r/GetIntoStanford

I am a sophomore in a rural state at a small college-prep high school and I'm probably going to try and double major in like PoliSci or smth like that and CS. I’m willing to do the work to become strong applicant, but I don’t really know where to go (as you will see, my application is a bit split between humanities and STEM). Here are my stats:

GPA:

100/100 (W), 96/100 (UW)

APs:

5 total (Soph: AP World, AP Precalc, AP CSP, AP Seminar || Freshman: AP HUG), 5 on the only exam I’ve gotten back (freshman)

Taking 6 next year (AP Phys 1, AP Lit, AP Calc AB, AP CSA, APUSH, AP Research (I plan to work on my paper this summer and attempt to publish it with the help of my prof)

ECs and Awards:

Speech and Debate- NSDA #1 in my state for sophomore class, top 10 nationally for sophomore class, 2x National qualifier, going to be top 3 in the state next year for all grades and then hopefully overall 1 by senior

Mock Trial- 2025 State Champion qualifying as the only team from our state to the National High School Mock Trial Competition

Science Olympiad- #1 gold medal at state only time I've done it thus far

Math Team- Vice President, won multiple university-hosted competitions with team, got money for placing

Varsity Tennis- State Champion in singles my freshman year, attending tournaments competitively since I was 10 and playing since I was 5

Volunteering- Volunteer at an organization for the mentally or physically disabled who play tennis as a coach and helper consistently

Work- Tutor for all grades below me at my school and others in math and science, will be working this summer

Programming Club- As of next year will be president of a team that will compete in competitions and teach club members more about programming

Programs:

-Stanford Summer Humanities Institute (<10%)

-YYGS (10% or so)

-Accepted into Governor’s School but I'm not going b/c of Speech and Debate Nats (I live in a very uncompetitive state tbh but I’m hoping it’ll still look good)

There’s a few other things but I’d say this is the main stuff. Thanks!

i heard there was a lot of conflicting information about whether waitlist movement has begun or whether stanford will take from the waitlist this cycle, so i called the stanford admissions office five minutes ago.

they have yet to extend waitlist offers yet due to overall yield. i was also told to keep an eye on the portal in the meantime.

Hey! Guys I'm from India and actually I don't know anything about it so is there anyone who can tell me and get to know the things

I’m a rising junior interested in cs/data science and I was wondering if there is anything I should be doing to improve my chances in getting into a top college like stanford/mit (im dont have many stem-focused ecs)

i took ap hug freshman year and got a 4, and have finished ap chem and world this year. I plan to take ap csp, calc ab, lang, and stats next year.

my gpa UW and W is around 3.9/4.5 respectively and im like top 20/500 in my class (also in a public school in socal)

The only notable ec I have is co-founding a non profit that has raised over $5k for orphans in need (not 501c3 status yet would like more advice in applying for that if anyone knows)

Some questions I have include:
What important CS/data science ecs I should be starting rn?

What are things that would strengthen my
profile greatly?

Should I try doing research? And if so, how should I start?

Should I try to compete in competitions like hackathons with my little knowledge in coding or is it too late to start?

Any and all advice/shared past experiences are appreciated.

Realmente me interesa ingresar a alguna universidad que sea de las mejores en tecnología todavía me falta bastantes años para postular (4 años) y por eso quiero pedir consejos desde ya para ir preparándome

Demographics: male, Asian, public school in MA

Intended Major(s): pre-med (biochem, chem, bio)

SAT: 1550

GPA: 4.0 UW (no weighted, no class rank which is kinda weird)

Coursework: 8 AP by end of junior yr (chem 5, bio 5, Chinese 5, world 5, lang 5,apush, calc bc, psych) prolly like ap stats and phys next yr + post ap math. 10 honors course.

2 post-ap courses

Extracirricular

Volunteering - 120+ hrs, made 70+ hats and other trinkets for cancer patients. (10th, 11th)

volunteering at regional hospital - (60+ hr) mostly just helping patients with their daily needs + nurses with stocking stuff. (11th)

Summer internship at a t20 med school (without connections) - goal is for a paper, worst case poster/abstract (11th)
Summer internship at UPitt medical center - no paper but had like a poster. (10th)

First author of research published in IF > 3 peer reviewed journal in cancer research (10th, 11th)

summer internship at t30 university on west coast (one of the higher end ucs) @ their med school- likely end up with poster/abstract (11th)

Local Orchestra - violin 1 (9th, 10th, 11th)

co-leader of tutoring program in us competition chemistry - teach students across us (100+ kids) competition chem. (9th, 10th, 11th)

AP Chem TA/Tutor - ~30+ hr tutor for school ppl and out of school (11th)

Tutoring for children in chem for under privileged kids in Africa - 11th

Selected for regional orchestra - violin 1, kinda competitive region? (11th)

Science Olympiad Officer - few state medals but nothing too special (11th)

Built app with AI assistance to use AI to help ppl suffering from mental health issues to find music for comfort (11th)

leader of school chem club (11th, 12th)

Awards

USNCO Honors - Top 150

Regional Science Fair - 2nd place

Accepted Research to Conferece for pharmaceutical industry/college ppl (aaps) (only hs i think)

PVSA Gold

Saint Saens Youth Artist music comp - silver

placed decently at other chemistry comps that (@ harvard mit got within top 30 but not top 10 :<)

fried or cooking a bit

1. NASA SpaceApps Global Nominee
2. USACO Gold
3. ISEF Alternate (honorable. mention from regional fair)
4. Semifinalist, Columbia Junior Science Journal
5. Commended Scholar, National Merit Scholarship Program

ALTERNATIVE. 2nd Place, USA Volleyball Boys Jr. National Championship,

do you guys think the activity list can save my app or not ✌🏿

Hi everyone,
I graduated from Class 12 this year and I’m from India. My dream school is Stanford University, and I am also applying to Harvard University, New York University, and Duke University.
I studied under the CBSE board, where AP/IB courses are generally not offered.
Academics:
Class 9: 85%

Class 10: 89%
( science , social science , english, hindi , IT, maths)
Class 11 (PCB stream): 87%

Class 12 (CBSE): 85%

( planning to give SAT , marks would be around 1510-1560)

Intended major: Biology-related field or business
Extracurriculars:
Researched why Korean skincare (K-beauty) is rapidly growing among Indian consumers and the factors influencing this trend.

Worked in stray dog community service for 3 years with three volunteers, helping feed dogs and provide basic medical care.

Acrylic artist for 13 years.

From Classes 8–10, assisted in my father’s business as a data entry operator and accounts assistant, primarily handling data entry and organizational tasks

Class president from Classes 5–8 and again in Classes 11–12.

House captain for 4 years ( also use to be main anchor of the assembly)

UGC content creator who collaborated with 7+ brands, including Nykaa and Dot & Key.

During Classes 8–10, created and managed a social media account for my dog that collaborated with 12–15 pet-care brands. My dog served as an ambassador for 2–3 brands, including one of India’s leading pet-care companies. The account generated around ₹40,000 INR revenue within 8 months.

Built a prototype for a PCOD awareness app focused on women’s health, including cycle, symptom, sleep, and health tracking.

Participated multiple times in science fairs and school competitions.

Enjoyed solving physical chemistry problems in my free time and helped friends academically.

I would appreciate any honest feedback or suggestions regarding my profile and college applications.

Demographics:
-Male
-Pakistani
-Indiana
-Small, private school, hasn’t sent a kid to an Ivy in a decade lol. No clubs for competition. That’s why I don’t really have that many awards.
-Low income, First Muslim to graduate from school, first gen American uh idk

Intended Major(s): Either public health or biochem

ACT/SAT/SAT II:
- 1450 (730 rw, 720m)
- 32 ACT (35 English, 33 reading, 28 math 💔) retaking twice before admissions for hopefully a 35

UW/W GPA and Rank: 3.9uw / 4.6 w rank is 12/91

- Everybody in top ten takes the same classes. I didn’t take AP bio so it tanked my class rank. School gives A’s at 95% and above. Valedictorian doesn’t have a 4.0 if tha gives context for rigor

Coursework: Will have 11 AP classes by grad. 8 DE classes by grad. Mostly 5s. One 3 in ap seminar which I’m not gonna submit probaly. Maxed out rigor at my school, having to self study calc bc cause we don’t have it for context.

Awards:

- Notre Dame Summer Scholars - received a full ride scholarship to notre dame’s oncology and cancer biology course.

- Richard G. Lugar Symposium - nominated to debate and partake at this state-wide symposium. Eligible for 20k scholarship at UIndy cause of this.

-21st Century Scholar - eligible for full tuition scholarship at any Indiana public school.

-Hoosier Boys State

- Student of the month for the science department at my school lol

- principals list consistently

- 2 varsity letters - football & wrestling

Extracurriculars:

• Autonomous Medical Scribe: Engineered AI pipeline automating clinical documentation and ICD-10 coding streamlining a process that takes around 2-3 hours for physicians each day. Trying to turn this into a website, and maybe pitch it to somewhere.

• Pathogen Identity Research: Developed a machine-learning model (SHAP-enhanced XGBoost)to diagnose pathogens (staph, chlamydia, salmonella, and tuberculosis)before they appear to be diagnosed like they would traditionally like usually after 24 hours, diagnosing the pathogens while utilizing SHAP software to illustrate which genes are activated by the host (human) cell when it is infected. Trying to get this published over the summer. If you have any suggestions lmk.

• Honey Antibacterial Research: Published research on comparing prescription and nonprescription honey-based treatments for infected diabetic ulcers.

• Founder/President – CareLink: Founded non-profit providing medical scholarships and diabetes advocacy. Partnered with Statewide nonprofit that runs summer camps for pediatric diabetes. Get around 250-300 kids that attend each year. Each camp costs a lot, so my nonprofit pays for their supplies like sunscreen etc. while supporting scholarships for them.

• Student Ambassador: Mentored underrepresented students to bridge educational achievement gaps.

• Quick Recall (Team Captain): Directed competitive strategy for elite-level academic trivia team.

• Co-president – Robotics Team: Spearheaded hardware design and prototyping for competitive robotics.

• Mixed Martial Arts: Mastered multi-discipline combat sports to build elite mental resilience.

• Varsity Athletics (Wrestling/Football): Achieved dual-sport varsity letters while maintaining rigorous academic standards.

• Restaurant (Cook): Managed high-volume culinary operations to provide essential household income.

• Fast food (Cashier): Optimized customer relations to fund household and non-profit initiatives.

- Red Cross volunteer - Self explanatory

- also have worked around 50 hours in service. Idk if I’m gonna include that. It’s kind of random (animal shelters, local middle schools, mowing lawns, restaurants, homeless shelters)

- I also garden idk if I should add that in there though idk. Maybe I’ll do a gardening competition or do a drive with my nonprofit including gardening.

Essays/LORs/Other: idk my essays are hopefully gonna be good. Maybe an 8-9/10. LORs will be good. Chemistry teacher that mentored my honey research. Also took 3 of her classes and was the copresident of her robotics club. 2nd lor will be my ap lit teacher. She likes me I think lol.
Lor will maybe be an 8-9 again hopefully.

Schools:
I’m deciding between

Reaches: EARLY
STANFORD REA - Overwhelmingly my top choice. Love this school, but I don’t think I really have a chance.

DUKE ED - Also like this school. Probably my #2.

VANDERBILT ED - split between this and JHU as my 3

JOHN’S HOPKINS ED

Reaches maybe matches: REGULAR
ivies - I mean I don’t really truly care that much about the ivies. Except for like UPenn and Harvard. Other than that not really super Ivy driven lol. Stanford is better 🥹💔

- Rice

- NYU

- Tulane

- USC Cali + Berkeley + UCSD

- Tufts

SAFETIES:

- IU Bloomington
- Purdue
- UINDY
- University of Alabama
- uh idk asu and become a bop and mog the frat leader

Idk where to pick like I don’t think I would get into Stanford. I don’t think I would really get into any of these reaches, but I think I have a better shot at Duke than Stanford.

Stamford's waitlist movement was speculated to start moving around this time. Has anyone gotten a decision yet? I think they might start releasing today or tomorrow.

Heyy this is aish! So in 2025 nov i applied to 5 best UK university and got into uni of Edinburgh and KCL but i didn’t got any scholarship so I’m not going ( i can only study on schlorships ) but i dream of going to ives since class 9 even tho idk what are requirements really. In class 12 i didn’t work on it cause i thought they’ll reject me anyways (biggest mistake) but i just can move on from them so im taking drop this year and will be applying for stanford fall 2027. I need your help rn with this , idk what are ecs and awards that’ll help me because my most of awards and ECs are from grade 8 😭.

hi y'all. i’m an indian intl applicant planning to apply this year to the ivyies & the t20s. any advice would be really appreciated.

preferred major: econ, finance, business

grades: HS doesn't have GPA system, but rank 2/74 in 12th right now. (however high school is extremely competitive with over 67 out of 74 kids getting 90%+ in average score). GPA if i'd calculate myself, is kinda mid, around 3.75 UW & 3.9 according to STARS.

BOARD: ICSE
APs: None. APs not offered by school :(

SAT: 1580
IELTS: 8.5
Financial Aid: NONE REQUIRED. FULL PAY.

awards:
- international ai hackathon winner + $2.5 K in prize money (international comp)
- john locke essay category winner (international comp)
- gyec special recognition award (international comp)
- national ai hackathon, with over 5000+ participants, 2nd-runner’s up + 1 lakh prize (national comp)
- all india rank of 81 in National Finance Olympiad out of 3000+ participants (national comp) / diamond challenge semi-finalsits, top 50 of 4,000+ global applicants (international comp) (will give either one from here)

ecs:

- co-founder of an ai-agri tech company + received equity-free grants from gov schemes and private sponsorships of Rs. 2.3 Crores (~$200K USD) for seed funding + 10K downloads in playstore + piloted this with state agri gov + letter of recognistion by state agri minister (or mayor as america has) + featured in local newspaper (applying to YC fall 26. i feel like i have somewhat of a probability of getting in, even if its low)

- co-authored research paper with with IIT econ prof on econometric analysis of willingness-to-pay among smallholder farmers in india for ai-assistive agro tech + surveyed 120+ farmers + got selected & presented research at a global agri conference + pre-print published in SSRN, arxiv + currently being peer-reviewed + LOR from prof

- wealth management intern @ local wealth management company, where i analyzed 18+ portfolios (~Rs. 3 Crore (~$300K USD) AMU) + built an excel VaR model to identify risk and help with reallocation strategies to support Rs. 10 Lakh (~$10,500 USD) reallocations. + LOR from boss & he also gave me recommendation on my linkedin

- young founders summit (startup accelerator) in singapore, for which i was selected as 1 of only 8 from india to be part of the 80 kids cohort from all over asia + it was a fully funded program + i was mentored by people who were ex-500 global partner and SG 100 women in tech leader + phase 1 of it was 1 week long program in singapore + phase 2 was for finalists after the week long program, who got selected for round 2, which was for the next 6 months, for which my team & i, built an assistive technology for neurodivergent children & pitched in front of singaporean VCs in june last yr. i applied for its country director position, so lets see about that.

- have a blog, where i breakdown topics on econ, biz, start ups, finance in gen-z way + try to showcase my state's entreprenurial & business ecosystem as there is very less representation about it in india and in my state itself. + have reached over 18K subscribers till today. have been doing this since 3 yrs now & total readership is around ~800K total views with over 32 blogs posts till now.

- core member & project lead of rotaract club in my city, where i've lead an project which aims to expand banking access in underserved communities + organized financial literacy workshops for 900+ blue-collar workers on govt schemes + assisted them with application processes; enabled till today ~600 scheme enrollemnts + got a letter of recognition from district magistrate after we submitted an impact report + this program has been adopted by 5 additional rotaract chapters till now.

- organised my state's first ever 3-day youth startup bootcamp & competition in collaboration with the gov start up org, for which there was 120+ participants from 24 schools from 7 different states. even raised Rs. 1 lakh (~$1000 USD) for prize money for top 5 pitches. was featured on the local paper for this.

- finally, i also have been doing the classical indian vocal for 9 yrs now & have merit certificate for the completion of the course. i also have ABRSM merit certifications for classical guitar till grade 3. i've been in the school choir for almost 8 yrs now + self-produced and released my own two singles & hit 100K streams in total from all platforms.

my essays is going to be about my unique cultural background & community first vibes. LORs is from my counsellor, math teacher & econ teacher who know me for quite sometime now and i'm pretty tight with both of them.

if there’s any advice, pls do share! I’d really appreciate it!

(really wanna get into the ivyies & STANFORD of couese, but i dont wanna be delusional about it. applying for class of 2031)

demographics:

- female, south asian (indian/nepalese), bay area, 300k income bracket, no hooks

- type of school: not typical bay area school, top 15% in california but not t50 nation, public school, title 1. send maybe 1 kid to stanford and 6 kids to ucla a year. lots of kids to sd this yr

intended majors: philosophy, politics, economics, (PPE - where they have it), other interdisciplinary polisci/econ/international relations where they dont

academics:

GPA: 3.85 UW / 4.31 W by time of applying prolly. 4.0 in community college courses

rank: school doesn't do it, but i did get an email from UC saying top 10% of cali high schoolers which prolly isnt that high of a bar. hoping for top 10% in school. some grade deflation at school but def still many 4.0 kids

APs/Honors/Dual Enrollment/etc: 10 APs, 1 DE (intro to admin justice, a), 2 CE (intro to social/political philosophy, intro to macro econ, A, A)

standardized testing:

1460 sat from freshman year, some pretty bad sat scores from not studying, prolly gonna retake 1-2 more times

APs: Calc AB (5), World (5), current: U.S. history, lang, psych, + bc, future: ap spanish, gov, lit, either stats or apes

extracurriculars:

s&d pres of chud school: grew membership like 370% to like 30 members+ increase tourney participation a lot like 300%, fundraise 15k/yr to provide scholarships + flights to travel tourneys, design/implemennt new curricula for like 8 new events from 2 when i joined, host 8 tourneys servicing 2k kids across the area

founder + pres of mun: grew program to like 50 members, winning 20+ awards total, 1.5k funding from grants, participation in 6 conferences (like 8 by time of applying)

internship @ county democratic party: lead an initiative on ai (10+ interns), presented research to chief data leadership of obama administration and chief data leadership of state party

outreach intern @ an ngo i work for: one of the lead organizer of this hybrid event w/ 6 partner orgs like pbs + 150+ expected attendance; helped redesign rubric that evaluated almost 100 submissions

ambassador of a united nations thing for that ngo: directed curriculum for target group, no roll out, organized webinar>> invited to speak at uc davis for my work

job- teach chess to 15 kindergarteners

youth commission- lead a subcommittee for an event thats interacted w like 120+ constituents total, also interacted with like more constituents in other events; rep thousands of youth to council

(best ec): gonna be a delegate repping my ngo + country kinda at the united nations this summer, gonna speak too (at a side event)

hoping to do a pub/paper too i have a grad student whos down to help me

might also do a podcast for shits n giggles on philosophy but idk

awards:

coolidge senator (2% acceptance rate of 4000+ applicants), 1k scholarship + all expenses paid leadership summit

1st place at debate tourney (yes i tied with 8 it doesnt matter!!!) of like 123 competitors

1st place research award at university-hosted mun conference

pvsa gold

nsda honor society w/ distinction or smt

1k merit scholarship to a debate camp way back in teh day (sole recipient)

LORs

prolly gonna ask my lang, ush, and psych teachers. i know its 3 but its basically cuz my psych teacher does them REALLY late so in case she doesnt submit i still have 2.

psych- prolly really good, she wrote my lor for coolidge and i got in w way less impressive stats than a lot of rejected people, one of her favorite students

lang- hopefully good, i talk a lot in that class but im still good at the work overall

ush- hopefully good, she wrote my lor for some programs i got rejected from so i doubt its a carry but im her fave student

hopefully get a lor from the ceo of the ngo im repping at the un, she did my lor for coolidge too but she knew me less at the time

essays

prolly strong i mean they got me into coolidge idk but i did get rejected from less competitive programs so idk. i normally get some help from peers + teachers but no counselor n stuff

hi guys, incoming senior here. i was wondering if there's been a bit of a boost (yes ik it's still hard to get in) for students applying as a humanities major. My intended major will be anthropology and have some substantial ECs to back it up.

Also I was wondering if theres a disadvantage to this too bc I heard stanford likes innovation. Not sure how I would be innovative with my major, I do have an community org that I started up and is pretty well established. Please lmk!!

So the thing is, I would be applying for fall 2027, and there are two major problems:

1. One is that I would be publishing six papers in total. One was in December 2025, and the next five papers are in the duration of June 2026 to September 2026. I would be presenting them at that time. Is this a massive red flag? I never knew this would be a red flag. I worked on these simultaneously from the start, or maybe previously I never had the thought that publishing all these at the same time would be a big headache or would fail my narrative in college applications. Now I'm getting reviews such as "this is bad," but these are not predatory journals. They are core A-ranked conferences in my field, not journals. I'm getting reviews such as "this is bad," but these are not predatory journals. They are core A-ranked conferences in my field, not journals.
2. The second problem is that, out of these six papers in total, five have the same research domain, but the other one is way different from all of these five. Actually, two of them are different. Is it a problem? If it is, how much is it, and is there any way I can fix it? I haven't submitted those papers yet, but I got those reviewed by professors and all.

SAT: 1530 (retaking for 1560+ but perfect 800 on math)

PSAT: 1490 (760 Math and 730 RW)

UW GPA: 3.92

W GPA: 4.6

Coursework: Georgia Tech Linear Algebra, Georgia Tech Multivariable Calculus, Georgia Tech CS1331, AP Chemistry, AP Physics 1, AP Chemistry, AP Physics C, AP World History, AP Computer Science A, AP Computer Science Principles, AP Calculus BC, AP Precalculus, AP Human Geography, DE US History at UNG, AP English Language, AP Psychology, Supervised Machine Learning by Andrew Ng, Intro to AI, AI Concepts, AI Applications

ECs

Internship under a congressman helping write a bill about stopping ai from being used in identity theft

Georgia Tech Research regarding GPU

University of Georgia Prof regarding E&M

Co-President of the CS Club

Co-President of the Physics Club

Website Manager in Training for UNICEF

Officer Coordinator for a school-wide tutoring club

Marching Band for 2 years

ThinkNeuro Internship

Stanford AIMI Summer Internship (idk if its pay to win or what)

Published 2 papers in a high school journal

Honors

University of Georgia Certificate of Merit for being 10% of my class

AP Scholar with Distinction

UGA JanFest

10th Place Website Coding and Development SLC

10th Place Financial Math RLC

PVSA Bronze

2nd Place Financial Math FLC

Predicted National Merit Scholar

Right now a junior

Allegedly according to a waitlist website, the stanford waitlist moved yesterday. Does anyone know if this is true, or it is just a troll?

Is there a risk of rejection due to 4 in AP scores if all other stats are good like awards, ECs, gpa, SAT but in AP chem , AP physics 1 AP Physics 2 we get a 4 ? I am interested in applied Math.

As an intl student, may be it differs like belonging to that region in Pakistan, where good internet is privilege to have and where you found out abt SAT and ACT or Intl Science Olympiads that they exists after your high school or 12th grade it seems like to see a dream of getting into ivy especially In Standford is beyond reality and idt so that these problems/issues give me edge in my application . Although I am planning to give SAT for a try & abt ECs. Let it go, in remote areas of Pakistan these things are not that much promoted but rn after some awareness and our seniors bringing it, some sort of + update. So rn I have time so what extracurriculars would u suggest me to do, to make a good profile for Stanford & One more question is that any uni studying stud can apply in Stanford as a freshman or it is prohibited. I have searched abt this scenario, mostly results are like this you can only apply as an transfer student & transfers into Stanford from Pakistan local uni is kinda rare, kindly enlighten this also. Advance apologizing if my English sucks or smth , I am trying to improve.

hi everyone! i know that stanford waitlist was speculated to start moving today, just based on prior years. i was just wondering if anyone got off of the waitlist yet?