"Should Stanford Expand the Freshman Class?"

Colleges & Universities A-Z Stanford University
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<p>"Should Stanford Expand the Freshman Class?
Historically low acceptance rates leave many deserving students out." Article in the Stanford Alumni Magazine by Stanford president, John Hennessy.</p>

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... My primary rationale for asking this question is the dramatic growth in the number of applicants—a significant fraction of whom are prepared to do Stanford-caliber study. Stanford, like many universities, is experiencing a record number of applicants. For the Class of 2011, we received nearly 24,000 applications—the most ever. Our acceptance rate was 10.3 percent—which we believe to be a record as well, albeit a record low. By comparison, for the class enrolling in 1970, we received 9,800 applications and accepted 22.4 percent.</p>

<p>As the number of applicants continues to increase, the quality of the students who apply also has risen, although more slowly than the total number of applicants. Test scores and grade-point averages are higher than ever; remarkable personal achievements, impressive contributions to the community and amazing creative accomplishments are now the norm. To cite one example: the percentage of applicants scoring the equivalent of a 700 on the SAT (adjusting for a recentering that happened in the 1990s) has increased by a factor of 1.12 for the verbal exam and a factor of 2.3 for the math exam.</p>

<p>Amid this rising tide of achievement, the size of our undergraduate population has remained nearly level for more than 35 years....

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<a href="http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2007/sepoct/columns/prez.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2007/sepoct/columns/prez.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Interesting. I feel that those are indeed good points. I think one reason that this hasn’t happened is that we would need to get more profs, advising faculty, residence staff, etc.</p>

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<p>“Announcing the move, Hennessy noted undergraduate numbers have been nearly level over the past 35 years”.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/october17/students-101707.html[/url]”>http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/october17/students-101707.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Do you get the feeling we alums are going to be asked for a lot of money to fund this?
I don’t think Stanford will be allowed to make this decision in a vacuum. My friends (alums also) who live in Menlo Park and other areas right near campus have raised significant concerns about the impact Stanford’s growth has made on traffic, etc. I’m not quite remembering the details, but I think Palo Alto had some concerns about the long-range plan.</p>

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<p>It seems to me that growth at the hospital and Stanford mall has more of an impact on traffic. Most students don’t bring cars to school and those that do tend to use them on weekends and not impact daily local commute traffic. Sand Hill is a clogged mess in the mornings, though!</p>

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<p>I will defer to your analysis. I’m just glad I’m not facing Sand Hill or the Dumbarton Bridge every morning. Just the reunion traffic was bad enough.</p>

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<p>“Notoriously selective Stanford considers accepting more students”</p>

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<p>[Notoriously</a> selective Stanford considers accepting more students](<a href=“http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/17/MNP0TRO48.DTL]Notoriously”>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/17/MNP0TRO48.DTL)</p>