<p>@Clowiebear I think it’s just the overall population growth of students. My class is the largest our HS has had yet</p>
<p>Probably a decent number of my grade are applying to Stanford, but I’d say I’m one of the maybe three or four who actually at least match the stats and such for it (not to be egotistical). Still, my grade is probably around 120 students, tops. The freshmen this year have like 200+.</p>
<p>Yeah my HS class is ~760 people, and we grow by about 20 each year</p>
<p>I’ll throw another idea out there regarding the jump in applications:</p>
<p>Those coming out of high school during the past couple of years, and likely in the foreseeable future, realize that the job market is a nightmare, the U.S. economy will remain a brutally hard place to find employment. One key way to improve your chances of having a decent income and standard of living is getting a college degree from a “name” school. This seems obvious but where the game has changed is that there will no longer be multiple jobs for the lab manager, rather only one, and students sense this.</p>
<p>Now, applicants with less stellar credentials are in effect, forced to have to apply to Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, etc in the unrealistic hope they get in - 'cause if they don’t, they may be spending nearly as much money (AFTER financial aid) on a degree that won’t deliver the goods. Just a thought…</p>
<p>@Clowiebear</p>
<p>Actually, it’s much cheaper for me to go to Stanford than a state school. I believe that is true for most people with a family income of <100k</p>
<p>So I guess it might make sense that a significant demographic group increasing its applications to Stanford would increase the number of total applicants to Stanford during an economic downturn? Idk, just a guess.</p>
<p>@freezingbeast</p>
<p>the same was true for me. the only school cheaper for me than stanford was Pton, and that’s only because NJ students at Pton on significant financial aid do not have to contribute anything (savings or work). if i applied to rutgers or TCNJ, i still would have had to pay for like room/board, etc., and they have larger loan expectations</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I wish more middle-class people would realize this. It breaks my heart when qualified students don’t apply to top schools because it’s ‘too expensive’, and end up going to state schools paying full tuition. The only people for whom cheaper ticket-price schools are ACTUALLY cheaper are those who qualify for little to no aid (i.e. >$130,000 income)
Or I guess if they’re getting merit scholarships from public schools, that would be cheaper too.</p>
<p>^Many low- and mid-income people DO realize it, LNSebastian–that’s the biggest reason for the surge in applications in recent years to colleges that meet full need without loans, including Stanford. The major increases in numbers of applications coincides with the years since these colleges adopted their current financial aid initiatives and, as the word of them has spread, the numbers of applications have skyrocketed. Of course not everyone is fully aware of these policies, but more are every year, hence the jumps in applications (other than at Yale recently, for some reason).</p>
<p>@zenkoan You have a very good point. I wasn’t even thinking about Stanford before because I thought I’d have to get a full ride just to go there, regardless if I made it in or not. But when I read about their financial aid program I was immediately hooked and decided to apply.</p>
<p>wait where do colleges post who they accepted ea? where do they post this?</p>
<p>They do not. They email each applicant individually and follow up with a admission package through snail mail! :)</p>
<p>whats ewho talking about then earlier in this thread</p>
<p>Well, pm him and find out. Because all that is greek to me. :)</p>
<p>I simply don’t understand why Harvard is considered “more prestigious” (even if ever so slightly) than stanford. Stanford is the only school that can boast being at the top 5 of nearly every subject ranking (nationally, in the sciences, in business, law AND engineering.) can anyone offer a suggestion? I have been pondering this for quite some time.</p>
<p>^They are the first and have been at it much longer than Stanford.</p>
<p>We have an acquaintance who has sat in on the Harvard selection committees and Yale and is equally knowlegdeable about Stanford. Of all the schools she thinks Stanford is truly number one. She said its the one school she would tell parents to actually consider mortgaging their house to make the tutition payment. So I asked her the same question, If Stanford is so great why is it that Yale and Harvard are always ranked 1 and/or 2. She stated that Stanford is the only school who actually doesn’t submit stats to USNWR. Stanford does not subscribe to that ranking. Hence the report has to come up with their own statistics. She gives Stanford a lot of credit for now bowing down to these rankings and submitting to this form of advertisement. And of course, as we all know its certainly a school worthy of its praise.</p>
<p>Harvard and Yale have been preeminent since the 17th century (and for that matter Oxford since the 12th century), Stanford only since the 1980’s- “tried and true” may be worth a few points.</p>
<p>It’s not too surprising that Dad2 would have a great affinity for old age.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not only that, but also a former Stanford president, Gerhard Casper openly criticized the USNWR rankings in the mid-1990’s: [Criticism</a> of College Rankings - September 23, 1996](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/pres-provost/president/speeches/961206gcfallow.html]Criticism”>Criticism of College Rankings - September 23, 1996)</p>
<p>At some point before this letter, Stanford had been ranked #1 by USNWR. Since then, Stanford has never been ranked higher than #4. Coincidence???</p>
<p>For the record I’m certainly not putting -Yale, Harvard or Princeton for that matter -down, I just think that Stanford should be considered equal. (In this day and age)</p>
<p>Of course the other three schools have an amazing amount of history and I find them all equally amazing. Going on any of those campus’s is like stepping back in time. Its beautiful but when comparing them “today” I think they are all equal, and yet they are unique in their own way.</p>