Pooja Verma (12): I applied and committed to Stanford through REA (Restrictive Early Action). When I found out I got accepted I was really shocked because I had prepared myself to be rejected, so I just started screaming really loud and got my family in the room immediately. My family members were all really happy for me.

Applying REA really depends on the person, because it means that you can only apply early to that one private school. I would say to be really intentional with the schools that you apply to. Really think about your own profile, where you actually want to end up, and then everything should follow from there.

Stanford is a lot of people’s dream schools — it was mine from a really early age. It is the type of school that you show family when they come visit and you hear so much about it in the Bay Area. For me personally and for what I wanted to do, combining environmental science and engineering, there isn’t a school that could have possibly been better for me. 

Being committed to a college is very freeing, and I think everyone that gets into their early schools or their first choice school feels that way. It’s liberating because you don’t have to worry that much about work or stress about the things that you don’t like at school. Instead you can focus on the subjects you actually enjoy and other activities that you want to dedicate your time to. I feel like you have a lot more freedom because you’re not bound by this external thought of ‘I have to get into college.’

You actually declare your major at Stanford in your sophomore year so you’re able to experiment with courses in freshman year. I’m planning on double majoring in Earth Systems and Engineering. But since Stanford is so flexible, I also plan on maybe taking classes in management science and music. I’m looking forward to meeting a lot of different types of people because a lot of the time we’re always stuck with the same crowd since elementary school. Meeting people from all around the world that have such diverse interests and, especially because it’s Stanford, people that perform at such a high level is going to be really interesting. I’m also excited to join a lot of activities there — sustainability clubs and auditioning for their symphony. 

For a lot of juniors whatever they’re pursuing right now is probably going to be a lot of the highlights on their application, since most people don’t start that many new activities in junior year. My advice for them would be to continue what they’re doing at the highest level they can. It doesn’t really matter what they’re doing, as long as it’s what they want to do and they’re passionate about it. Everyone has this idea that there are some activities that they have to do to get into a top school, but I don’t think that’s true. If you truly love something it will show in your application and in the way that you carry yourself. The best thing that I did for myself in that regard was that I didn’t listen to many people or have too many external opinions on my application and my essays. For the most part, I just wrote and proofread it myself. I tried to make sure that it represented me in the best way. A lot of people I know have college counselors or they try to hyper edit their work which makes you sound inorganic and not like your true self. But college applications are really about ending up at the school that you would best thrive at so if you represent yourself in your truest form, then the school that you’re meant to go to will accept you. 

I would just like to say not to worry about all of this college stuff too much, because I know that for everybody at Irvington, it’s constantly thrown in your face. But since I’ve gotten into college my life hasn’t been that different. At the end it’s just a school that I’m going to and regardless of where everyone ends up, they will make the change that they want to in the world.