Stanford Class of 2022 RD Results Thread

augustuscaesar27
Sat, 31 Mar 2018 04:47:20 +0000

(I wrote this before any decisions came out.)

Objective:
SAT I: 760R 800M 22E
SAT II: 800 Math II, 780 Chemistry, 780 Latin
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: N/A
Rank: Officially N/A, unofficially at least top 5/120
APs: Chemistry (5), Computer Science A (5), French (5), English Lang (5)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc AB, AP English Lit, AP Physics 1, Honors Bio, Honors Law, Honors Creative Writing
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Nothing really – qualified for AIME, attended but didn’t do that well at HMMT, placed well in some state/national tournaments prestigious within my country. Lots of smaller awards (within school, etc.) and did some more impressive stuff as a middle schooler (which you’d find if you googled me, but I didn’t mention in my apps)

Subjective:

Extracurriculars: Classics Club president (huge commitment), trivia team captain (we’re one of the best in the country), Ancient Greek student, physics research group (not that impressive, we’re pretty bad), running some small things at my school, writing for the school magazine, playing piano recreationally (I’m not good at all)
Job/Work Experience: A short gig doing some programming for a small corporate client a couple summers ago – nothing much

Volunteer/Community service: About 60 hours of assorted stuff from volunteering with school or spring break camps, etc.; another ~100 hours volunteering with Habitat for Humanity (every other weekend)
Summer Activities: Some nothing, some travelling with family; took a bunch of online comp sci classes. In addition, I’d usually either do some sort of academic camp or plan some academic activities for myself – stuff that you have to be smart to get into, but nothing impressive

Essays: Honestly, rating your own essays is a struggle. I’m a really good writer, and my guidance counselor who is relatively competent approved them, so they can’t be that bad. Wrote my common app about a large building project I designed (not like house-size, like lifesize diorama). My essays were mostly about some nerdy stuff and some existential stuff (now you basically know everything you need to know about me XD), and I think compared to the other schools I applied to, my Stanford essays were particularly interesting, deep/compelling, and well-written.

Recommendations
Teacher Rec (STEM): Teacher I had in sophomore year and this year. I saw the rec and it was pretty good – said I was one of the strongest students she’s ever taught and also mentioned a lot of really strong personal leadership qualities.
Teacher Rec (Humanities): Teacher I had last year. I had a good combo of aptitude and dedication in his class and was one of the few who did; got a good grade and he expressed that he had a lot of respect for me. I’ve been working with him closely this year because he’s the trivia team supervisor; he’s displayed a lot of awe at my leadership/organization skills, which are extremely good, so I think it was probably a pretty strong rec.

Counselor Rec: My counselor definitely sees me as one of the most passionate and mature students in my grade, but he doesn’t know me that well. It was probably OK, but not necessarily above the average good rec.
Additional Rec: My online computer science teacher I’ve known since sixth grade. He thinks I’m absolutely incredible and a genius so I think this rec will be good.
Interview: Didn’t get one (and most people who applied at my school did)

Other

Intended Major: Engineering and Classics
State/Country: I’m a US citizen living in another country, so I count as domestic.
School Type: private academic, full of high-achievers – probably the best in my country
Ethnicity: sorta complicated but basically half ashkenazi jew, half caribbean black
Gender: prefer not to say
Income Bracket: 200kish
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM

Reflection

Strengths: I think Classics+Engineering is a pretty interesting/unique combo and my common app essay made it clear how I want to combine the two. I’m pretty intelligent (davidson institute-level, if you know what that is), but I honestly don’t know how common that is – maybe it makes me stand out, maybe it’s a dime a dozen. Also not sure how much my hooks help. I definitely have a unique worldview and I’m super passionate/intellectual/driven/organized; if those things came through in my application, I bet they helped.
Weaknesses: I have a bunch of small-to-medium awards but none of the golden tickets like USAMO, etc., and haven’t done anything super exciting or innovative – nothing that makes you think, we need that kid. I’m not a fancy entrepreneur or anything, I just love and am very good at learning.

Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted Harvard EA, MIT RD, Harvey Mudd RD

General Comments: Keep in mind, these little writeups are incredibly subjective. I could be over- or under-stating my accomplishments in the eyes of AOs and none of us, myself included, really know the truth.