<p>Hey i wanted to get some input from you guys.
Do you think stanford uses the lottery system for some of their applications? i mean its crazy how everybody is unique in their own little way. and i sometimes wonder how they can make decisions.</p>
<p>whatever their system is, it sure isn’t lottery…</p>
<p>^^yea, i dont see why they would use a lottery system…</p>
<p>that’s why each application goes through multiple stages</p>
<p>No, they don’t. Sometimes the difference between an acceptance and a waitlist/rejection is a single A- instead of an A in one semester of a subject you don’t even intend to major in or 10 points on the SAT.</p>
<p>ha, that’s pretty demoralizing. i’m going to go regret some freshman SAT II scores now or something, haha.</p>
<p>theloneranger: that was sarcasm, right?</p>
<p>I think the waitlist is based on lottery (those who get off the waitlist, that is).</p>
<p>I don’t think so kyledavid, that would only be rational if all the waitlisted students had the exact same stats. Some are more qualified than others, but perhaps they categorize the “waitlistees” (not sure! haha) somewhat beforehand for quicker review?</p>
<p>Well, according to Stanford’s common data set, the waiting list is not ranked, so those taken off it must have been chosen randomly.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/home/statistics/cds_2006.html]Stanford”>http://www.stanford.edu/home/statistics/cds_2006.html]Stanford</a> University: Common Data Set 2006-2007<a href=“C2”>/url</a></p>
<p>oh man, is it seriously that small a difference? an A and an A-?! what!?</p>
<p>Many top colleges use the waitlist to finetune their class as student rejections come in. So they may balance gender/state representation/various groups. I dont know about Stanford specifically, but that is quite a common approach.</p>
<p>i honestly doubt they use A’s and A-'s to separate applicants. they have essays, EC’s, recs…i think those are weighed far more significantly when academics are similar</p>
<p>^^ precisely, which is why I thought theloneranger was being sarcastic.</p>
<p>lol lottery system. You dont get randomly taken off the waitlist. Since stanford’s waitlist is pool is very small compared to Harvard, who waitlists/defer EVERYBODY, they actually review all waitlist/defer applications again. However, there is one thing though… if you applied early and got deferred, the RD round is your final chance, you will not make it to the waitlist. If you applied RD, the waitlist is your last hope, although it’s becoming rarer and rarer for people to actually get off it.</p>
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<p>Source? My understanding is that it is random, as they are just trying to fill all the spots.</p>
<p>It’s on the admission page somewhere …I remember reading it sometime last year. Understand that the defer pool is tiny though. While Harvard defers ~75%, stanford rejects ~80% on the early round, deferral rate is like 5%.</p>
<p>wait stanford really rejects 80% of their early applicants???
so getting deferred is a reallly good thing then?</p>
<p>how do you know this googol123?</p>
<p>No, top colleges don’t use the waitlist randomly.</p>
<p>i believe last year about 20% were deferred early. </p>
<p>[Rise</a> in apps continues - The Stanford Daily Online](<a href=“http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2007/1/10/riseInAppsContinues]Rise”>http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2007/1/10/riseInAppsContinues)</p>
<p>Based on Satanford website, the order of important academic factors seems to be…
(1) Rigor of secondary school record<br>
(2) Class rank<br>
(3) Academic GPA<br>
(4) Standardized test scores<br>
(5) Application essay<br>
(6) Recommendation</p>