<p>Hey all. I’ve had a bit of good fortune recently, and I’ve decided to put in a transfer application to Stanford. I know that competition is fierce for not too many spots, but I was hoping you all could tell me if I should hold out hope, and possibly what aspects of my application I should emphasize.</p>
<p>Briefly, I’m a 24 year old former Marine, with two deployments to Iraq. My high school record is…interesting. I got C’s my Freshman year, though I was on the “advanced track” and continued so with upward trending grades till I got a near 4.0 my senior year with several AP classes. I took the old SATs and got 760V, 580Q…which is weird as I aced AP Calc.</p>
<p>My college record is likewise a bit interesting. Basically, I went into the California Community College system after my service, and I’m well positioned to transfer into a good UC. Prior to Spring '07, though, I was using the GI Bill to support myself while I worked on cars, etc. I have a good essay that explains this, truthfully, as being a bit out of phase with the world, and unable to make longterm plans following my service. I wasn’t looking to my grades, etc. Following that period, however, I’ve maintained a 4.0 in challenging work, and even if you look at all of my college grades I have a 3.79.</p>
<p>My good fortune is that I’ve recently impressed a couple of professors from my major. I’m actually physically at the University of Alaska Southeast right now, which my wife and I figured out a way to attend for a year without damaging my UC application. So, I think that I can have a couple of good evaluations.</p>
<p>As for why I want to attend Stanford, I’m fueled by challenge. I’m a math major, and I want to find a place where I have to work hard to stand out, a place where I can find an upper bound on my potential…and meet it. I have a lot of passion about math, and I think I can portray that in my essays. I’m polishing off a standard set of lower division work, and I think that my evaluators will say that I’m doing very well in their upper division classes.</p>
<p>So, have I got a hope?</p>
<p>Thanks for looking this over,
Joe</p>