<p>I posted this elsewhere, but maybe it’s more relevant here:</p>
<p>I cannot begin to explain Stanford’s decisions, but I can tell you about D2 who was accepted SCEA last year. Briefly she had: SAT 2280 (taken only once in Spring of junior year*); top 5% rigorous college prep school, taking hardest classes (including AP Physics and AP Differential Equations); Senior Class President; and you can look up the rest in my older posts. </p>
<p>But I believe the significant factor here is that she transferred into this school as a junior. What is most informative as to her acceptance to both Stanford and Harvard was a note on each acceptance letter which said how impressed they were by the fact that she had acquired so many leadership positions in such a short (effectively one year) time period. </p>
<p>Also, her recommendations were outstanding- including comments like “in forty years of teaching I have rarely come across such a student…” and “exceptional in every way.” Her essays also were amazing, and she wrote them herself.</p>
<p>Based on this, I can only conclude that recommendations play a tremendous part in these decisions. Oh, and I have noticed that many of her Stanford classmates, including her, are quite humble about their accomplishments.</p>
<p>For what its worth.</p>
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<li>Someone said a 2200 is VERY different than a 2400. I disagree. It’s possible D could have gotten a 2400 if she’d taken it two more times, but frankly, she didn’t have time and we felt it unnecessary. She carried all AP classes her last two years and got 4s and 5s on all of those… plus was otherwise very busy. Maybe Stanford takes that into consideration…</li>
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