Just got a rejection as well.
Same here. Funny how some of my friends that I met through the college acceptance day from different top colleges were accepted to Stanford but decided to go somewhere else. I thought we had hope.
I would hazard that nobody got off the waitlist? Anyone else agree?
@k4vglitcher same! I think Stanford has high west coast yield, but from someone in the east it seemed like a ton of people were turning it down for eastern schools. But probs ppl from California definitely go there.
Agreed. 0 applicants were taken off the waitlist, it’s too early. If there was room, notifications would have been around the 15th date.
@dancelance I agree! But the students that I know that turned down Stanford for Princeton, Brown, and UPenn were on the West Coast (1 from CA and two from TX). Crazy.
@dancelance and @k4vglitcher Did you know that many students and parents LIE about their acceptances to Stanford or Harvard (they are called phantom acceptances)…to save face…this is not new…and is prevalent in certain populations and certain social circles…so take what you hear with a grain of pessimistic salt…
But, what if you are hearing that during Admit Weekend?
Does a student who is actually admitted to one tippy top school feel the need to say they are choosing between two tippy top schools, even if it isn’t true?
While that’s certainly true, most of the people I met were during Harvard and Yale’s weekends. These people were genuinely conflicted and I with them talked to students who had made the decision.
AND during the admit weekend it is a little of a show. People will gleeful put it in your face what other schools they are deciding between. It was funny, but even as a H Y cross admit there were people who literally got into 7 and were kind of rubbing it in your face. I wouldn’t put it past some kids to add a few more schools in some cases to beef up their profile.
At the same time this isn’t most of the kids I met, most were genuine.
Nope they didn’t lie about their acceptances. I have them on Instagram and they posted up when they were at Stanford for their admitted days. At the end, one went to Brown, the other to UPenn Wharton and the last went to Princeton.
But I do see what you mean. Some people do say they were admitted to a school they weren’t to save their face.
Even at 80%, Stanford would still lose about 430 admits out of 2144. A similar number can be said about Harvard too. The enhanced finaid this year should help the yield.
The unusually bad weather back East this year could also have been a factor for some students, as could articles like this one from the Harvard Crimson:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/10/30/stanford-vs-harvard/
In our experience, students weren’t lying about their acceptances—we saw quite a few of the exact same students at admitted students events for Stanford and other top schools. And they were genuinely conflicted, as my son was. We didn’t meet anyone who was rubbing their acceptances in other students’ or parents’ faces. Even when students are lucky enough to be accepted to more than one top school, the decision about where to attend is often very difficult. Admittedly, this is a fortunate problem to have, and students and parents alike recognize that. But the whole college application and admissions process is very stressful and difficult for everyone, no matter what the outcome. It’s years of relentless pressure, at a time of life when students shouldn’t be subject to that. Instead of bashing students who’ve been lucky in this process, why not address the real problem, which is with the current state of college admissions? But that’s a topic for another thread.
Sorry to those students who were on the Stanford waitlist this year and didn’t get in because of the unusually high yield.
Does anyone know a wait-listed student who has not yet received a rejection letter?
My son has not yet received a off the wait list notification for Stanford…fingers still crossed. His classmate just got off the Yale wait-list today!
Everybody has been notified regarding the wait list when I called admissions today.
@Planner
Yeah I agree. In my experience most people are usually pretty good about being honest and not trying to flaunt their choices. Turns out I sat down for dinner this past admit weekend with 2 kids who were accepted to all 8 ivies, and I had no idea until recently.
I’m half surprised that Stanford had a higher than expected yield this year, not only because of a slew of negative-ish press but also because it seems like a lot of kids who I was talking to (especially Harvard vs. Stanford) ended up choosing Harvard.
This is a highly subjective opinion, but it made me realize that it seems like the kids who are drawn to Stanford instead of Harvard seem to be more extroverted. Being on the other side of admit weekend, it finally made me realize how daunting for some kids it could be. We as students do our best to keep energy high and make sure all the pro fros are really excited about Stanford, but for some kids that can be intimidating. On top of that, most kids stay in Freshman dorms which tend to be notoriously rambunctious and rowdy, especially during Spring quarter admit weekend. For more extroverted kids, this is great. But for someone more introverted it can defintely feel uncomfortable. Furthermore, Stanford is massive compared to other campuses, and that can be tough for profros without bikes. I think the #1 concern I heard about Stanford was probably “Stanford is too big”, and more importantly, “it doesn’t feel as much like home for me”. And while I don’t necessarily agree, I see how many profros can feel that way, especially during admit weekend. I ended up usually being able to predict who choose Harvard vs Stanford, and they tended to be more introverted. Yet this is still a generalization.
In the end I hazard a guess that most people who turn down Stanford turn it down for that main reason: “it doesn’t feel like home” (the second probably being slightly more prestige and global recognition with Harvard and other ivies). It’s tough to compete with HYP on this front, because they have such a well-established tradition of homey, cozy residential colleges. When I was trying to make my decision last year that was the #1 thing that was drawing me to HYP, but ultimately Stanford’s continuous energy and excitement won me over. HYP was so much more mellow and quiet for their admit days. I’m thinking this year Harvard will probably win the cross-admit battle again, possibly because more cross-admits tend to be introverted? But who knows. Essentially, I think it depends on the kid choosing. For some, having tons of excited, energetic students yelling and cheering you on is the greatest thing in the world but for others it can just be difficult to deal with.
Okay. procrastination rambling over. time to get back to this pset.
@guccigirl Interesting—maybe our sense of whether more students are choosing Stanford over places like Harvard, Yale, or Princeton depends on the relatively small sample size. Other than from Facebook posts, I don’t know of anyone who chose HYP over Stanford this year, but, in addition to my son (who chose it over all three), I know two students who chose Stanford over Harvard and Princeton and another who chose it over Princeton. Including my son, all four are from the West Coast, and three are from California. Maybe West Coast students are more likely to choose Stanford than students from other parts of the country, and if so, it could be, at least in part, because Stanford feels more like home to them. That was certainly true for my son—he’d been there many times before, over many years, and grew up surrounded by California architecture, etc.
As for the introversion-extraversion hypothesis, that’s very interesting too! My son is an introvert, though, and really liked all of Stanford’s energy during Admit Weekend. I think he got more of a sense there, as well as at local student receptions for Stanford and his other schools, that Stanford was a very dynamic, exciting, and “happy” place—something that was reinforced several times by Dean Shaw. My son also loved staying in the dorm—even though he’s an introvert, he really appreciates the energy of more extraverted students. But maybe most introverted students would feel more comfortable around other introverts and in quieter environments—I don’t know. It seems like they could find those in four-class dorms or places like FroSoCo, though.
I agree that the campus’s size may negatively affect Stanford’s yield. Even though we were familiar with the campus, navigating it during Admit Weekend was difficult, even for me (someone who’s very experienced with maps!). Our sense was that even though having so many different options of things to do and see was great, getting to them was often stressful and tiring. We walked back and forth across wide expanses of the campus countless times over the three days, and though it was worth it, it was also exhausting. As a parent, I did find myself wondering, especially at the beginning, whether Stanford was going to be a good choice for my son, who would never have managed to find half of these places if I hadn’t been there. However, as we became more familiar with the specifics of the campus layout over the three days, I decided things would probably be fine, given time. I’d definitely recommend, though, that the Admit Weekend events somehow be located closer together (and perhaps with more time in between to reach them). Having a smaller map, too, with just key buildings highlighted, could also help.
All in all, our sense of Admit Weekend was that it probably convinced more people to attend than not—it was a very exciting, worthwhile event, and a couple of people we know who ended up not choosing Stanford (one for MIT, and the other for a medical program) were leaning toward not choosing it before they came and actually seemed to have more difficulty making that decision after attending Admit Weekend. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see Stanford’s yield approach or even surpass that of Harvard this year—I guess we’ll find out soon!
So does this overly high yield mean less room for (sophomore) transfers next year?
I don’t know, but my guess would be yes. If they’re overenrolled this year, then they might not replace the spots of any freshmen who decide to leave next year.
My son’s college counselor says final wait list notifications could be as late as June 1 and as early as this Friday. Anyone hear differently??
@orientalmed see my original post. Do you think a Stanford admission officer or a school counselor would get an official scoop. Wait list is closed. Along with the publication that the school is over enrolled I don’t think the officer would be lying.