What about Stanford (jamnman23)

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>I have applied to Stanford SCEA. I just wanted to get some peoples’ opinions on my chances.
unweighted GPA: 3.92 (my lowest grade in an academic class is a 93)
SAT: CR 740 M 800 W 690
SATII: MathII 740 U.S. History 790
Class Rank: tied 1st with one other person out of 218
AP Scores: AP English Language 4 AP Calculus AB 5 AP Microeconomics 5 AP U.S. History 5</p>

<p>I will graduate with 7 APs and possibly two courses taken at smith college</p>

<p>My school doesn’t really give out awards but I was a National Merit Scholarship Candidate, AP Scholar with Honor, and Winner of St. Michael’s College Book Award for Scholarhsip and Service</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: All through high school I have done Cross Country, Indoor Track, and Outdoor Track. I am multiple-year varsity on indoor and outdoor track and I am the captain of the cross country team. </p>

<p>My freshman and sophomore years I was not able to participate in too much more, because my stepmother was diagnosed with Stage 3 Ovarian Cancer and I had to take on extra family responsibilities including increased responsibility for my sister, who was then only three years old. My stepmother died in december of my Junior Year and during her last days in the hospital, I basically served as a parent to my 5-year old sister and missed a lot of school. </p>

<p>After I did not have to spend so much effort on necessary family responsibilities I joined the Republican Club at my high school and I am now its president. As president of the club, I pursued a local radio station manager and I now host and produce my own political issues talk show on FM radio with another member of the club. This corresponds to my interest in history, economics, and politics. In addition, I joined and am now the President/Captain of my high school’s academic team and I was captain when we appeared on a local high school TV game show and I came in 6th out of 98 participants in the prestigious MIT Beaver Academic Tournament. I am now working with my club advisor to organize an academic tournament hosted by my high school. Finally, I am President of the National Honor Society, where I run meetings, draft agendas, and recruit people to participate in service opportunities as well as participating in many myself. I also tutor other high school students in math regularly.
I know this is long, but how do you assess my chances.</p>

2

<p>You have a great shot, but keep in mind Stanford’s always a reach because of the abundance and variety of willing applicants.</p>

<p>If anything, the only thing that might bring you down is a lack of key leadership roles, but you’re an exceptionally strong candidate, and your GPA/test scores are phenomenal. You have as good a chance as any other top applicant.</p>

<p>btw, what were your outdoor track times? :]</p>

3

<p>You’re ECs are stellar with solid academics. I think you’re in.</p>

4

<p>I think you have a touching life story to tell, if you conveyed some sense of what you had to go through in the essays, you’re in.</p>

5

<p>You have the stats, but there are plenty of high GPA/High SAT (not the mention asian) applicants begging to get into Stanford. It is such a crapshoot, but the essay could help if you can tell about your situation without making it a “woe is me” kind of thing.</p>

<p>best of luck!</p>

6

<p>Yeah, I wrote my main essay basically about my unique relationship with my stepmother and the overwhelming strength and character she showed during her illness and how that helped me as I watched her slowly pass. I framed the essay kind of around what it means to be fortunate.</p>

<p>I also included in the optional additional information section about more specifically that she underwent three distinct rounds of chemotherapy and that it was actually Thanksgiving night when I got the news that she probably had 48 hours to live. I hope that I conveyed that the ordeal was something which took a lot of my strength and energy and a lot of my time. I am drawing on the fact that although I have not been involved with these various clubs very long, that because of the situation with my stepmother, they will see it as, “wow. He was able to make a big impact on these organizations in a short period of time and despite the things he went through.”</p>