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<p>As others said, it’s overenrollment. Last year (class of 2011), they overenrolled; then, for the class of 2012, they accepted roughly the same number of people with a lower expected yield, but when the yield was actually the highest ever, they overenrolled again. As the administration has stated, Stanford can’t afford to overenroll again. Thus, it’s probably going to accept even fewer people in the RD round and then go to the waitlist if necessary, erring on the safe side, as Harvard et al did.</p>
<p>Stanford’s already in a housing crisis, and the overenrollment doesn’t help. The fact that the applications surged about 1/5 is what makes this especially unfortunate.</p>
<p>However, you’ll be glad to know that Stanford has begun discussion on expanding its incoming class in the future. I’d say Stanford is pretty wise about this issue.</p>