Priyanka’s Admission to Stanford’s Bioengineering Program

Ever since Priyanka, a student from Northern California, entered high school, she dreamed of being a student at Stanford. Priyanka is a hard working student who always knew that she wanted to pursue a career in STEM, but wasn’t sure of her niche.

After joining PathIvy, she began her journey to develop a strong application narrative. Through taking her initial career assessment online with PathIvy and long discussions with her counselor, she realized that she is equally passionate about biology and engineering. She aspired to use engineering to help people live better, longer, and healthier lives.

She had a noble mission, but her goal was not going to be easy to achieve. Stanford University’s undergraduate admitted rate is approximately 3.6%. Additionally, it is even more challenging to get into STEM programs. Stanford’s Bioengineering program sits at the intersection of medicine, engineering, biology, and entrepreneurship.

It is jointly run by the School of Engineering and the School of Medicine, a rare structure that gives students direct access to medical faculty and hospitals, cutting-edge biotech and biomedical research labs, and real-world translational research opportunities. Students don’t just study theory, they build devices, design diagnostics, and work on technologies that directly impact human health.

How was Priyanka to get into her dream school, Stanford University? This is where PathIvy’s team made all the difference.

PathIvy’s Strategy that led to Priyanka’s Success

Counseling:

Carrie was Priyanka’s strategy counselor at PathIvy. Carrie received her Doctor of Education (EdD) from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Arts (MA) from Stanford. She knows how selective elite universities are in admissions and worked for day one to develop Priyanka’s application narrative.

Strategizing Extracurricular Activities:

One of the main reasons Priyanka’s application stood out is because of her strong extracurricular activities. After understanding Priyanka’s interest, Carrie designed a personalized plan to build her current extracurriculars, transforming them from good to excellent. Carrie recognized that Priyanka was interested in research, so she supported her research and publishing plans through giving Priyanka the direction she needed. Additionally, Priyanka was a founder of a biology club, and had multiple internships at relevant laboratories. She had a strong STEM related volunteer experience and played varsity-level tennis.

PathIvy’s Research Academy:

Priyanka joined PathIvy’s Research Academy in order to write and publish a paper within the field of bioengineering. Subsequently, PathIvy’s Academy connected Priyanka with her mentor, a bioengineering Ph.D. student at University of Pennsylvania.

Under her mentor’s guidance, Priyanka wrote a paper exploring TIGIT expression in ovarian cancer. This paper is currently under review for publication. Likewise, Priyanka went on to write another paper, which investigated the geometry of biological thought. In it, she coded Python figures demonstrating multidimensional scaling for bioengineering. This paper is also under review for publication. In this way, Priyanka’s strong research and writing experience within her field of bioengineering stood-out to admissions officers.

Essay Support:

In the spring of junior year, Priyanka had an additional counselor on her team. She started to work with David who is a Ph.D. holder from Duke University and worked as Priyanka’s writing specialist. David has decades of experience in counseling and writing, which helped Priyanka craft beautifully written, thoughtful essays.

While going through a round of revisions, Priyanka patiently followed David’s guidance to draft a stand-out personal statement. Priyanka wrote about the most challenging experiences of her life—seeing her home crumble in the California fires and how she stayed resilient through the devastation. Overall, her essays showed her breadth, values, and personality. Through it, the admissions committee could see not only her intellect, but also her care for others and drive to make a difference.

Application Round:

PathIvy recommended Restricted Early Action (REA) for Priyanka, as we know that this move would give Priyanka the best chance of success. Statistically, REA students are accepted at higher rates. This meant that Priyanka could not apply to any other private U.S. college/ university under their Early Action or Early Decision rounds. Priyanka gladly accepted PathIvy’s suggestion to apply to REA, which increased her chances of admission.

Conclusion:

Thus, PathIvy’s tailored guidance, skilful strategy in application narrative development, and consistent support, led to Priyanka achieving her dream of pursuing an undergraduate degree at Stanford Bioengineering Department. Admission to Stanford Bioengineering isn’t just about prestige, it’s about gaining access to the world’s most powerful ecosystem for biomedical innovation. PathIvy’s goal is not just helping students get into schools like Stanford, it’s preparing them to thrive in environments that shape the future of medicine, engineering, and technology.

Other Relevant Data:

4.0 GPA weighted 4.45

SAT: 1420

Relevant AP courses Bio 5, Chem 4

Majors

1st choice major: Bioengineering

2nd choice major: Biomechanical Engineering

3rd choice major: Biomedical Computation

Interested in learning more? Contact PathIvy to explore how our personalized approach can help your student unlock top-tier college opportunities!

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