Kids who applied to Stanford and Berkeley
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Anonymous
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My rising senior has 4.6 weighted GPA and a 1550 on the SAT. Not an athlete but lots of extracurriculars in the arts, some leadership roles, lots of work experience already , has a good internship for senior year.
My first off to college. First choices are Stanford and Berkeley. Any experiences with similar kids who did or did not get in. Trying to level set expectation for my child and me 
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Anonymous
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Does your school have Naviance? If not, ask your D's counselor about her chances for admission from your high school. One of my children attend a highly competitive magnet with numerous high caliber students applying to both schools. For Berkeley, about one third of applicants get accepted. For Stanford, about a handful get in.
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Anonymous
| OP - Yes, Naviance says my child is well positioned against other admitted applicants from their school. But computer models can be misleading. Thanks. |
Anonymous
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My DD (HS Class of 2017) applied to both. She had a similar GPA (3.98 UW, 3.6 something W) and a 2400 on the SAT. Fine, but not stand-out extracurriculars. She did not get into Stanford SCEA, and none of her other high-stats friends did either. Several kids did get accepted from our school, and they either had hooks (URM) or truly amazing ECs. We heard the same from friends with kids at other schools. Stanford seems to really be looking for kids who are huge standouts in one area or another. My DD did get into Berkeley, UCLA, and UCSD, and other state public flagships she applied to. Those tend to be much more stats-driven from what we could tell.
We had told our DD that her chances at Stanford were basically non-existent, and asked her to think carefully about whether she wanted to limit her other options by applying SCEA. She was disappointed when the rejection came, but not too surprised that it didn't work out. |
Anonymous
| Stanford unhooked is inherently a crapshoot. But she can apply SCEA, given her preferences. Berkeley odds go up if she’s full pay OOS and not applying to an impacted major. Cal does not consider legacy so she’s not handicapped wrt that there. IIRC, Stanford kids from DC’s school have generally been legacies. |
Anonymous
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DD - 1550 SAT, Top 2% of class (in the top 10 students) at a well regarded public high school. Not full pay. 4.0 UW, not sure of Waited but I want to say 4.6 or 4.7.
It wasn't pretty. We had a wide range but we did apply to a couple of top schools. Denied at Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Wellesley. Wait-listed at Middlebury, Rice, and Barnard. Accepted with lots of merit aid at Tulane, Fordham, Lafayette and some decent publics. Accepted with No Merit at U Richmond, W&L. I do think being a female hurt her especially at the SLACs. I would very much caution expectation setting. |
Anonymous
Naviance is helpful for the stats part only. The hard part is the picture you don't see in these lottery schools like Stanford - URM, athlete, legacy. She has a good shot at Berkeley though. |
Anonymous
Although among single digit admission rates schools, Stanford admits the fewest legacies. |
Anonymous
| OP - Very helpful. Thanks! |
Anonymous
Surprised at the "no merit at U Richmond. They are courting high stats kids big time. |
Anonymous
| What does she want to study? Will she be a full pay? |
Anonymous
This is discouraging. I hope she is happy with where she is going |
Anonymous
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OP: what does she want to study? If she's a STEM student, this may help, especially if engineering.
Also, what's was her course load? |
Anonymous
Wow. This is scary to me. |
Anonymous
Wow, I think this post may suggest how strong an advantage full pay private school kids have in college admissions. Haven’t seen outcomes like this at DC’s Big 3. |