How do I get into Stanford?

Answered

Hi @rebecca. You are getting down-voted because your inquiry comes across as being immature and somewhat ill-informed about the college admissions process.

It's good you have a desire of wanting to attend Stanford but you need to think of why you would want to go there beyond the prestige and clout factor. And why Stanford admissions officers would want you to advocate for you to attend. You see it's a symbiotic relationship like all meaningful relationships (two way street). You have to be realistic, strategic and have a plan. And like all good plans, there is high probability with a 96% failure rate at Stanford, that it will not come to fruition. Therefore having attainable target and safety schools must be part of the mix so you don't end up heart-broken and have a great school to land no matter what happens.

I will tell you and other 9th graders that if you want to attend a top school like Stanford, you have to be learn to be excellent at many different things at once. What are these things?

Academics- Up to 50% of your profile component.

Aim for 4.00 Unweighted GPA. Stanford rejects 70% of students with perfect GPAS

Have a 1500+ SAT/34+ ACT, Stanford reject 70% of students with perfect test scores

Show strong evidence of IV/IC Intellectual Vitality/Intellectual Curiosity

Personal Statement, Supplemental Essay, Add'l Information - 25%

ECs, Interview, Recommendations (ALDC or Hook (BIPOC, Low Income, First Gen). - 25% of your profile.

Stanford uses a 1-5 scale rating across 6 categories. 1 being the best, 5 the worst. Most admits have 2s, either a 2+,2 or 2-. The categories are the following:

1.) Academics/GPA

2.) Testing Rating

3.) Extracurricular Rating

4.) Intellectual Vitality Ratings

5.) Recommendations Rating

6.) Self-presentations/Interview/Essay Rating

What are the overall composite ratings:

1 Rating: Very rare say 1% of admits, super high IV/IC rating

2 Rating: Competitive, and represents 10% of the applicant pool. Most admits are a 2.

3 Rating Falling short of compelling and less likely to be admitted. Maybe some recruited athletes have parts of their application a 3 rating.

4 Rating not compelling

5 Rating - poor rating.

Unlike the Ivys, Stanford admits the most compelling applicant, not necessarily the most qualified. They weigh the SAT/ACT less than the Ivys, they weigh the supplemental essay more than the Ivys. They weigh athletic recruiting heavily so you will not get much of a boost applying early and they favor applicants from public HS's and charter HS's over private and boarding schools (why you ask, there are not a lot of private/boarding schools on the West Coast. Besides Stanford Online HS, nothing else is a feeder school.)

So the advice I would give you is the following:

-Have the very best grades and course rigor. Take the hardest APs or IBs or honors classes you can. You want 4 years of English, Math, Science, and 3 years of History and 3 years of Foreign Language.

-Have the best standardized test scores starting with the PSAT, then SAT/or ACT

-Show evidence of IV/IC which is not the same thing as a passion project which have less relevance at Stanford.

-Pursue Tier 1 and Tier 2 ECs, and have a "spike" activity whether that's community service, leadership/activism, athletics, music/arts/dance.

-Curate great relationships with teachers and admin so you can get a great recommendation later on.

-If you are East Asian, consider picking a major that is under-subscribed like Classics or Linguistics rather than Pre-Med or Computer Science or Business. Asian students mostly apply to Pre-Med, Business, and CS.

-If you do a Varsity Sport, continue doing that in the hopes of either getting recruited for your sport of being good enough to try out as walk on. Recruited athletes have a much higher chance to get admitted.

There are plenty of CollegeVine Stream and Blogs on this site related to Stanford, so I would research them. Once you get a better idea of what you need to do, make a plan and map out all the things you need to do to improve your chances. I would start by filling out a CV Profile and add all your information there including grades, test scores etc.

https://blog.collegevine.com/what-does-it-really-take-to-get-into-stanford/

https://blog.collegevine.com/how-to-write-the-stanford-university-essays-2021-2022/

https://www.collegevine.com/schools/stanford-university

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_czSLGqUi4&feature=emb_imp_woyt

Good luck.