What are my chances?

Archive State Forums
1

So I am a Boston high school student ( African American) and I am curious about my chances at Stanford. My GPA from 10th to 11th right now is around a 3.5-3.6. I attend a Waldorf School right now and while not “normal” our main lesson classes are similar to that of college classes especially this year.A few examples are Renaissance Reformation and the Enlightenment, Nature of Matter , Hero and Monsters and Protective Geometry with a look at Perspective Art. Extracurricular wise :

Computer Programming
Chinese Calligraphy
Goderich Committee ( I’ll explain farther down)
Teen intern at the Institution of Contemporary Art ( 5 years)
New England Aquarium Intern ( Summers of 2012 , 2013 , 2014) ( School year 2013-2014) in Dive department, Visitor Education and Island Research
B.O.L.D teen member for 2011-2013 ( Breath of Life Dorchester Teens)
D.A.C ( Dorchester Arts Collaborative) Art teacher
Varsity Soccer 3 years
I am also the founder of a Non profit called Project L.i.F.E :
Project L.I.F.E is an ecofriendly , up-cycling jewelry and accessories business that take discarded waste such as paper plastic bags, plastic bottles and metal and turn them into accessories. 20% of the proceeds are wired directly to our sister school in Sierra Leone ( The Goderich Waldorf School) . Project L.I.F.E will soon have a single collection devoted to sending 10% of the proceeds to a different charity cause.

I am also an active member of our Neighborhood Council.

The other colleges I am looking at are :

Northeastern
Tuffs
BU
Umass Amherst
UC Berkeley
UC San Diego
UCLA
Cornell
Are there any other colleges I should look at ?

2

Without an SAT/ACT, it is tough to slot you. I will say, unless you are truly exceptional in other ways, a 3.5-3.6 probably won’t get you into the top UC schools.

If you want to come to CA, take a look at some of the privates like USD, LMU and Santa Clara.

Good luck.

3

Stanford is a Reach for everyone, including perfect GPA/SAT, outstanding essays and EC’s. All you can do is your best. In regards to UC’s, @NCalRent is right that your GPA is on the low side for many of the UC’s and you need to factor in cost, since UC’s give little to no Financial aid toward their $55K/year price tag. You should concentrate on the privates where more merit and FA are available. Work hard to bring that GPA up, study for the SAT/ACT, write some outstanding essays, and you will have many good options. Good Luck.