(06-01-2015, 09:53 AM)CTcard link Wrote:[quote author=TheFarm07 link=topic=11153.msg119715#msg119715 date=1433152082]
I was just using random numbers, my point is whether there are more high-achieving HS seniors and thus more competition for the same amount of spots?
We've had this discussion several times on this board, and I suspect many of us in different settings.
The broad answer is that it is impossible to know, almost certainly depends upon who you are - and if you think about it enough difficult to really define what "harder to get in" really means.
The primary driver for more applications to Stanford is kids are filing more applications each - which does broaden the pool but doesn't necessarily indicate that there are more applications with a realistic shot at getting admitted.
The broadening of the pool (and other policies I understand are in place) does mean that students from some demographics have more competition than once upon a time - over a long period of time that would focus on white male children of alums, over a shorter length of time asian-american children of alums. Of course the corollary is that those from groups that didn't use to appear in Stanford's student demographic now have a better (i.e. some) chance.
For the most part scholarship athletes do not compete for spots with the rest of the applicant pool, and when things get tougher or more lenient on grades depends on the approach of particular people in charge and not changes in the total number of applicants to Stanford. And it is quite clear that football and men's basketball players are one case, other scholarship athletes another - maybe a couple of other.
- CTcard posting from a Stanford reunion/workshop in Shanghai.
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I've thought a lot about that, CT, with a daughter getting ready to apply to numerous elites. (Not as a college athlete, though.)Â
The spread of the Common App has made it easier and easier to apply to more and more schools, and most students today do apply to more places, lowering the acceptance rate. So you are right that the acceptance rate is not by itself a good indicator of how hard it is "to get in." That has been my great hope--that it really does not take any better credentials to make it in than it ever did--the shrinking percentage instead may reflect greater numbers of less qualified applicants.
Except when you look at the average GPA, SAT scores, and number of AP classes and find they have all gone up. So it has gotten harder. I won't cite specific numbers here, since this is not the place to spread admissions information. However, anyone who wants to work at it a bit though can find all the stats floating around various Stanford websites.
