “stats are nice but what it really comes down to is passion”. More accurately, the fact is that great stats are a necessary, but not usually sufficient, condition for admission. (Stats can be marginally less great if you have a real hook, meaning a talent or characteristic that meets Stanford’s institutional objectives, but otherwise not so much.) Basically, you need the academic stats AND some focus or highly-developed talent that will help you stand out and contribute to the student body. It’s not an either-or proposition but that seems to be kind of what your proposal would create. It may still be very much worth it personally for you to make the choice you outlined, but I’m just giving you the feedback you requested as it would probably impact admissions. Good luck.</p>
<p>Can’t you do three classes per semester? That would be six per year, which is not much less than a regular schedule. At my school most people do six classes per year. Four just seems extremely low.</p>
<p>I’m tempted to say “**** college admissions, follow your passion.” Like, this is an amazing opportunity, especially for someone with a passion such as yours. </p>
<p>Here, why can’t you do the thin academic schedule now along with the page opportunity, graduate, then take a gap year to do some more studies/work a little?</p>