<p>beprepn:</p>
<p>I should have written that Stanford, which has an excellent math department, is trying to compete with other top programs such as Caltech, MIT, Harvard, Princeton and others, for top math students. But what people fail to remember is that Stanford is excellent across the board, yet attracts an inordinate number of students interested in math/science and a large proportion of these applicants are premed or prospective computer science majors. A student interested in history or East Asian studies or anthropology might have an easier time getting admitted and would receive a first-class education.</p>