<p>is it true that stanford’s admissions are random?</p>
<p>what do you mean by random?</p>
<p>No admissions to any university are random, but they can seem that way because of how holistic the process is. Very few applicants can be definitively defined as “in” or “out” before they get their decisions.</p>
<p>If you visit campus and meet the students here you will see that they were not at all random. There is something that the admissions officers look for in applicants that they successfully find year after year. If you look at stats alone, it will appear random, but if you look at the essays, recs, etc. it’s not. Admissions officers probably won’t be able to tell you why someone wasn’t accepted, but they will be able to tell you why people were accepted (does that make sense?).</p>
<p>“Very few applicants can be definitively defined as “in” or “out” before they get their decisions.”</p>
<p>That’s not true. You can often easily see the “definitely out” ones. (It’s more complicated with “definitely in”.)</p>