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 EARLY DECISION
In December, Stanford admitted 596 high school seniors for
the Class of 2007 through its Early Decision program. While
early applications increased greatly compared to last year at
other top colleges such as Harvard and Yale, Stanford's
numbers represented only a 3 percent gain over 2001.
Because Stanford will switch to a single-choice Early
Action program next year, this is the University's final year
of Early Decision.
Students admitted to Stanford on Dec. 17, 2002 represent
slightly over 24 percent of the 2,468 early applications
received. Last year, 556 students out of 2,390 early
applicants were admitted.
These students will make up about three-eighths of the
final freshman class size, which should be slightly over
1,600. Approximately 2,300 students will be admitted by April,
though around 700 of those accepted will likely choose not to
enroll.
Harvard, which follows a non-binding Early Action policy
that allows students to apply to multiple schools early,
experienced an enormous increase of 24.3 percent, from 6,125
to 7,615. Yale, which plans to adopt the same non-binding
single-choice Early Action policy as Stanford, also witnessed
a large increase in early applications, from approximately
2,100 to 2,600 this year.
Princeton, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania all
saw 11 to 12 percent increases from last year. Dartmouth
experienced an 8 percent increase, and Cornell, like Stanford,
had a 3 percent increase in applications.
Brown, which switched last year from a non-binding Early
Action program similar to Harvard's to a binding Early
Decision policy, showed a 3 percent decrease in its early
applicants. Duke, another institution that employs a
traditional Early Decision program, experienced an approximate
10 percent decline in the number of early applications
received.
This year's early admits for Stanford represent 41 states,
the District of Columbia and 22 foreign countries, compared to
last year's early admits of 43 states and 14 countries.
REGULAR DECISION
Published authors, the inventor of a spoken and written
language, a rodeo champion and a race car driver are among the
high school seniors who received a letter of acceptance from
Stanford this week. The University announced on April 4th that
it has offered admission to 2,250 students to form the Class
of 2007. For the third straight year, the newest set of admits
form Stanford's most racially diverse class to date.
The vast majority of Stanford's 19,000 applicants, though,
will be left with a letter of rejection. Though the number of
applications was comparable to that of past years, Stanford's
admit rate decreased to 12.1 percent, noticeably lower than
last year's 12.7 percent and the preceding year's 12.6
percent. Applicant admission was down 70 students from last
year's 2,320 students. The standard of academic excellence
remained extremely high, according to the Office of
Undergraduate Admissions, with more than half the accepted
applicants having a 4.0 unweighted grade point average.
Stanford's admits retain the trend of diversity that the
University has established in prior years. For the second year
in a row, the majority of admits are racial minorities.
Thirteen percent of the admits are African-American, 25
percent are Asian-American, 11 percent are Mexican-American, 3
percent are Latino / a and 3 percent are Native American or
Native Hawaiian. With minority groups representing 49.9
percent of admits in the class of 2005 and slightly more than
half of the class of 2006, this is Stanford's most ethnically
diverse admit group to date.
The admitted students represent 1,344 secondary schools and
all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The majority of admits are from the regular admittance
pool, with 1,653 letters mailed. Another 597 admits from the
early decision pool will have until May 1 to send in their
letters of matriculation.
EARLY ACTION TO COME
The current nearly perfect enrollment of early admits will
change next year, however, when Stanford switches to its
non-binding single-choice Early Action program. While this new
plan will still require early applicants to apply only to
Stanford, no binding commitment is asked of them, in an
attempt to relieve the pressure of making a final decision so
early in their senior year of high school.
An added benefit of the future early application program is
that early applicants will be able to compare financial aid
packages from various schools. A common complaint against
Early Decision has been that it hurts students who need the
flexibility to evaluate aid.
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