So students won’t be allowed to copy them and such?
Maybe the cat isn’t out of the box. Also wonder what illegal doctoring is happening (if there are any racially profiling comments, I bet they’ll be removed). Whichever college I end up going to, I will do this!
@theanaconda - here are the FERPA rules:
http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/students.html
The pertinent language is “inspect and review.” An exception is given if students are not within commuting distance of the school. Additionally, most students waive their FERPA rights to see their letters of recommendation when they submit their applications (I believe it’s a box checked on the Common App). My understanding is that any comments by admissions people that reference those letters can also be redacted before records are shown to students. I am quite certain there is no “illegal doctoring” going on.
Did you read the second article I linked - the one from Time Magazine?
I will add that I saw a yak on y i k y a k yesterday wherein the OP wrote that s/he wished s/he had not gone to look.
Ferpa has also recently been used at Yale. See link to Yale subforum posting:
To be frank, our kids in either coast could care less about looking at their “files”…and this Stanford Daily report just written sums it up pretty well…why.
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2015/03/09/first-students-gain-access-to-their-admissions-files-through-ferpa-provision/
@gravitas2 Interesting article. If I understand it correctly, in the future Stanford students won’t be able to review their admissions files as Stanford has deleted the records. It says this was after consulting with counsel so I assume Stanford is not required under FERPA to retain the records, just to share them on request if they exist . . . and now they don’t.
@bluewater2015. Yale Law is starting to follow Stanford’s lead in starting to destroy admissions records (with the advice of counsel)…
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121297/yale-law-deletes-admissions-records-congress-must-fix-ferpa
^^Pardon me…I should have used the more “non-violent” politically correct word “delete” instead of “destroy” 
@gravitas2 Interesting and I can see how Yale Law could come to the same conclusion as Stanford . . . perhaps other schools will end up doing the same thing.
I’d like to see what they say about the students, has anyone released any of their info yet? Aside from the guy in the Time article that is
@Hoggirl. Sound familiar? Does this article ring a bell? http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/students-requests-for-own-admissions-records-prompt-colleges-to-purge-documents/95831
I had not seen that article - thanks for sharing @gravitas2. That’s the first time I have seen a number about how many students have actually gone in to view their records at Stanford. Not as high as I would expect, but the timing of the availability of them (about 2/3rds into the winter quarter) may be part of it. My assumption is that going forward all of these schools will go back to purging/deleting/destroying such records (as they did when they were all paper) immediately after the admissions cycle. Is this article saying that Yale Law destroyed records after the requests were made? That’s definitely a no-no. Perhaps I am not reading it correctly. Once they have been requested, they cannot be destroyed. If they have not been requested, schools may do as they like. At least that is my understanding of how it works. Which is why I think schools’ policies on this will change now.
My friend from Stanford came home this week and he requested his files and told me all about it (he was allowed to take notes when looked and later compared to what his buddies thinks).
They do a ranking system of five categories with low scores being better. They also have a whole list of checkboxes if you are a “special” applicant in anyway. Apparently IMO is important to Stanford. And contrary to what most people think, the admissions officers do not write down “sat scores are good but grades are low-- is he not trying or not challenged” or “really enjoyed this essay” it’s actually a whole list of abbreviations that the students are still figuring out. There is more stuff but I thought it was really cool.
What is IMO?
International Math Olympiad? What makes him think that is any more important than anything else?
@JustOneDad
So on the first page of your data sheet they have a list of boxes that they check. Some examples are: DIV (diversity), gen one, legacy, office of development, etc. There were also boxes that said IMO and “no math”. My friend did not participate in IMO and got the “no math” box checked. His friends that did participate got the IMO box checked.
Edit: Just to clarify – I don’t think it’s more an important than anything else because my friend got in as a STEM major w/ no IMO, but it’s apparently of enough interest to have a box for it. Oh, one thing I do remember now is that one of the few full comments the adcoms made is that his interests/essays fit with his intended major.