Reply to My son wants to apply to Stanford only. I want to encourage him, but do not think it is realistic.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Stanford's acceptance rate is 5%, right?  [/quote]

I just read an article about Stanford (in the NYT?).

At an acceptance rate of 5%, getting in is reduced to a lottery. Only the very best kids apply, and only a few of those kids in that pool will get in.

If you look closely at the admissions process, it's so subjective once the stats are reached. There is a very large pool of kids who have the stats to get into Stanford, but only a fraction of those kids (maybe slightly more than 5%, but not much, since it's a self-selecting group who apply) will be accepted, including kids with great extracurriculars, great "hooks," great everything.

Stanford has to choose someone, so they rely on the subjective opinions of their admissions staff, and the needs of the school, which you (we, as parents and kids as applicants) are not privy to. Perhaps they need a trombone player, so the trombonists get a boost, but French horns are out!

In short, all of the most selective schools have too many applicants who meet all the qualifications for admission, so at that point admission is based on subjective opinion and the needs of the school (as I mentioned above).

A bright kid will know, after a short amount of research, that he/she needs to apply to a range of schools. Crazy to fall in love with one school. And not very smart. [/quote]

Great post. This is true at all the highly selective universities. The game for these top universities is to make the first cut by jumping through some hoops wrt GPA and SATs. After that, it really is a crapshoot as to who gets the acceptance. Do they need a trombone? Does the admissions person have a headache when he reads your essay? Does your passion for naked organic gardening ring a personal note with the admissions officer who also happens to like naked organic gardening, or at least is impressed by your perseverence in doing it through the Alaskan winter?

Who can say. But at the end of the day, perfect GPAs and SATs just get you dumped in the second round with thousands of other kids with perfect GPAs and SATs.[/quote]

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