Admission to Stanford University

Admission to Stanford University June 21, 2013 Well-rounded students quite often struggle to gain admission to Stanford University. Just like they struggle to gain admission to other highly selective schools. There was an article recently by Paul Levy in The Minneapolis Star Tribune entitled Perfect scores alone dont make for admission to college of choice. Well duh! In the article, Mr. Levy writes about Tanner McArdle who had a perfect 36 on his ACT exam, a 4.1 GPA, ran varsity cross country, plays in the orchestra, and volunteers for two food shelves. According to his principal, as stated in the article, Hes the complete package. Oy vey. The complete package? Just those words make us at Ivy Coach cringe and to hear the principals surprise at the students rejection from admission to Stanford University makes us cringe even more. College admissions officers at highly selective universities like Stanford arent looking for the proverbial complete package as this high school principal seems to imply. A student who runs cross country, plays in his schools orchestra, and does a couple of volunteer activities doesnt sound any different from all of the other applicants to Stanford University who have perfect scores and grades, play in the orchestra, run cross country, and volunteer at soup kitchens. What applicants to a highly competitive university like Stanford need is a hook. And from how Tanners case is presented in this article in The Minneapolis Star Tribune, it seems as though the young man doesnt have anything close to a hook. So whats a hook, you ask? A hook is being so good at cross country that the Stanford cross country coach actually recruits him. How does running cross country in high school benefit Stanford if Tanner isnt good enough to do it in college? It doesnt! How does playing in his schools orchestra benefit Stanford? It doesnt? If hes the greatest violinist in the world, then thats something. But simply by playing in his schools orchestra, that hardly distinguis hes him as the greatest violinist in the world. Its high time that high school principals stop referring to this proverbial full package. Great colleges dont want well-rounded students. They dont want three-sport athletes. They dont want people who do ten activities. They want students who excel in a single passion area. Thats what a hook is in highly selective college admissions. Whats your hook?