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It’s 18 Director’s Cup wins in a row. The Director’s Cup is given based on the combined finishes across 20 sports. It is much easier to be admitted if you excel at a sport to a degree that you can make a good contribution to the teams. When I attended Stanford, the majority of athletes I knew were quite a bit weaker academically than average. However, the athletes Stanford admits are good enough students to succeed at the classwork. 22 of the sports teams have a 100% graduation rate, and all are 88%+ . For example, the 1st NFL draft pick in 2012 was from Stanford. While a stellar athlete, he was also valedictorian of his high school class. </p>
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They try to admit students from all 50 states to promote diverse backgrounds. I expect it’s significantly easier to be admitted if you are from a low population state, like Wyoming, than if you are from California. Similarly it’s easier to get admitted if your race or sex is underrepresented in your expected degree field.
They claim have the admissions selection fully independent from the financing and ability to pay/donate/endow and give a free ride including room and board + books to admitted students whose parents make less than $60k/yr (with some other criteria, including persons outside of the USA not being eligible). If two candidates had equal academic strengths, but one lived in poverty, I’d expect the low income candidate to have a big edge, due to the diverse and unique backgrounds mentioned above.</p>
<p>I tested their Net Price Calculator for a $55k/yr parents income with little savings. It reported an estimated cost $5k/yr, which is to be earned by a part-time job on campus during the academic year.</p>
<p>Answering the original question, you can get a good idea of what they are looking from from the info on the admissions page on the Stanford website [Our</a> Selection Process : Stanford University](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/basics/selection/]Our”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/basics/selection/) and the acceptance thread of this forum. You need to be a good enough student to succeed at the classes and have something unique that stands out from the other applicants. On the website they mention commitment, dedication, genuine interest, curiosity, enthusiasm, and initiative. I don’t get the impression that they are as big on leadership as many of the posts I’ve seen here imply.</p>