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From the Director

Hello from Palo Alto,

In a matter of days, we will release admission decisions to more than 25,000 applicants. 9.5% of them were admitted, making 2008 the most competitive year ever for our applicants. Our officers feel the pain for those who won’t be offered a spot and we will be thrilled to meet those chosen for admission later this month, as we hit the road for a number of receptions for admitted students around the world. We will all return to campus at the end of the month for our infamous Admit Weekend, April 24-26. I must give our credentials processing staff a major tip of the hat, as we had just 230 or so incomplete applications this year. With 25,000+ applications and approximately 300,000 credentials, they did a phenonmenal job in processing a massive volume of materials and worked tirelessly to track down all missing items so that nearly every applicant received a holistic evaluation by one of our admission officers. They are an incredibly dedicated staff.

Best wishes for April,

Shawn

Shawn L. Abbott
Director of Admission

Up Close

March 15 marked the deadline for transfer applications. We are committed to enrolling a small number of transfer students each year, especially those coming from community colleges, and believe they contribute an essential and unique perspective to our student body. Transfer students add significantly to the maturity, diversity, and intellectual life of the university. It is important to acknowledge, however, just how competitive admission is for prospective transfer students. Last year we admitted just 1.5% (a total of 20) of our transfer applicants, making the competition extraordinary. While we do not want to discourage transfer applicants, it is important that they have a realistic picture of their chances for admission.

Quick Tip

March is likely the most intense month we experience in Office of Undergraduate Admission, as more than 25,000 decisions need to be rendered through an ultra-rigorous, contextually based, committee-selection process. Admission committees meet three times a day, six days a week to select students for the freshman class. All applicants will receive their admission decisions by email on Friday, March 28, sometime after 3 p.m. PST. All decisions rendered will be final; unlike some of our peer institutions within the University of California system, we do not have an appeal process. In our frequently asked questions document (mailed to all students denied admission and to all students offered a space on our waitlist), we will provide more comprehensive information on our selection process. Web link versions of this information will be available as well. For those not offered admission, answers to frequently asked questions about our selection process will be available here. For those offered a space on our waitlist, answers to their questions will be available here.

By the Numbers: Admit Weekend

32—Academic Expos; faculty lectures covering topics such as “The Case of the Extinct Butterfly: A Who-Done-It Story,” “How Sophomores Built a Working Jet Engine” and “Ki ho`alu: The New Renaissance of a Hawaiian Musical Tradition”

1:00 a.m.—ending time for HoHoPalooza; an ‘80s-themed shin-dig planned for admitted students by House Hosts, or, as we say at Stanford, HoHos

71—the average high temperature, in years past, for Admit Weekend

131—events to choose from throughout the weekend

29—days until Admit Weekend; April 24-26, 2008

Public Eye

Stanford tops the list in university fundraising, raising $832.3 million in the last fiscal year. For the fourth consecutive year private donations have risen at the nation’s top private colleges and universities, growing over 6% in 2007. Harvard University and Columbia University also saw fundraising increases, at $614 million and $423.8 million respectively. Past campaigns at Stanford have been successful in achieving growth upwards of 85%, such as the success seen in the $1.1 billion Campaign for Undergraduate Education that ended in 2005. Reforms enacted from the campaign included the creation of the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, which oversees programs within undergraduate advising and research, and the support of a need-blind financial aid program.

Stanford’s current fundraising campaign, The Stanford Challenge, aims to raise $4.3 billion over five years. Announced in 2006, Stanford has already raised more than $3.1 billion. This campaign will help fund efforts on campus such as Stanford’s Financial Aid program, which include recently announced enhancements that total $114 million, making it one of the largest financial aid programs in the nation.

On Campus

For many years, Stanford Dining has made environmental sustainability a priority with conscientious choices such as supporting community-based growers, buying milk and meat locally, introducing biodegradable food containers and utensils, and even inviting local farmers and fishermen who supply Stanford to meet students in the dining halls. This month, Michael Pollan, author of the 2006 bestseller The Omnivore's Dilemma, spoke on campus about the issues facing environmentally conscious campus eating. The talk was presented by the Barbara and Bowen McCoy Program in Ethics in Society, as part of a series called "The Ethics of Food and the Environment." Flanking Pollan on the panel were Eric Montell, acting executive director of Stanford Dining, and alumna Erin Gaines, who became Stanford Dining's full-time sustainable foods coordinator after graduating in 2007. Gaines and Montell shared their hope to use the dining halls as a place to educate students about the food they eat in addition to providing healthy options for students. Pollan praised Stanford’s sustainable efforts while providing 18,000 meals a day, saying it aligned with the University’s mission to be a good citizen of the community. "What you're doing here, by elevating the importance of food, is ennobling the work of the culinary staff, as you're ennobling the work of the farmers," Pollan said. "I would imagine that makes people feel just much better about what they're doing every day. It's not a minor function performed on this campus every day, but an important one."