Okay so now let’s talk about Stanford.
Stanford is unique in that it’s technically not an Ivy League school and yet it’s at the caliber of probably the best Ivy League schools in the country.
Stanford is different as well in that it’s the only school of its caliber on the West Coast and in addition has a rich history of fostering entrepreneurship, risk taking, and has a close affiliation with Silicon Valley.
It’s always hard to say exactly what a specific college or university is looking for but there are definitely things that you can do to help yourself stand out.
At Stanford the three big areas I would encourage you to look into are:
1. Athletics
Because Stanford has an amazing athletic program across a bunch of different sports. In fact they won the Sears cup, which is given to the college with the around highest performing athletic program in the country, for a ridiculous seven or eight years in a row - it might be even more now!
2. Entrepreneurship and risk-taking
Again, Stanford has a very close affiliation with Silicon Valley. It’s also well known for breeding successful entrepreneurs and that reputation for excellence in startups, for excellence in innovation, and for excellence in initiative-taking has really been a boon for Stanford in both college admissions as well as business school admissions
3. Finally I fervently believe that Stanford really encourages a student spirit of independence and somewhat of a maverick personality
So now that we know the three things that the Stanford admissions committee likes: athleticism, entrepreneurialism, and independence:
What can you do as a high school student to maximize your chances of getting into Stanford?
Number one, you need to play sports.
I would encourage you get started early well before high school.
If you can’t then try your best to make a varsity team in high school. Great ones include track and offbeat sports like wrestling/judo because they can be easier to join (depending on the school and program, of course)! By getting a few varsity letters you’ll really help boost your “student-athlete” profile which is something Stanford really respects and looks for in its accepted students.
After having spent 4 years at Stanford undergraduate, I can comfortably confirm with you that many, many students (easily more than half) had varsity high school sports experience in some form, and many were far better than that!
Number two, you need to work at a startup or try to start a company of your own. The second is clearly preferable because you’ll gain an incredible amount of experience and respect for even attempting such a task.
It’s not easy – and again, you can really boost your chances by getting the help of your parents. The smartest thing to do is to figure out the areas where you’re really passionate about – if it’s model car building, consider starting a blog about model cars and then selling model cars via the internet.
If it’s ballet, consider providing ballet lessons to elementary school students for free and start a “teaching company” off of that by renting space at a local dance studio.
These are the types of things that are very innovative and different, and by doing them and then “telling those stories” extremely well, you really put yourself ahead of the pack in Stanford admissions.
Finally, number three is independence and “maverick-ness”. I know it’s vague, but these are more personality qualities than they are specific criteria.
To make it practical, I would suggest that in at least one of your essays, really talk about how you made a hard decision, took a principled stand, or did something where you had almost no support from family or friends but you did it because you believed passionately in it. This could be that you run for student council president when no one thought you could be elected. It could be the story of when you started your ballet teaching company and everyone thought you would fail.
Really telling that story – of how you independently pursued your dreams against the criticisms of others – is something that Stanford admires as a spirit in its students, and is something that every high school student has demonstrated at one point or another. The secret is to make that come out in at least one of your essays.
And now that Stanford does alumni admissions interviews – I’d bring it up there too! You can bet that one of the questions you’ll be asked is exactly when you’ve “bucked the trend” to do something independent and entrepreneurial. Be ready for it.
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