It’s extremely hard to get into Stanford, even for stellar students with top grades and scores. The acceptance rate is less than 4% and falling. But you can raise your chances of getting in by following a few smart strategies.
Table of Contents
- Who Gets Into Stanford?
- How to Get Into Stanford
- The Bottom Line on How Hard It Is to Get Into Stanford
How hard is it to get into Stanford? Put it this way — you should have some safety schools in mind. Even among those with top grades, test scores, and extracurriculars, Stanford rejects far more students than it accepts. It suffers from the same problem as all elite colleges: too many applicants, too few spots.
There’s nothing you can do to make getting into Stanford easy. But there are a few things you can do it make it less impossible. This guide covers what Stanford is looking for and who gets in. By the time you finish reading, you should have some useful tips to make the most out of your application.
Who Gets Into Stanford?
The easy answer to the question of who gets into Stanford is the best students with the best grades, scores, and extracurriculars. But being the best at any of those things — or all of them — isn’t always enough to get into Stanford. Just ask all the valedictorians with perfect SATs or ACTs who get thin envelopes every year. There are plenty of them.
Here’s why having the best grades and the best test scores isn’t enough. Stanford has about 8,000 undergraduates. Roughly a quarter of those are freshmen. That means it has only 2,000 openings in a given year. It’s a tiny number when you think about it. Just consider how many kids want to go to Stanford every year — tens of thousands, if not millions. And most of those students have top grades and stellar resumes. The ones without those things aren’t even thinking about Stanford, as they know it’s a pipe dream.
In fall 2021, Stanford received more than 55,000 applicants for those 2,000 spots. It admitted only 2,190, for an acceptance rate of 3.9%. Because almost no one turns down Stanford, its yield is stratospheric. Unlike most schools, Stanford doesn’t have to admit way more students than it has openings to be able to fill its class. Put it all together and you can see why Stanford admissions are so brutal.
While most Stanford applicants don’t get in, there are those who do. Last fall 2,190 kids got to watch confetti rain down on their computer screens. What did these kids have that the others didn’t? Read on to find out.
What Does Stanford Look For in an Applicant?
Based on its 2021-22 common data set, here are the admissions factors Stanford says are “very important”:
- Rigor of secondary school record
- Class rank
- Academic GPA
- Standardized test scores
- Application essay
- Recommendations
- Extracurricular activities
- Talent/ability
- Character/personal qualities
In other words, they want the entire package. A lot of people still think the way to get into Stanford is to be a brilliant student. But you need to be a brilliant student who’s good at everything else too.
A couple things stand out on that list. Stanford classifies test scores as “very important” even though they claimed to be test optional for the 2021-22 cycle. That says kids with high scores still have a big advantage over their test-optional peers.
Stanford also claims they still focus on class rank, which a lot of schools have moved away from. Many high schools don’t even report class rank anymore. They feel it disadvantages too many smart, hardworking kids outside the top 5 or 10%. But Stanford, by its own admission, still finds it valuable. If your high school reports class rank, you should do everything you can to end up in at least the top 5% and ideally the top 2%.
Stanford’s Average SAT and ACT Scores for 2022
Stanford was test optional for 2021-22, and most applicants took advantage of that. Only 12.6% of admitted students submitted SAT scores, and even fewer, 8.7%, submitted ACT scores. But test optional doesn’t mean test blind. Stanford still cares about scores and gives an admissions boost to students with high ones. Here are its score midranges for 2022:
- Stanford’s middle 50% SAT range (EBRW): 720-770
- Stanford’s middle 50% SAT range (Math): 750-800
- Stanford’s middle 50% ACT range: 34-35
- Admits with SAT scores of 1,400 or higher: 91.0%
- Admits with ACT scores of 30 or higher: 96.2%
If your scores are in the top half of their midranges or higher, you’d be crazy not to submit them. That means an ACT of 35 or higher or an SAT of about 1,530 or higher. If your scores are below their 25th percentile, on the other hand, don’t submit them. You might as well attach a note to your application that says “Put this in the shredder.” From the 25th to the 50th percentile, it’s a judgment call. I’d submit them with a restrictive early action app but not during the regular decision round.
Stanford’s Average GPA and Class Rank for 2022
One thing not optional with a Stanford application is your high school GPA. They want to see not only that you aced your classes but that you took the hardest ones available. Stanford is huge on rigor. If you took a mix of APs and non-APs or went hard your junior year then took senior slacker classes, your chances are slim to none. Because Stanford is a ton of work, they only want to admit students who are no stranger to it.
Here are Stanford’s GPA and class rank averages for 2022:
- Stanford’s average high school unweighted GPA: 3.96
- Percent with unweighted GPA of 4.0: 75.1%
- Percent with unweighted GPA of 3.75 to 3.99: 19.0%
- Percent with unweighted GPA of 3.50 to 3.74: 2.5%
- Percent with unweighted GPA of 3.25 to 3.49: 1.6%
- Percent with unweighted GPA of 3.00 to 3.24: 1.4%
- Percent with unweighted GPA of 2.75 to 2.99: 0.3%
- Percent in top 10% of high school class: 96.0%
- Percent in top 25% of high school class: 100.0%
You probably have the same question I did when I saw these numbers. What explains the 0.3% with GPAs under 3.0? How in the world did they get into Stanford? It’s anyone’s guess, but they’re probably tearing it up on the football field or the basketball court. They also went to high schools with tough grading scales, as 100% of admits finished in at least the top quarter of their class.
Since I’m guessing you’re not the next Andrew Luck or Christian McCaffrey, you need to be much closer to a 4.0 than a 2.75. And you need to dominate your high school class academically. Stanford picks the best of the best from every class. They don’t reach down and pluck students from the second tier.
How to Get Into Stanford
Now that you know who gets into Stanford, how do you become one of those chosen few? If you’ve read this far without giving up hope, your grades and test scores are probably up to snuff.
But, as you’re likely aware, they might not be enough. A 4.0 GPA and 36 ACT don’t carry the cachet they used to. Sure, you still need those things — or close to them — to get into schools like Stanford. But by themselves they aren’t enough to get you that golden ticket. Again, it’s a supply and demand issue. The supply of 4.0s and 36s exceeds Stanford’s demand for them (as measured by number of openings) by a wide margin. So, you need something else to set you apart from all the other brilliant students and ace test-takers.
Here are a few examples of skills and accomplishments that jump off the application page:
- Published a novel. Preferably one that people actually read, not a 50-page piece of garbage you self-published on Kindle.
- Developed an app. Again, one that people actually use and that serves a purpose.
- Overcame a hardship. Be careful here. Admissions reps have heard every sob story you could ever come up with. A divorce or death in the family isn’t going to cut it. Those things are unfortunate, but they’re also commonplace. It needs to be a “pronounced dead but brought back to life” level hardship.
- Have a unique combination of talents. Are you an all-state quarterback who also won accolades for your drama club acting? Make sure Stanford knows that.
- Started a movement. I mean a national or at least a regional movement about something meaningful. Not a push to improve the pizza in your high school’s cafeteria. David Hogg got into Harvard with an SAT below 1,300 because he co-founded March for Our Lives. That’s the kind of thing that counts.
The Bottom Line on How Hard It Is to Get Into Stanford
With an acceptance rate below 4%, Stanford is one of the hardest schools in the country to get into. In fact, only Harvard admitted a smaller percentage of its applicants last year. To get into Stanford, you need to be brilliant, talented, and well-rounded. And, truth be told, you also need a little bit of luck to break your way.
If you follow the tips in this guide and things fall the right way, you might be wearing cardinal next fall. But if not, remember there are millions of successful people in America, and most didn’t go to Stanford. If you’re talented enough to consider Stanford, you’re talented enough to succeed wherever you end up.
