Advice on getting into Stanford from admitted Stanford Guide readers
I asked admitted readers to share their advice on getting into Stanford.
Sorted by most recent admits first.
Elizabeth Bours, Stanford ’29:
- Essays & commonapp: Apps are honestly kind of random, so definitely put your best foot forward, but don’t tie your self-worth to an acceptance or rejection. For the activities list, don’t be shy about showing it to others, and use common acronyms. The character count is tight, so cutting filler and using clear key phrases helps make the last 4 years understandable to a stranger.
- High school activities that are less relevant than they seem: APs/classes: I spent a lot of freshman + sophomore year trying to maximize rigor by taking AP exams outside school, but I didn’t do it super efficiently. Looking back, I could’ve spent more time scaling my nonprofit rather than studying an extra 3+ hours everyday in April/May. If you want more rigor, I’d recommend community college classes (especially in CA). They’re structured and automatically give college credit.
Ben Pan, Stanford ’27 (dropped out to join a startup)
- Essays & commonapp: The admissions process is all about sales / storytelling. It helped me get into the right (sales) mindset and gave me the correct big picture to work with. I read all the books suggested in the post. I really loved the Media Training Bible — it helped me nail down my key messages and hone in on them everywhere in the application (all the great communicators do this in interviews). I’m also glad you included a lot of “hidden interviews” — I had no college counselor throughout the process, but I spent so much time digging these up. Ironically I think I knew more about the process from the admission reader interviews than the average counselor.
- High school activities that are less relevant than they seem: All the BS extracurriculars people do (non-profits, music, sports, debate, clubs etc) are irrelevant unless you pursue them to an extraordinary degree. If I could turn back time, I really wish I thought more about what I could become world class at and just pursued that relentlessly. For me that probably would’ve been a mix of math, programming, and software engineering. Then I’d tell people to find more “unconventional” opportunities in those domains. E.g. for me I worked at a YC startup when I was 16. I wish I did more of that later. On the other hand, doing USACO was probably not very differentiated and didn’t excite me tbh.
Zack Seifert, Stanford ’27
- Essays & commonapp: Demonstrate intellectual vitality throughout your application, which is your love for learning.
- High school activities that are less relevant than they seem: Good high school grades and test scores are just a checkbox.
Justin Yang, Stanford ’27
- Essays & commonapp: Realize it is a game, and you play to win. When you are playing basketball, the goal isn’t just to jump the highest — your actions need to be in service of actually scoring. I know that is a bleak piece of advice, but if you are really trying to get into a top school, you have to understand that is how the game is played. Every element of the application needs to be in service of the win.
- High school activities that are less relevant than they seem: Pure competitions. Relative to the amount of effort doing debate + related competitions took, they didn’t help my chances nearly as much as doing independent stuff I was passionate about.
Varun Shenoy, Stanford ’23
- Essays & commonapp: The biggest lesson I learned was how important it was to lean into things that were different. Stanford does a very good job at distinguishing high-achieving high school student (e.g. class president, captain of debate team, started non-profit, etc.) with a padded resume from people who just went very deep into things they enjoyed. Also — I learned how important it was to read a lot about a lot of different things. Going back through my essays, the only through line was that they were all very off-kilter and a fairly good reflection of being a very well read person.
- High school activities that are less relevant than they seem: Don’t focus on padding your resume and stacking the number of things you’re involved in!! Go deep into 1–2 things that are interesting/meaningful to you and find a unique path to showcase that.
Sasankh Munukutla, Stanford ’22 ’23
- Essays & commonapp: The most important thing is to tell a story that is authentic to you and genuinely reflects your life story. The things you’ve worked on and obviously comes off as yours. I think the best test I’ve heard is you should be able to drop your essay in a random room of your friends and peers and it shouldn’t have your name on it, and they should be able to tell that you wrote this. And I think also another thing I’d add on is the best essays reflect your most authentic, earned insights, lessons in life. Ideally, when the reader reads the essay, they not only learn about you but they learn about the way you think and how introspective and reflective you are. So it really takes a lot of reflection to dig deep and find those insights that are uniquely yours. So it’s not just a learning that you know somebody else could have, but what are learnings you’ve gotten in your life through your activities, through your unique perspective that will authentically reflect you and can only come from you. Ultimately, like 60–70% of people who apply to Stanford will be qualified academically and from their achievements to get in. The hard task the admissions committee is tasked with is a very hard job to fill the class with the most interesting people to have lunch with!
- High school activities that are less relevant than they seem: In general, I think depth and specificity matter the most. I think sometimes people too often think they need to follow a template and a pattern, do every activity, do the classical activities, and that’s not to hate on the classical activities (like you know debate or Model UN are ones that often come up). But I think the most important thing is to go deep and become excellent or world-class in a few things. Again, I think it’s much easier if you take that approach in terms of focus, but also I think you’re able to then craft a unique story and be someone that stands out. So really do things that are unique that speak to your heart and that are authentic to you. Don’t feel like you have to do anything for the sake of doing it.
Anonymous, Stanford ’22
- Essays & commonapp: Holistic narrative matters. The admissions people take into account everything about you to understand you as a person and project if you’d flourish / thrive at Stanford. The narrative and story of your life, struggles, quirks, family background, achievements, all need to weave together in an authentic way.
- High school activities that are less relevant than they seem: SATs / standardized tests prob don’t matter that much after u hit a certain threshold. Want to focus deeper — don’t need to do 4 clubs. or even 2. Maybe can just focus on one thing and make it a really compelling part of your journey.
Ronak Malde, Stanford ’22
- Essays & commonapp: Show your intellectual vitality through a specific story, and how that excites you to change the world.
- High school activities that are less relevant than they seem: Random awards don’t matter, doing something unique and big because of your clear self-drive is more important.
Jason Zhao, Stanford ’21
- Essays & commonapp: The most important metric is neither intelligence or well-roundedness but how memorable you are. Admissions officers probably look at thousands of impressive candidates who are utterly forgettable. When they discuss your application, can you be summarized in a single sentence? Eg, “Olympic athlete” or “hacked into school system at age 12” or “future Chemistry Nobel prize winner”.
- High school activities that are less relevant than they seem: Most clubs in high school are zero-sum, hierarchical status tournaments where students cosplay to get a resume line item. Better to do random things in the broader world that are actually interesting/impactful to you outside of the high school bubble — not just for admissions but for fun, impact, and learning more about the world. Same advice is even more true at Stanford and universities in general, though there are certainly some more interesting student groups that don’t fit this generalization on campus.
Nick Rubin, Stanford ’21
- Essays & commonapp: Find a few teachers you really like and start building relationships with them well ahead of application time. Don’t wait until the last minute to pull together letters of recommendation.
- High school activities that are less relevant than they seem: I used to think being one of the “cool kids” really mattered, but it doesn’t. However, being adjacent to those circles will teach you useful social skills that compound over time.
Rohan Kapur, Stanford ’21 (dropped out to start a business)
- Essays & commonapp: I think the biggest lesson to me is making sure you convey yourself, conviction, and your full personality through these essays. When I got to admit weekend I got to meet my admissions officer along with others she admitted and she went around the circle talking about key artefacts she loved from each of our essays’. All of it was personality based. One of the highlights she mentioned for me was my love for alternative music. You want to feel like someone who not only checks all those academic and extracurricular checkboxes — and demonstrates great potential for future innovation in whatever field(s) you’re showing depth in — but is also really going to contribute to being a unique facet of campus life. They’re building a group of people at the end of the day. Obviously, depending on who you are, where you’re applying from, your background it’s difficult to generalise. Also please keep in mind, with a lot of things in life, there is randomness and luck. It’s not as simple as your overall package being in the top few percent of all applications when you consider the subjectivity of the process and any other interests involved. At the end of the day, humans are putting their own personal take on the packet you present — and much is out of your control.
- High school activities that are less relevant than they seem: Raw academic & competition around traditional credential signalling, including HS popularity. That fades so, so fast. Blockbuster success in the real world rarely comes from doing well in a path someone else provisioned you, and it can come in all forms and sizes. Lots of success looks less glamorous than others, but actually pays more. Some forms of wins can feed the ego more, but are actually more hollow. Etc…
Anonymous, Stanford ’19
- Essays & commonapp: It’s all about the unification of the story. These admissions ppl are scanning through so many apps that you need to spoon feed the story to them. And every achievement / framing should go to that spiky story. That way, they can go to the table and really advocate for you in a way that’s easy to grok for the other admissions officers. It’s like optimizing for a telephone like game in a way.
- High school activities that are less relevant than they seem: Most clubs are not important. If they take 0 time, then they’re fine to have, but I think that the next marginal club is not that useful if you are applying to a top 5 school (unclear if this applies to non top 5 schools)
Chris Barber, Stanford ’16
- Essays & commonapp: Get strangers to read your applications and verbalize what goes through their mind while they read it. Don’t write essays, write stories about things that you did. More like a movie director than a writer. Brainstorm 30 movies you could write. Show them to people. Write the best 15. Then pick the best. Be hyper detailed, describing the scene so someone can feel what it would’ve been like to be there. See also.
- High school activities that are less relevant than they seem: Probably helpful to get good enough grades and test scores that Stanford knows you can handle it. Beyond that, follow your curiosity and create things.