HOW TO GET ACCEPTED INTO STANFORD?

This article has been written by a student who got into Stanford this fall 2013 into MS program Energy Resources Engineering. She has shared with us all her experiences, observations and essential points that will help drive you to Stanford. The information applies to most good schools.

HOW TO GET ACCEPTED INTO STANFORD?

(PART 1)

How to get into Stanford from kanza on Vimeo.

(This article and video are solely based on the author's observations)

... The complete picture that your entire application portrays about you is the only thing that is important.
While you need to give your best shot in each component of your application, what the admission committee is really looking for is how much of an ‘impact’ will a particular student have on their campus. Remember, schools like Stanford, MIT and Harvard are not just looking for great ‘students’ with the highest scores, they are actually looking for great ‘minds’ capable of doing something really worthy in the real world. In easy words, they are looking for the symptoms of a future leader or a luminary in you. Therefore two things are most looked- firstly do have the required intellect to contribute significantly to the campus environment. Secondly if you have that energy- that spark- to do something that could bring about a difference. And they need EVIDENCE for that!

Your intellect and discipline is conventionally established via high GPA and a high GRE score. So if you have good scores, you have high chances of getting into that final tier that most likely ‘may’ get selected into Stanford. But again, this does not mean that if you were not able to obtain an excellent GRE score or an excellent rank in the class, you have messed up with all your chances of getting admitted to Stanford, unless you have something to make up for the areas where you lack and once again, you have that ‘spark’ that outshines other traditional applications to Stanford with stellar scores. So if you have done something distinguished, you ‘will’most likely be hand-picked even if you have average scores. Now, that could be anything "really remarkable" (and pertinent) that you have done with all the resources that were available to you. In Stanford, students get admitted from all around the world. Ofcourse, there is a difference in the availability of resources to a bright candidate applying from Africa and a bright candidate applying from New York. Therefore, admissions committee divide all the applications in regions, and analyze each application with the perspective “How much can this candidate accomplish if he has the resources of a school like Stanford?” If the answer is ‘A lot’, you are in!  

If I talk about myself, I had a moderate GRE score, but some good research experience on the unconventional reservoirs of Pakistan. I had publications and student papers that were presented by me at both local as well as international conferences. Infact, one research got me awarded with the ‘Innovation Award’ at a company a work in, which is a multinational giant of the Oil and Gas industry. Therefore, all of this helped me to make over for the moderate GRE score I had. Ofcourse great recommendation letters and other things like extracurricular too count a lot.

Additionally, please be reminded that you can only get into Stanford if you apply. I know a lot of people who didn’t apply to Stanford thinking they were not good enough, or because the fee seemed unaffordable. You are destined to miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. If you don’t apply, you would never know if you could get in. It is definitely worth trying. Also, majority of the students at Stanford receive some type of financial aid. So funding is not a major problem, once you get in. For more details, read the article-

HOW TO GET FUNDED IN STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOR GRAD STUDIES

The final point I would want to make over here is that your ultimate success depends on yourself, more than the school you get into.  Personally, the people who have inspired me the most (Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates) were all college drop outs and they did not need a degree from Stanford, Harvard, Yale or MIT to do something great. My advice to you would be, if you want to start off with something as impactful as the companies of Silicon Valley in California (most of whom were started off by Stanford Alumni), you are on the right track. Else, if you just want to get into these schools to make some extra bucks as an anonymous person working in some firm, you are not dreaming big enough!

Life is short- Dream big! Do big!

Good luck! 

You may also like to visit PART 2 of this article series

< HOW TO GET FUNDED AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOR GRAD STUDIES >

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