<p>Hey guys...just about a month left before decisions! </p>
<p>So I heard that, unlike many Ivy League schools, Stanford follows a tradition of rejecting a majority of their SCEA applicants instead of deferring into the second round. I guess they don't believe in a "polite defer" policy. In fact, last year, I believe that Stanford had the lowest early acceptance rate among HYPS. Not to mention, with both Harvard and Princeton refusing to offer early programs this year, the number of Stanford applications will probably dramatically increase.</p>
<p>For the application season of 2007, one college admissions website stated:</p>
<p>"Stanford received 4,644 Early Action applications this year. It accepted 750 EA applicants, marking an EA acceptance rate of 16.1 per cent. Following its usual practice, Stanford deferred only a small number of EA applicants and denied the others."</p>
<p>What are your thoughts on this? Personally, I'm worried that an early rejection would mean a quick end to my dreams of enrolling at Stanford. But, on the other hand, if you are deferred, I guess that might mean you're truly worthy of another look and could have a very good chance at RD? Hmm.</p>
<p>Stanford's site this year says they are committed to providing a final answer as much as possible when they provide the EA decision or words to that effect. So I would guess that if deferred, it means you're competitive but not a sure thing, but I'm just guessing.</p>
<p>I prefer not to think about it until I'm opening the envelope. Even though odds are that I'll be rejected, along with most SCEA applicants, I will still be worried if I'm rejected and have to wait until April to hear if all of my reaches feel the same. :-</p>
<p>At an info. session at Stanford, the admissions officer said that the RD acceptance rate for people who were deferred SCEA is around 10%, which is surprisingly low when you consider that these people have already been through a screening process and the general RD pool has not.</p>
<p>Well, being deferred by Stanford means you actually have a chance in the RD round. When Harvard had their early program, they defer everyone and accept < 1 % of the deferred the pool in the 2nd round. Same thing with waitlists, Harvard took no one off their waitlists last year, again even though the waitlist pool was 2000 strong. Getting a quick and easy response is better, really, then be kept waiting throughout the year and have it crushed at the end.</p>
<p>"Harvard took no one off their waitlists last year.." </p>
<p>Well this isn't entirely true. My friend got off the waitlist at Harvard in like June on the condition that he would have to defer for a year. Granted, he was a legacy, and he was on some sort of special waitlist for legacies. </p>
<p>But anyways, I think that if Stanford selects the applicants from the SCEA pool that it thinks are competitive, but aren't quite amazing enough to be admitted early, this pool should have a much higher acceptance rate than the general RD pool. However, they have similar acceptance rates.</p>
<p>well, perhaps the RD pool is where many of the URMs, legacies, etc get admitted, so allowing for those slots not being available the students deferred end up being admitted at somewhat over the standard 10% - I'm just speculating, since your point is valid.</p>