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Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile. Log out. US Markets Loading H M S In the news. Peter Jacobs. Sign up for notifications from Insider! There's nothing to set you apart. Not to mention that dilly-dallying in a big number of areas will make you look like a dilettante.
The third and final truth is that Stanford would much rather see a candidate who is OK at most things but really great in one specific area. That area is your "spike," and it can be in almost anything: conducting microbiology research, publishing short stories, starting a small business, etc. Your spike makes you a strong candidate because it's unlikely that many other students will have the exact same spike as you.
In short, it helps set you apart and makes you unique. Admitting lots of students with different spikes allows Stanford to create the diverse student body it desires. Furthermore, Stanford is looking for students who will succeed in the future.
In our modern world, specialization is the key to success. Think about it: if you break a bone, you want to see a doctor who's great at resetting bones, right? Not a doctor who's pretty good at setting bones and also pretty good at diagnosing the type of flu you have and pretty good at recommending a diet to keep you healthy. It's OK to be lopsided—in fact, it's even desirable! The point is that you should aim to develop one area in which you're super strong.
In this area, or spike, you should try your best to be nationally or state-ranked, or accomplish a goal that's rare for a high school student. Think top football player in California, or top-1, math competition student in the United States. Think getting a pilot's license at age In all other areas, it suffices to be in the 99th or even 90th percentile.
A moderately good score in your English class will do. A few dozen hours of volunteering is fine. But in your spike, you want to be the best of the best. The most naive and prevalent myth is that getting into Stanford is all about academics.
In reality, admitting applicants based only on academics leads to an uninteresting community. Stanford cares about extracurriculars, too, and doing well in just one area of school or even all of school isn't enough. Unfortunately, an overly reactionary response to the above generates the worst myth.
Myth 2 is that you should be well rounded and great but not necessarily excellent in every field. But the truth is that being too well rounded makes you look the same as others who are just as well rounded as you; it also makes you look like someone without any direction. Ultimately, you want to be OK in every field but especially accomplished in one particular field.
We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools , from state colleges to the Ivy League. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in.
Based on the above information, your first goal should be to ensure you have strong academics. Even if you're above the 50th percentile, if you haven't prepped at least a few dozen hours yet, you should aim for the 75th percentile to strengthen your application. After you're above the 50th percentile, get to work on overcoming the first myth which claims that grades are everything. Stanford cares about far more than just academics, so try to squeeze in some good extracurriculars and volunteer experience.
Once you have a sufficient set of baseline activities, it's time to overcome the second myth by understanding that Stanford is not all about being diversified and well rounded. You want one area to stand out above and beyond all the others; this spike will be one of the most important parts of your application. Now that we've gone over the biggest myths and facts about Stanford admissions, let's take a look at another part of the highly prestigious university: its emphasis on STEM and what this means for you, whether you're into STEM or not.
This means that—all else being equal— if your interests learn more toward engineering, you'll get a slight boost in your admission chances.
So if one student were a top young writer and another were a top math competitor, it's likely that the latter would have a slightly better chance of getting into Stanford. Don't just take my word for it, though—you can Google it yourself. You'll see that Stanford is in the US News ' top-ranked engineering schools, while Harvard and Yale are nowhere near the top Part of this, however, is a self-fulfilling prophecy: because good engineering-type undergrads come here, it becomes an ideal place for similarly minded students.
As a result, math-related classes and extracurriculars are not the only things that matter when applying to Stanford. The next two sections will give you advice based on which subjects you plan to study in college. If you're less into STEM, read the next section. But if you're already focusing on a STEM area and plan on continuing to do so, skip on ahead to the section after for my most helpful tips. Do you plan on majoring in a humanities or similar subject? Then this section is for you! Just because Stanford leans more toward engineering, that doesn't mean that the only way to get in is to be an engineer.
While the school has a fantastic engineering program, it's also incredibly strong in non-STEM fields, such as economics and literature. Your application can be completely bereft of engineering aspirations, and you can still do well. In fact, I am quite sure that any humanities-heavy application that would do well at Harvard , Yale, or Princeton would do equally well, if not better, at Stanford.
Nevertheless, don't forget the fact that Stanford likes baseline diversity. Your spike doesn't need to be related to STEM, but you should still be strong in quantitative subjects as a whole. Because Stanford has a large number of applicants, they have enough humanities-spike applicants who can at least get the basic A or A- in the hardest math and science classes. You should take care to put enough effort into these subjects so you don't drop down to the middle of the pack.
Stanford doesn't take the excuse "I'm just not a math person" and, in fact, they're probably against the culture that makes such a phrase commonly acceptable in the first place.
Once you get below a on SAT Math or a 30 on ACT Math, Stanford will know you don't have a full command of standard concepts in math, such as factorizing variables or applying the Pythagorean theorem. All it requires is mastering baseline content of math and understanding the highest-gain SAT Math strategies.
You can study on your own by reviewing and mastering math content first while focusing lightly on math strategy. If you're studying with PrepScholar , we will automatically detect your situation and give you the right study material for this improvement. Students whose forte isn't engineering should know that Stanford is welcoming of interdisciplinary study. Indeed, the school would love to see you talk not just about the humanities, but also how your expertise in the humanities uses areas such as computer science or math to help refine your analysis.
Assuming you are truly interested, it will help your application if you mention an aspiration to use some amount of engineering in your future studies.
For example, if you're into religious studies with a focus on the Old Testament, you might talk about how you'd like to use statistical analysis to refine the documentary hypothesis. Usually, spikes are much easier if done in a field with natural talent and that you thoroughly enjoy. A STEM spike would make much less sense for you, not to mention that it'd be a lot less pleasant to accomplish.
Consider competitions for speech, debate, writing, essays, and so forth. For example, for enthusiasts of debate-type activities, there's Model UN , Junior State of America , governor's school , mock-trial , and nationwide debate.
Competitions provide a direct way for admissions officers to see how good you are , but you can also do other tasks that qualitatively seem similarly accomplished. For example, if you started a theater club that has an impressive number of audience members or consistently do journal-quality academic research on Victorian English literature, you'd be well positioned for your spike.
Stanford, meanwhile, is located in Stanford, right by Palo Alto. San Francisco is nearby, accessible via Caltrain or a shorter car ride. The city is even closer to San Jose. Stanford is surrounded by tech giants, including Google and Facebook. The student to faculty ratio is at Stanford and at Harvard. Stanford is particularly known for tech majors, including engineering and computer science, However, the university also offers majors across a wide variety of disciplines, such as aeronautics and astronautics, art practice, Native American studies, and theater and performance studies.
Students must fulfill general education requirements across areas including:. Stanford students are required to declare their majors before junior year. Students must fulfill general education requirements in areas including:.
Most students at Harvard declare their concentrations in the fall semester of their second year, though one-third of students end up changing. Students at both schools may design their own major or concentration with guidance and approval. Housing is guaranteed for all full-time undergraduate students at Stanford. Options include residence halls, apartments and suites, and small-group houses. Freshmen and new transfer students are required to live on campus and are assigned to residences based on preference forms they fill out, while upperclassmen use a lottery system.
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