<p>Might apply to Stanford. Depends on results in October. :-)</p>
<p>The length of the Stanford supplement displeases me.</p>
<p>^ Haha, same. I just finished a draft of my common app essay after taking eons to come up with the right idea, and then I saw the intellectual vitality supplement question, and writer’s block hit hard again. Oh goodness.</p>
<p>And school starts next week. Lovely.</p>
<p>I actually love Stanford’s supplement questions.</p>
<p>I like the intellectual vitality one, I’m just having a terribly difficult time deciding on what to write about. The supplement is overall pretty interesting, albeit long.</p>
<p>Although I have to say, as far as supplements go, U Chicago wins hands down.</p>
<p>I like all of the questions! I think they’re all pretty interesting, and what’s best is that I actually know what I’m going to write about for each one. :)</p>
<p>
I wouldn’t want to include CC. </p>
<p>
Genuine answer: The day they invented bubblegum.
Pretentious answer: A passage or two from my history book.</p>
<p>@unconfidential: what is your personality like? if you are generally a light-hearted/fun-loving/humorous person, i think they would actually like to know that </p>
<p>i personally would recommend that you put the day that ___ invented bubblegum
unless you really are interested in history</p>
<p>just make sure there isn’t a disconnect where you look light-hearted in the rest and then put a history answer there (or the opposite)</p>
<p>Okay, I’m new here. I’ve been reading the forums here for a few years and just recently decided to make an account. But I too am having a tough time deciding between applying Early Action or Regular decision. Stanford has been my dream school forever and is my first choice by far, so initially I thought I should apply early. However, I think that I could improve my grades the first semester of senior year, since my second semester junior year wasn’t as great as I’d hoped it would be. And although there are a higher percent accepted early rather than regular I feel like I might have a better chance is I get all A’s first semester senior year. My test scores aren’t great (ACT 29) but I will be retaking it next month. However, my extra stuff is pretty good I think. Suggestions?</p>
<p>if your application would be overall stronger by waiting, it is to your benefit to wait.</p>
<p>it was always just frightening to me that the RD admit rate is about 5.8%.</p>
<p>There are two things that would make my application stronger: a higher GPA and I would have more of a big project I’m doing done.</p>
<p>But yes, that always scares me. Especially since when I visited they said that about 80-85% of the people applying had the test scores and grades to get in. But hey, I guess that can be comforting in the sense that there are so many people that have good enough grades that the bar might not be as high as we think gradewise… Wishful thinking?</p>
<p>^ 80-85% of applying students might have test scores that the admissions officers believe signify the student is capable of handling the academics at Stanford. That doesn’t mean 80-85% of applicants actually have competitive scores for admissions.</p>
<p>^ so how many really do have competitive scores, you estimate? I feel like many people who apply are misinformed about their chances. What’s our real competition, cause I doubt the odds for a competitive applicant are as low as 10%.</p>
<p>ripemango, there are far too many variables in the admissions process to come up with meaningful “odds” of admission in the vast majority of individual cases. That’s why “chance” threads are pointless wastes of time. The best way for an individual applicant to boost his chances at his target colleges (assuming he is at least in range, for which statistics do exist) is to reallocate time spent on “chances” threads to learning as much as possible about those colleges, and incorporating that knowledge into essays that show the admissions officers why his attendance would benefit both him and the college’s community. If you can do that persuasively and with some specificity, rather than with the glib generalities contained in most essays, you’ll have enhanced your chances.</p>
<p>I’m just having difficulties with the intellectual vitality essay…makes me realize how ignorant I really am.</p>
<p>Well, GoldOwl, realization of how little one knows in the vast scheme of things can also be viewed as a marker of growing awareness of all there is to learn. (Hey, they don’t call me zenkoan for nothing! ; ) ) Do you find yourself becoming curious about more and more things all the time? And maybe detecting the relationships between fields of inquiry that once may have seemed discrete? That’s one way to define intellectual vitality.</p>
<p>They said that 80-85% of people had the grades/test scores to be considered for admission. Maybe not super competitive, but I feel like Stanford looks at a lot more than numbers.</p>
<p>^ I think Stanford places more emphasis on the subjective factors than places like, say, HYP.</p>
<p>^ Well we shall see</p>
<p>Hey, guys. I’m also applying to Stanford. Guess I’ll be seeing you around :)</p>