What Are They Looking For...

nspeds
Sun, 17 Apr 2005 17:53:15 +0000

But to say that they grade reasons to a scale with lower chances if they dont buy or identify with your reasons is silly.



Ostensibly, you are arguing for some sort of “reason-based relativism,” but that could be far from the truth. Reasons that do convey negative character traits are looked upon as bad reasons. This includes reasons for wishing to attend a college because of prestige, while a good reason may constitute wanting to work under a professor. Perhaps character traits are an underlying standard for weighing applicants, I am not certain.

But, once again, though many Harvards and Yalies were admitted into Stanford, many more were probably rejected. The college probably looks for a combination of good reasons as well as stats. I am not familiar with Stanford, but this thread on Yale might help: