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.
To learn more about working on your spike for college, check out our guide on how to get into the Ivy League search for "Part 2" and scroll down to 4.
If your strong point is quantitative, then that's a great advantage. After all, Stanford is engineering tilted! Even more to your advantage, I personally got into Stanford following this path , so I will have much more refined strategies for you here, including naming specific programs to try.
You should also be taking the most difficult STEM courses offered at your school. For the AP exams, aim for a 5 in each of these fields. If you're naturally talented at STEM and are taking the hardest courses, there's a high probability you'll get great grades; however, you want to turn that high probability into a certainty. Many students who are strong in STEM want to focus on only what they're interested in at that moment. It's important to see the benefits to your STEM education that are possible if you get into Stanford, and to convince yourself it's worthwhile to put in the grind that's often necessary to get good grades in school.
To illustrate this point more clearly, let me tell you the real story of my high school classmate. Let's call him Kevin. Kevin was intensely bright, would score at the top of intelligence tests, and was into battle bots. He would literally put all his time into building these robots, often skipping English classes, physics classes, and even sleep to spend time on this intense passion he had.
In the end, he earned Ds in English and Cs in Physics which he was otherwise great in. Sadly, when it came to admissions time, Kevin wasn't able to get into any college ranked within the top With his intelligence, he could have easily swept the US News top 50 if he'd put even a modicum of diligence into his schoolwork.
The next step is to ensure your academics outside of STEM meet at least some baseline of quality. This doesn't mean you have to be great in the humanities, but it does mean you'll want to keep the Bs in the humanities to a minimum. While you don't need to take any AP classes in the humanities I didn't! They're difficult enough that getting a sufficiently high score signals you're in the 95th percentile or above in all the US—certainly enough to qualify as well rounded.
I firmly believe that being great quantitatively correlates with being smart in general. You can definitely get these scores if you put your mind to it. The only caveat is that you'll need to be reasonably fluent in English.
If you're not a native speaker and aren't fluent, I suggest you make this a priority, probably through immersion in an English-speaking country.
The same skills you used to become good in quantitative subjects will be useful in mastering these standardized tests. Since you're only targeting a or 28 or above on these sections, you don't need to stress as much about the last few problems and being careless.
You do , however, need to memorize all the most common SAT grammar rules and learn how many questions you can afford to get wrong without sacrificing your score goals. Round out your Stanford application with some lower-hanging fruit if possible. Assume a leadership position in some club that requires public speaking, whether that's debate, Model UN, or something else.
Many areas in politics and law are surprisingly close to the logical systems you're used to in STEM. You might also consider playing a sport. Many JV teams are not incredibly competitive. Also, be sure to play to your strengths: if you're more dexterous than strong, you might want to choose squash, for example.
If you're fast and have good hand-eye coordination, consider baseball. Sports teams will take up a ton of time, though , so check that you're well positioned and able to handle the time commitment before making any decisions. Our guide lists hundreds of extracurriculars , which you can use to brainstorm how you can build a diversified base. Note that for your activities, you don't need to be especially great at them—participation is what ultimately matters here. This is where you really get to show off your STEM skills.
When it comes to spikes, the name of the game is to be highly ranked in recognized fields. One of the most natural environments to be ranked in is a competition. Now, obviously, the more recognized the competition, the better. As you might imagine, the most well-known, difficult, and participant-heavy competitions are the most prestigious.
For your Stanford application, it's better to rank in the top 1, of one of the most prestigious competitions than it is to rank in the top of a competition of middling prestige. This means you should try to aim for the most prestigious competition you can actually do well in. You should consider competitions from highest prestige down in that order whenever possible. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools.
These are two competitions everyone applying to Stanford should consider entering. The USAMO series is all about pure math and solving problems fairly quickly think a few minutes to an hour in a timed environment. By contrast, the ISEF is more about tinkering around, spending days and months doing research similar to what you'd do in college, and then presenting your results.
Here's a sample AMC 12 Problem. If you can solve this without any issues, then you'd be a strong candidate for a math competition:. Three real numbers in the interval [0, 1] are chosen independently and at random.
What is the probability that the chosen numbers are the side lengths of a triangle with positive area? You can see the answer and a full explanation at AoPS Online. If you're very good at math, then you should seriously consider the USAMO series more unofficial information here —it can really be your spike.
The USAMO series is so prestigious that I've known Stanford students whose main spike was placing within the top 1, or 2, in this competition. Most importantly, though, hundreds of thousands of the most mathematically strong students participate in it , making a top ranking really impressive.
The best way to sign up is to ask your high school math teacher. If your high school doesn't do this competition, you should either aggressively petition them to do it or search for a neighboring high school that will accept you as a guest. If you don't meet these basic thresholds, I would think very hard before making the USAMO series your spike—the series is, after all, just a much harder version of these standardized tests in nearly the exact same format.
The USAMO series will be a definite spike for you if you manage to make it into the top 1, or 2, spots. Now, what if you're good at tests and competitions—but not math?
Many students are strong in STEM but aren't exceptional when it comes to solving timed problems. Some get anxious from the pressure, whereas others just don't do well on tests, even if they're brilliant at STEM. These students might instead be found writing their own computer programs for months at a time or working on a science experiment for weeks. Like most science fairs, the ISEF requires you to do research and present your findings.
Think of it like this: whereas winning your high school's local science fair is like winning a meter dash in your town, winning the ISEF is like winning the meter dash in the Olympics. Learning about your extracurricular activities and nonacademic interests helps us understand your potential contributions to the Stanford community. Students often assume our primary concern is the number of activities in which a student participates. In fact, an exceptional depth of experience in one or two activities may demonstrate your passion more than minimal participation in five or six clubs.
You may also hold down a job or have family responsibilities. These are as important as any other extracurricular activity. In general, we want to understand the impact you have had at your job, in your family, in a club, in your school or in the larger community, and we want to learn of the impact that experience has had on you.
In some cases, exceptional abilities in athletics may influence our decision if the applicant is otherwise well qualified, but such abilities never, by themselves, ensure admission to Stanford. Just as no two Stanford students are the same, each applicant to Stanford is unique. This means that as we review each application, we pay careful attention to unique circumstances.
We take into account your background, educational pathway, and work and family responsibilities. By focusing on your achievements in context, we evaluate how you have excelled in your school environment and how you have taken advantage of what is available to you in your school and community.
It is important to know these variables are not listed in order of importance in our evaluation and selection process. We review applications holistically. No portion of the application is considered without the rest of the application. Stanford complies with the Jeanne Clery Act and publishes crime statistics for the most recent three-year period. Official copies of your original transcripts and teacher evaluations are required.
These must also be translated into English and copies of the translated documents must be provided with your application. Translations may not be completed by the applicant.
However, we encourage applicants to utilize other resources available to them—such as English teachers or school administrators—to provide such translations. If no sittings of these tests are offered in your country, you may request a testing waiver.
The request must be submitted by a school official in writing by email credentials stanford. Include your full legal name, school name and date of birth at the top of the letter. No form is required. Requests will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Fluency in English is a prerequisite for undergraduate admission at Stanford.
However, we do not require that you take any standardized tests to demonstrate your English skills. We have no preferred proficiency exam. Note: Stanford reviews applications using either official or self-reported test scores for all applicants. Please self-report your highest scores in the Testing section of either the Coalition Application or the Common Application. All official scores will be required if you are offered admission and choose to enroll.
Applicants who are international citizens will receive information detailing the student visa application process if offered admission to Stanford. To learn more about how Stanford supports its international and immigrant communities please visit the Stanford Immigration website. Stanford's international community adds vibrancy to our campus, and they find themselves at home in the dorms and classrooms. International students hail from around the world, speak a variety of languages and offer unique cultural perspectives.
To see a sampling of some of the international student groups on campus and the many networks of support available to this community, please visit the Bechtel International Center website.
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